Addiction & Recovery Ministry

Helping others through the isolation and darkness of addiction

Saint James has embarked upon an addiction and recovery ministry in response to the opioid crisis and struggles with other forms of addiction faced by so many in our community. Oriented toward hope and confidence in the abundance of God’s grace, we seek to develop the resources to respond faithfully to those in our families, our parish and in the community around us who have journeyed, or may be journeying, through the isolation and darkness of addiction.

Addiction & Recovery Masses

The addiction & recovery masses at Saint James are oriented toward hope and confidence in the abundance of God’s grace for those who have journeyed, or may be journeying, through the isolation and darkness of addiction.

ALL are welcome at our Addiction & Recovery Masses—the broken, the suffering, the homeless, addicts, alcoholics, and families who have suffered through the pain of addictive behaviors. This mass is for you—the addict, the friend or family member of an addict—who have known the pain and suffering caused by the disease of addiction. You are not alone.

Through the 12 steps of NA/AA/Nar-Anon we have learned to deal with our disease. We believe this:

1. We admitted that we were powerless over our addiction (or our addicts), and that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. We were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. We humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. We made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. We made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. We continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

We encourage you to keep an open mind during this mass. Let the words, the prayers, and the music speak to you. If you would like special prayers during communion, please go to the rear of the church where ministers will pray with you and for you.