addiction is a state of compulsion, obsession, or preoccupation that enslaves a person’s will and desire.

For a moment, we are relieved of bondage to who we think we are, and we can simply be.

detachment to describe the opposite process, the liberation of desire.

Spiritually, addiction is a deep-seated form of idolatry. The objects of our addictions become our false gods. These are what we worship, what we attend to, where we give our time and energy, instead of love.

Our threefold participation of prayer, meditation, and action responds to God’s graceful initiatives in our lives, and it leads toward a deepening trust in God.

Attachment, then, is the process that enslaves desire and creates the state of addiction.

Contemplation is simply trying to face life in a truly undefended and open-eyed way.11

For example, I am seduced and enticed by a certain image of myself as a whole, holy, loving man who is well on his way to becoming free from attachments. When this image comes up in my prayer, it causes me to pose and posture; I find myself trying to make my prayer fit my image of how a holy man would pray.

false repositories for our hope,