Profiles in Catholicism
- Jun 28, 2018
- 14 min read

Addiction

Updated: 21 hours ago

Drug Addiction

Prayers

Prayer to St. Jude to End Addiction

God of life, You made me in Your perfect image, to live in Your love and to give You glory, honor and praise. Open my heart to Your healing power. Come, Lord Jesus, calm my soul just as you whispered “Peace” to the stormy sea.

St. Jude, most holy Apostle, in my need I reach out to you. I beg you to intercede for me that I may find strength to overcome my illness. Bless all those who struggle with addiction. Touch them, heal them, reassure them of the Father’s constant love.

Remain at my side, St. Jude, to chase away all evil temptations, fears, and doubts. May the quiet assurance of your loving presence illuminate the darkness in my heart and bring lasting peace. Amen.

by The National Shrine of St. Jude

A Prayer for All Substance Users with Covid-19

“Oh Lord my God how great thou art!” (Hymn)

You have made us like a plant that climbs, one of many, rising and Twisting as it matures and spreads its leaves, like growing wings, Clinging as it goes to a central column which, like Christ, allows the Plant to grow green and tall and to unfold its flowers in the bright day.

But there is a serpent, too, that looks like a climbing plant but bites,

Deeply, into the veins of life, stealing vitality under the guise of the Strangest sights of blushing colors and steals, bit by bit, all we own And care about until, dry as dirt, our life shrivels, slowly, dying out.

We bought, Lord, little by little, the lie of trying that turned a dose Into a habit and a habit into a habitual practice of excusing ourselves

From the day-to-day difficulties that ground us down and out and Now, turning around is like stopping a landslide, earthquake or death.

And now, amidst all the other problems of life, there is a vulnerability

To more, to whatever infections and viruses abound, where we can be

Found, on the street, in a corner, under steps, beside the bins and Rubbish, waiting, waiting for what? for what may not have died yet.

Help me to be the plant I was, planted to climb a column, drawing Strength from support, not out of weakness as if it is unnatural to me, But out of the truth that you, Lord, are the vine and I am a branch (Jn 15: 5) and, therefore, growing through You is growing together again.

Like an old branch, stuck in the ground to help support the new plants,

Let me bud afresh, strike out from an almost dead beginning, bearing

Others that they may learn from me that the Lord is faithful beyond My failures, ever fostering a fruitfulness beyond failure upon failure.

Let your word enlighten and lead me, uncover the roots of pride’s no.

Sink prayer deeper than the possibility of being uprooted and humble

Me, that I may grow deep, more deeply humbled again, like stepping

Stones over the dark, differently dying, and rising, again and again.

And let your sacred embrace of forgiveness, the sacramental falling Into your open arms, raise me again and again from the gory agony Of pain dripping pain, splashing joy upon my face, drink in the desert, Warmth in the cold, life-giving lover of the hopelessly lost and dying.

“Oh Lord my God how great thou art!” Send me your Son that He May release me from what binds, deep within, like the deep-cleaning

I need, knowing that now, after so many false hopes, that there is only

One hope, one Lord of all, one lover of the lost and one able to help!

Let me plead before you, come to you, for you are within reach!

by Francis Etheredge Profiles in Catholicism, author of the forthcoming:

Within Reach of You: A Book of Prose and Prayers:

1 Fr. Larry Young « On a Catholic Approach to Substance Abuse”

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