MY SOULBRIETY

Finding Success With an Authentic God: Alcoholics Anonymous and Sobriety

Spiritual awakening can keep you on track so you don’t relapse

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In 2013, I was in my first year of seminary and was introduced to Teresa of Avila's book Interior Castle. It was and is a difficult read. Teresa uses very difficult phrases and thought patterns. I started it and put it down countless times in frustration, but something about it always drew me back.

Interior Castle is a spiritual guide that describes the soul’s journey toward God. Teresa uses the metaphor of a castle with seven mansions (or stages), each representing a deeper spiritual growth and union with God. She writes that the nonbeliever and all their unwholesomeness live outside of the castle walls, and the newcomer to Christianity starts in the first mansion.

In time, the person goes to the second mansion, and so on, but it is not a linear course. Depending on life situations, a person can go up to the top mansion, move down, and so forth. They can also skip mansions. In other words, it’s a journey.

Like Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) — the longer you are in it, the easier it gets.

One night, I was reading about the “first mansion,” and I realized that sometimes the…