The Healing Journey

April 23, 2026

After his father died, Joe was going through the belongings in his room and found a little shrine on his bureau that had a statue of the Blessed Mother and a crucifix, along with a votive candle that was perpetually burning, to the chagrin of his wife because the flickering flame produced a smoke stain on the ceiling. This shrine defined his new life in recovery, and Joe’s father didn’t care about the stain.

It had been quite a spiritual transformation, and he remembered the painful memory of his father during the dark days: He would sit in his Barcalounger, watching war movies, while holding a water glass of Canadian Club whiskey in one hand and an 16-ounce can of Budweiser in the other.

But 12 Step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous work miracles. To the day he died, he credited his Higher Power, whom he chose to call God, and the men and women of AA with his sobriety. He’d often say that the program didn’t open the gates of Heaven to let him in, but it definitely opened the gates of hell to let him out.

In his last 25 years, the Budweiser and Canadian Club disappeared. In one hand, he held a cup of black coffee and in the other, his prayer book. He took his sobriety seriously, and he knew that meant he had to be serious about his spiritual progress.

There, beside the votive candle, Joe found a small black book filled with names. When he looked closer, he realized it contained the names of men and women who had passed away. Some of them died from the disease of alcoholism, others had been given the gift of sobriety. There were also dozens of family members and friends from the East Side, along with people Joe never knew, but who had crossed his father’s path in life … so he prayed for them all every day.

Nestled inside the book was a collection of remembrance cards held together with an elastic band. The cards memorialized the deceased, and he got them at their wakes and funerals. He treasured them and he regularly prayed for those people in the hopeful assurance they would make it to that place we’re all destined to reach when this life ends — that place where there’s no suffering, no addiction and only love, peace and perpetual joy.
©J Pisani

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