May is Mental Health Awareness Month and also a time we honor Mary as our Blessed Mother. Father Dave welcomes back Scott Weeman, founder of Catholic in Recovery, to discuss his new book, “The Recovery Rosary: Meditations for Those Impacted by Addiction, Compulsions, and Unhealthy Attachments.”
Scott shares his journey to starting Catholic in Recovery. “It was really founded out of my own recovery. I have the blessing of finding sobriety from alcoholism, drug addiction, and other compulsive and addictive behaviors as well,” he says. “My journey started in October of 2011, and thanks to 12-step recovery, I made my way back to the Church and found that the Church could learn a lot from the wisdom of 12-step recovery rooms — the way that we gather in fellowship, and the raw honesty and humility that’s shared.”
“In addition, there are a lot of people in 12-step recovery groups who are longing for a deeper relationship with our higher power and looking to deepen that relationship, either by returning to or coming to the Catholic Church,” Scott continues. “The Church [should be] a place where people can find hope, healing, and connection with other people. It’s not a place where we show up and present our best selves. …but it’s a place where we can just bring everything, all the baggage that we’re carrying.”
LISTEN: Catholic in Recovery: Discussing Addiction and Faith with Scott Weeman
Father Dave notes, “There’s probably plenty of people out there that think, ‘Well, I don’t have a problem with drugs or alcohol,’ but you always include those impacted by addiction, compulsions and unhealthy attachments. Are these three different things?”
Scott responds, “I think we have these misperceptions about what addiction looks like. There are some myths that probably inform our understanding, both as a Church and as individuals, and there’s some stigma that comes along with it. The efforts of Catholic in Recovery are to reduce that. …For some people, the term ‘unhealthy attachment’ just seems to capture what it is that they’re struggling with, whereas the term addiction may not.”
In “The Recovery Rosary,” Scott connects each mystery of the Rosary to a personal reflection from someone in recovery or a family member impacted by addiction. He shares one meditation in the book about the Crucifixion. “It’s wonderfully written by a mother who lost her son to a drug overdose, and she relates her story to that of Mary’s experience with Jesus on the cross,” he says. “[She sees] her son go through the torture of addiction and the challenges of that. I’m so impressed by people who can go through such tragedy and find a way to take that darkness and turn it into something that can be helpful for others.”
Scott shares a reflection on one of the joyful mysteries of the Rosary, the finding of Jesus in the Temple. Pete, the author, reflects on the anguish Mary and Joseph must have felt when they could not find 12-year-old Jesus, and how Pete’s own family members could relate when trying to grapple with his addiction.
WATCH: The Rosary in Two Minutes
In this reflection, Pete shares, “This sense of powerlessness was something I also experienced when, in those infrequent and brief moments of honest clarity, I knew my life had become deeply disordered and destructive. The pain of that realization was so great that it would evoke an overwhelming sense of hopelessness, which I could not bear. This then drove me to act out again and again, plunging me even more deeply into the enslaving cycle of addiction.” Pete adds how he finds comfort in Jesus’ words to Mary and Joseph, and how a humble trust in God helps him on the path to recovery.
Scott hopes the book’s format can be helpful both for those new to the devotion of the Rosary and for those who pray it often. “The relative experience shared can make it very accessible and really bring light to each of the mysteries of the Rosary,” he says. “It could be used while praying the Rosary, or it could also be supplemental to add some depth to the various mysteries, through shared experience and maybe some contemplation that we wouldn’t have otherwise come to ourselves.”
