today's readings

August 27

Daily Reflections

CENTERING OUR THOUGHTS When World War II broke out, our A.A. dependence on a Higher Power had its first major test. A.A.'s entered the services and were scattered all over the world. Would they be able to take the discipline, stand up under fire, and endure . . . ? As Bill Sees It, p.200

I will center my thoughts on a Higher Power. I will surrender all to this power within me. I will become a soldier for this power, feeling the might of the spiritual army as it exists in my life today. I will allow a wave of spiritual union to connect me through my gratitude, obedience and discipline to this Higher Power. Let me allow this power to lead me through the orders of the day. May the steps I take today strengthen my words and deeds, may I know that the message I carry is mine to share, given freely by this power greater than myself.

************************************************** *********

Twenty-Four Hours A Day

A.A. Thought For The Day

"We must be willing to make amends to all the people we have harmed. We must do the best we can to repair the damage done in the past. When we make amends, when we say: ‘I'm sorry,' the person is sure at least to be impressed by our sincere desire to set right the wrong. Sometimes people we are making amends to admit their own faults, so feuds of long standing melt away. Our most ruthless creditors will sometimes surprise us. In general, we must be willing to do the right thing, no matter what the consequences may be for us." Have I made a sincere effort to make amends to the people I have harmed?

Meditation For The Day

The grace of God cures disharmony and disorder in human relationships. Directly you put your affairs, with their confusion and their difficulties, into God's hands. He begins to effect a cure of all the disharmony and disorder. You can believe that He will cause you no more pain in the doing of it than a physician that knows how to effect a cure would cause a patient. You can have faith that God will do all that is necessary as painlessly as possible. But you must be willing to submit to His treatment, even if you cannot now see the meaning or purpose of it.

Prayer For The Day

I pray that I may willingly submit to whatever spiritual discipline is necessary. I pray that I may accept whatever it takes to live a better life.

************************************************** *********

As Bill Sees It

Maudlin Martyrdom, p. 238

"Self-pity is one of the most unhappy and consuming defects we know. It is a bar to all spiritual progress and can cut off all effective communication with our fellows because of its inordinate demands for attention and sympathy. It is a maudlin form of martyrdom, which we can ill afford.

"The remedy? Well, let's have a hard look at ourselves, and a still harder one at A.A.'s Twelve Steps to recovery. When we see how many of our fellow A.A.'s have used the Steps to transcend great pain and adversity, we shall be inspired to try these life-giving principles for ourselves."

Letter, 1966

************************************************** *********

Walk In Dry Places

Finding Our Real Selves Building Self-esteem Many of us sold ourselves short while we were drinking. We wanted approval and acceptance, but often felt unworthy of it, even accepting the unfavorable opinions others had toward us. We resented such opinions, but secretly feared that our critics were right. In the Twelve Step program, however, we discover a higher and better self that hadn't found expression during active drinking. We no longer have to impress anybody, we no longer need applause, and we no longer crave the false camaraderie that passes for friendship among problem drinkers. We can, in many ways, become new people. When we experience such change and growth, we may come to wonder how we ever could have been so deluded by the sick self of our drinking years. We feel relief when we realize that we no longer have to live and think that way.... if we continue in the program and make sobriety our highest priority. We will realize too that the self we find in sobriety is the real self.... a person who was there all along but was crowded out and suppressed by the demands of our sick nature. This real self is what we were created to be, and sobriety brought its discovery. I'll go about my affairs today knowing that my real self is what God wants me to be. Being sober, I can now find answers and opportunities that were beyond my reach when I was still drinking.

************************************************** *********

Keep It Simple

Things do not change, we do. ---Henry David Thoreau There are still as many bars as there were when we were drinking. There are still lots of drugs around. The world hasn’t changed. What’s changed is that we now live a different way of life. We’ve learned that, for us, alcohol and other drugs are poison. For us, there are now two worlds: the world we left behind, and our new world of recovery. In our old world, we’d try to get everyone else to change. We had the right. In our new world, we look for ways we can change for the better. In our new life, we’re willing to change. Prayer for the Day: I pray that I may be like a mighty river, always changing. Action for the Day: I will list changes I need to make in my new life.

************************************************** *********

Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition

The Man Who Mastered Fear

He spent eighteen years in running away, and then found he didn't have to run. So he started A.A. in Detroit.

The Depression was still on, and jobs were scarce. My health was still uncertain. So I created a job for myself selling women's hosiery and men's made-to-order shirts. This gave me the freedom to do A.A. work and to rest periods of two or three days when i became too exhausted too carry on. There was more than one occasion when I got up in the morning with just enough money for coffee and toast and the bus fare to carry me to my first appointment. No sale---no lunch. During that first year, however, I managed to make both ends meet and to avoid ever going back to my old habit-pattern of borrowing money when I could not earn it. Here by itself was a great step forward.

pp. 253-254

************************************************** *********

Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Step Twelve - "Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs."

But not so with alcoholics. When A.A. was quite young, a number of eminent psychologists and doctors made an exhaustive study of a good-sized group of so-called problem drinkers. The doctors weren't trying to find how different we were from one another; they sought to find whatever personality traits, if any, this group of alcoholics had in common. They finally came up with a conclusion that shocked the A.A. members of that time. These distinguished men had the nerve to say that most of the alcoholics under investigation were still childish, emotionally sensitive, and grandiose.

pp. 122-123

************************************************** *********

"Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all." --Dale Carnegie

Sometimes lack of thought is a very good sign. It means you are totally relaxed and have control of your mind. --unknown

Getting the job done requires doing your work, not just talking about it. --unknown

When we take things for granted we forget life is a gift. --unknown

Love is a gift to your self. --unknown

In quiet meditation I listen to my own Higher Power. I connect with my personal spirituality in my own time and place. --Ruth Fishel

***********************************************

Father Leo's Daily Meditation

PURPOSE

"I have never doubted that God created man for great purposes . . . " -- Preston Bradley

I am special today. I know that there is a purpose for my life and that it is essentially good and creative. I know that beauty is not just in things that I can see . . . beauty is also in me. Today I affirm my great purpose in this world . . . to be the best that I can be.

For too many years I gave my God-given power away; I gave it to alcohol, I gave it to people, I gave it to a belief system that did not make sense to me. Today I am discovering the power that God has given to me, and I feel good about myself. Today I reclaim my divinity.

Creator of this wonderful universe, make me an instrument of Your peace.

************************************************** *********

"If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit." Galatians 5:25

"On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." John 7:37-38

"I will praise the name of God with a song, And will magnify Him with thanksgiving." Psalm 69:30

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." 1 Peter 2:9

************************************************** *********

Daily Inspiration

When children speak, listen. They freely share the joys of life that we are often too preoccupied to remember. Lord, help me bring back those qualities that I had as a child that would allow me to be more lighthearted, more playful and more determined to live happy.

Enthusiasm keeps the mind young and the spirit growing. Lord, may I always see wonder in the ordinary happenings of my day.

0 comments