Addiction.  Everywhere we look, wherever we turn our gaze, outward or inward, we are apt to find it.  My prayer for 2008 is for people to be set free. Whether we are speaking of heavy, urgent addictions, persistent venial sin, or the clingings and attachments that are part-and-parcel of our human weakness and frailty, let this be the year, the day, the moment, when new lives begin in Christ. 

[Excerpt from:  "The Priest Is Not His Own", by Archbishop Fulton Sheen]:

“A personal equation must be established between the soul and the Crucifix.  Sins of pride are understood through the crown of thorns; sins of lust, through the torn flesh; sins of avarice, through the poverty of nakedness; and sins of alcoholism, through thirst.  Moreover, sin must be seen as resisting the Spirit of Love (Acts 7:51), as stifling the Spirit of Love (1 Thess 5:19) and as distressing the Spirit of Love (Eph 4:30).

Conscience is always enlightened when sin is seen as hurting someone we love.  No sin can touch one of God’s stars or silence one of His words, but it can cruelly wound His Heart.  Once the penitent understands this truth, he can see why he has such emptiness and desolation in his soul; he has hurt one he loves.

Many who approach a priest still try to conceal their conscience.  They offer spurious reasons to explain their actions.  The priest who remains on a purely psychological level cannot always see through such deceits, and, in consequence, he cannot help the one who has come to him.  It takes a spiritual X ray to penetrate such a mind.”


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