Alcoholism

It's a help.

A big help for people attached to alcohol, and more deadly, toxic process or substance addictions.

Theresa of Avila and John of the Cross of Spain addressed attachment long before the dawning of modern psychology, or, Sigmund Freud, for example.

It's a blue book with a blue and white cover.

Blue is the color for depression, although on this feast of Saint Mary Magdalene, blue refers to the sky, The Best of the Blues, the deep blue sea, the Queen who reigns above and beneath the heavens, the Stella Maris on the trek of life, and much more.

The contents of this tome first appeared in a series of Blue Books about treatment and alcohol.

The blue ribbon book!

It is.

Really.

It is the fruit of the labor of the likes of Catholic priests: Fathers Kennedy, Pfau, Popielarz, Quinn, and many more.

Alcoholism: A Source Book for Priests has advice for divinity and seminarian students, and, it treats psychiatry, the predisposition to alcohol, sobriety, the sociopath, recovery, the 12-step spirituality,  AA, Abstinence, the alcoholic priest, the disease, and health, among other topics.

Some pastors tell me they have no time during the day or at night to treat such attached persons.

Others deny that the 12 steps have anything to do with religion.

Some say that alcoholism is a moral failure not a disease.

So. . .

Shepherds help steer those heading toward destruction.

They do.

Father Edward Popielarz helped others with this disease.  He did.  Many of them.

He saved David Johnstone's life, for example, a metropolitan Detroit leader who facilitates Fr. Pops' class in acceptance.  That weekly class help others accept their demons.

Of course, God is the Divine Physician.

Shepherds help with support groups for those facing the struggle of addictive behavior.  This family disease demands help from the Body of Christ, the Church.

One lost lamb of God, one wayward sheep, is worth the search to lift up with hope.