Since 1956, Guest House has offered hope and healing for men and women religious suffering from addiction.
Guest House stands as a beacon of hope to clergy and men and women religious who are suffering with alcohol and drug addiction.Ā
Process or behavioral addictions, such as cluttering, hoarding, internet/digital, and spending addictions, can be just as debilitating, affecting every aspect of life.
Serving priests, deacons, brothers and seminarians who suffer from substance use disorders, process addictions and compulsive overeating.
Addressing the challenges of addiction, behavioral health, and other compulsive disorders that are faced by women religious.
Guest House offers educational programs that promote wellness for Church and religious leadership communities.Ā
Guest House provides more thanĀ $1.5 million in free care annually to Catholic clergy and religious who cannot afford treatment. Since 1956, our services have helped more than 8,000 individuals return to their ministries worldwide, revitalized and renewed. The positive ripple effect of their recovery on the communities they serve is immeasurable. We rely on the generosity of individuals, organizations, corporations, and foundations to support our mission of offering the best opportunities for quality recovery and overall health and wellness. Your support helps us continue this vital work, touching countless lives in meaningful ways.
There are many ways to support the mission of Guest House. From a cash donation, to participating in or sponsoring our events, to gifting stock shares, to various planned giving options, the opportunities to champion this healing ministry are plenty.
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Through the Paypal Giving Fund.
Click here to complete the form and mail to:
Guest House
Mission Advancement
1601 Joslyn Rd.
Lake Orion, MI 48360
āIām Vin, and Iām an alcoholic, a Catholic priest, and a proud graduate of Guest House.ā I have been told that when I speak about my recovery journey, I simply share my experience, strength, and hope. I share what I was like, what happened, and what Iām like now.
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My story is both similar to and different from my fellow Guest House alums. When I arrived in Lake Orion in November of 2019, I was nine years abstinent from alcohol, but I was not sober. I tried to do recovery on my own. I did not drink; I went to meetings regularly, and I was doing therapy. And yet, I was still struggling. I came to realize that it wasnāt because I wasnāt doing enough or that I did the steps āwrongāāI just needed more help, more time, and more space to get better.
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Healing beyond abstinence
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At Guest House, I learned that alcoholism is an illness, not a moral failing. I learned that my illness has spiritual, emotional, physical, and psychological components. I learned, as well, that alcoholism is treatable. My counselors helped me bring to light experiences that I suffered as a childātraumatic experiences I needed more help to process. The community of men and women in recovery and the supportive professional staff members at Guest House provided me with a safe space to heal. In many ways, my early childhood experiences had crippled me emotionally. At Guest House, I learned how to walk again!
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The continuing care program that follows residential treatment was also invaluable for me. This program, which stretched two years after my stay in Lake Orion, helped me transition back into full-time ministry. It is a reminder to me that recovery is a lifelong journey. As the Big Book says, there is no cure for alcoholism. What we have is a daily reprieve based on our spiritual condition.
At Guest House, I learned that recovery is more than not drinking; recovery is about positive change that requires action, work, and effort. I must āwork the stepsā in order to continue to recover. I can never rest on my laurels!
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Finding joy in recovery
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One of the greatest blessings to me during my time at Guest House was the friends I met. These friends are from all across the United States, from California to New York, and from places in between. With these friends, I learned how to laugh again and have fun. As the Big Book says, āwe are not a glum lot; we insist on enjoying life.ā We have been and are being saved from a fatal illness. For this, I need to be forever grateful!
Dear Friend of Guest House,
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In the literature of Alcoholics Anonymous, the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions seeks to give a fuller explanation of the proposed steps along the pathway of sobriety. It describes one type of alcoholic as the āintellectually self-sufficient man or woman,ā the ones who believed they could handle all of lifeās issues, even those created through alcoholic behavior, by intellect and tenacity. That was the starting point, which eventually brought me to the doors of Guest House in late June of 2006.
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I was blessed with a capacity to achieve progressive academic success, and after my studies, I was hired at a small Catholic college where I spent the next 25 years as professor, campus minister, and eventually chief academic administrator. It also allowed me to develop drinking habits which would, at times, cause very negative consequences. But as the literature says, I made the invention of alibis a fine art, and even when sincerely questioned about my drinking by concerned friends and colleagues, I denied there was a problem. I believed I could handle it.
A life-changing encounter
The reality was that there was a very big problem, and those denials could no longer be ignored after an encounter with the local police. Due to various circumstances, I was not arrested that evening. But the encounter was my moment of revelation, the very moment of grace in which I said out loud: āI am an alcoholic.ā
Rediscovering spirituality
I entered treatment at Guest House seven weeks later. One of the things I remember being told during my welcome into the program was that the first thing that alcohol robs us of is our spirituality. The next three months of my life were a journey of rediscovery of all the things that had kept me from a deep, personal, and life-sustaining relationship with God, my priesthood, and with those whom I was called to serve. Again, as the literature says, we started to get perspective on ourselves, which is another way of saying that we were gaining in humility. This was all accomplished in an atmosphere of respect, sensitivity, honesty, and understanding. It allowed me to bathe in Godās restorative graces and learn the skills needed to live a sober life on all levels and in every aspect.
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Because of the people and program of Guest House, by the grace of God, I have not needed to pick up a drink in over 19 years and have been able to live this new life in a manner which is far beyond anything I could have imagined.