‘A Power Greater Than Myself’

PATERSON  Pat W. wears a tattoo on his neck that bears the name of “Lori” — a memorial to his oldest daughter, who died of a heroin overdose in February. Sober for a year, the 59-year-old resident of the new Winter Wheat Sober Living Community here has had plenty of time to think about Lori and about the many losses in his life because of his decades of alcoholism and drug addiction. They include two failed marriages, difficulty in holding a steady job, difficult relationships with many of his nine children and almost 30 years of stays in and out of prison.

Today, Pat W. also has time to count the many blessings of his hard-won latest period of sobriety from his small, sparsely furnished room at Winter Wheat, housed in a former convent. He basks in the satisfaction of being able to re-enter society slowly by holding down a full-time job at a warehouse and staying out of trouble. Earlier this year, the I Thirst program — an acronym for “The Healing Initiative: Recovery through Spirituality and Twelve Steps” — opened the facility. It’s one of the latest initiatives of this ever-expanding outreach of the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity, who also operate the Shrine of St. Joseph, Stirling. It gives people in recovery the spiritual tools to get — and to stay — clean and sober.

“In my life I hit rock bottom so many times. I would always go through the same cycle: get out of prison and go crazy again,” said Pat W., who was raised Catholic and started his latest period of recovery at Straight and Narrow, the substance-treatment agency of diocesan Catholic Charities in Paterson. “I’ve been through all types of recovery programs but this is different. It has to do with God — a power greater than myself. Now, I support myself financially. Here, I have a community of other people in recovery. I Thirst makes that happen,” he said.

More than a year ago, the Missionary Servants founded I Thirst and fully developed a three-pronged approach that focuses on education and prevention; support for people in treatment facilities, jails and prisons; and provides for aftercare and community building. This year, its staff has been promoting the program — which Bishop Serratelli has endorsed — within the Diocese and beyond, most recently conducting a training session for people of the Boston Archdiocese, May 22-23, said Keaton Douglas of St. Thomas the Apostle Parish, Sandyston. She was appointed director of the Missionary Servants’ Recovery Ministry in December 2016, devised I Thirst and led the training in Boston.

“Recovery involves the healing of a person’s mind, body and spirit. We developed a way for people in the Church to give appropriate pastoral care to folks, who are affected by addiction, and their families. This gives those people spiritual coping skills,” said Douglas, who administers I Thirst with Father Luis de la Cuadra and Brother Joseph Dudek, both Missionary Servants. “Our program doesn’t replace the 12-step model but adds to it. People here still surrender to a higher power and name that person or religion. We tell them how much God loves them and teach them about the faith and how to pray. Also, we present a Catholic perspective of recovery through Scripture and the Catechism of the Catholic Church,” she said.

I Thirst already has expanded its reach in the Diocese with the opening of the Winter Wheat, the exact location which has not been disclosed to protect the anonymity of its residents. The I Thirst staff plans to promote it further by speaking at a diocesan Pastoral Council meeting in September and hope to get the opportunity to speak at deanery meetings throughout the Diocese. Staffers started to expand the program’s reach outside the Diocese with the pastoral-care training sessions last month in Boston, hosted by the Daughters of Mary of Nazareth. Staffers hope to conduct training in other places outside the Diocese, including the Missionary Servants’ 39 missions around the world, Douglas said.

“I Thirst is so important, because the opioid epidemic has been affecting every parish in every county in every state. This insidious disease has crept up everywhere,” said Brother Dudek. Able to accommodate up to 10 people in recovery, Winter Wheat houses a sober living community of clergy and laity, who minister, and guests — all dedicated to the goal of recovery for those people affected and getting their lives back on track. “Our residents commit to long-term sobriety. They develop lives of spirituality and service,” he said.

I Thirst offers the following three-pronged spiritual approach to recovery:

• Prevention and education. Ministry staff conduct age-appropriate presentations for and distribute materials to Catholic schools, parish religious education and youth programs and college groups. These address addiction and focus on turning young people’s “attention to living a faith-filled Catholic life and helping others as a method of developing their daily practical theology” to help them “say no” to drugs and alcohol, Douglas said.

• Treatment. This program provides spiritual guidance and “tools” for those in treatment in treatment facilities, jails, prisons and early post-treatment facilities and complies with the clinical treatments. This facet includes spiritual companionship, which trains participants to mentor individuals in recovery and work with their families. Training includes development of a recovery plan for the individual, while focusing on Catholic spirituality and how that spirituality can help individuals navigate their own lives by practicing prayer, turning one’s life to God, creating a moral inventory and learning and keeping close to the sacramental life of the Church, she said.

• After-care and community building. This component includes retreats, a Recovery Bible Study, a Recovery Mass and intercessory prayer sessions, a 30-Day Spiritual Formation Retreat and opportunity to live at Winter Wheat, Douglas said.

All three facets make up I Thirst, which Douglas devised after praying to the Blessed Mother — powered by the belief that recovery programs need a stronger spirituality component. While pursuing a master’s degree from Immaculate Conception Seminary, South Orange, she began working with the Recovery Ministry at St. Joseph’s and with Straight & Narrow, which has partnered with the shrine to offer retreats. Originally, she found her calling to minister to the addicted, as a volunteer at Straight and Narrow.

I Thirst builds on a history of recovery programs at St. Joseph, where Trinity House was once used for the rehabilitation and recovery of alcoholic priests and continues to offer programs that bring a “spiritual dimension” to the recovery process, Brother Dudek said.

Since living at Winter Wheat Sober Living Community, Pat W. has participated in another of I Thirst’s after-care outreaches: the alumni ambassadors. They offer hope, speak about their journey to sobriety — especially the spiritual, Douglas said.

“The alumni ambassadors let people know that they are loved and valued. We want people to know — people who feel hopeless — to know that they are not alone and that there are people they can talk to,” said Douglas, who noted the ambassadors also offer hope through Catholic spirituality. “Our faith has a lot to offer and can sustain us through tough times,” she said.

[Information: (973) 370-DRUG or email Douglas at [email protected].]