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12-04-2007, 03:23 PM
Daily Reflections
A NEW STATE OF CONSCIOUSNESS
He has been granted a gift which amounts to a new state of consciousness and being.
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p 107
Many of us in A.A. puzzle over what is a spiritual awakening. I tended to look for a
miracle, something dramatic and earth shattering. But what usually happens is that a
sense of well-being, a feeling of peace, transforms us into a new level of awareness.
That's what happened to me. My insanity and inner turmoil disappeared and I entered
into a new dimension of hope, love and peace. I think the degree to which I continue
to experience this new dimension is in direct proportion to the sincerity, depth and devotion
with which I practice the Twelve Steps of A.A.
************************************************** *********
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
In spite of all we have learned in A.A., our old way of thinking comes back on us,
sometimes with overwhelming force, and occasionally some of us have slips. We forget
or refuse to call on the Higher Power for help. We seem to deliberately make our minds
a blank so far as A.A. training goes, and we take a drink. We eventually get drunk. We
are temporarily right back where we started from. Those who have had slips say
unanimously that they were no fun. They say A.A. had taken all the pleasure out of
drinking. They knew they were doing the wrong thing. The old mental conflict was back
in full force. They were disgusted with themselves. Am I convinced that I can never get
anything more out of drinking?
Meditation For The Day
Give something to those who are having trouble, to those whose thoughts are confused,
something of your sympathy, your prayers, your time, your love, your thought, your self.
Then give of your own confidence, as you have had it given to you by the grace of God.
Give of yourself and of your loving sympathy. Give your best to those who need it and
will accept it. Give according to need, never according to deserts. Remember that the
giving of advice can never take the place of giving of your self.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that as I have received, so may I give. I pray that I may have the right answer to
those who are confused.
************************************************** *********
As Bill Sees It
Circle and Triangle, p. 307
Above us, at the International Convention at St. Louis in 1955, floated
a banner on which was inscribed the then new symbol for A.A., a circle
enclosing a triangle. The circle stands for the whole world of A.A.,
and the triangle stands for A.A.'s Three Legacies: Recovery, Unity,
and Service.
It is perhaps no accident that priests and seers of antiquity regarded
this symbol as a means of warding off spirits of evil.
<< << << >> >> >>
When, in 1955, we oldtimers turned over our Three Legacies to the
whole movement, nostalgia for the old days blended with gratitude for
the great day in which I was now living. No more would it be
necessary for me to act for, decide for, or protect A.A.
For a moment, I dreaded the coming change. But this mood quickly
passed. The conscience of A.A. as moved by the guidance of God
could be depended upon to insure A.A.'s future. Clearly my job
henceforth was to let go and let God.
A.A. Comes of Age
1. p. 39
2. pp. 46.48
************************************************** *********
Walk In Dry Places
Holding hands and hugging
Sincerity
The custom of holding hands while saying the Lord's Prayer has been adopted by many AA groups. We have also seen more hugging than in the past, even between the most unlikely members.
Are these new practices good or bad? In accordance with AA tradition, we have to leave such questions to the group conscience.
One thought, however, is that such physical actions do not necessarily mean that any true spiritual bonding has taken place. The old-timers who never held hands or hugged still had a great closeness in spirit and in feeling.
We must also consider that we may be violating the privacy of the person who doesn't wish to hold hands or hug. If such a person chooses to stand outside the hand=holding circle, he or she maybe cast in the role of dissenter. Would that be fair?
Hand -holding and hugging may be here to stay, but let's not make them out to be more than mere physical expressions. The program of the heart is still first.
I'll remember today that true bonding is spiritual, not physical.
************************************************** *********
Keep It Simple
Each day, somewhere in the world, recovery begins when one alcoholic talks with another alcoholic, sharing experience, strength, and hope. ---Alcoholics Anonymous
All over the world, recovering men and women use the same Twelve Steps to live their lives.
Our fellowship keeps growing. The bigger it gets, the faster it grows. Why? Because the program brings our spirits back to life. All over the world, many of us were dying, and now we’re full of life and love. We are bringing our world bake to life. As we share our experience, strength, and hope, we help others join us in coming back to life.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me stay sober today. Guide me and all others who are doing Your will today.
Action for the Day: Today, I’ll think of three things I can do to help spread the message of AA and NA.
************************************************** *********
Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition
BUILDING A NEW LIFE - Hallucinating and restrained by sheriff's deputies and hospital staff, this once-happy family man received an unexpected gift from God--a firm foundation in sobriety that would hold up through good times and bad.
During that year, I was offered a job with the city and one with a construction company out of town. My sponsor counseled me to stay where I had support of my group and my A.A. friends; I was too young in the program for an adventure. I went with the city and am now retired from there. A guy like me--with one employer for eighteen years!
p. 484
************************************************** *********
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
Step Two - "Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity."
Let's look first at the case of the one who says he won't believe--the belligerent one. He is in a state of mind which can be described only as savage. His whole philosophy of life, in which he so gloried, is threatened. It's bad enough, he thinks, to admit alcohol has him down for keeps. But now, still smarting from that admission, he is faced with something really impossible. How he does cherish the thought that man, risen so majestically from a single cell in the primordial ooze, is the spearhead of evolution and therefore the only god that his universe knows! Must he renounce all this to save himself?
p. 25
************************************************** *********
Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action.
--William James
Money is not required to buy one necessity of the soul.
--Henry David Thoreau
If you want to accomplish the goals of your life, you have to begin with the Spirit.
--Oprah Winfrey
The steps did for me the very thing I kept hoping alcohol would do for me --- they gave me the
peace and serenity I had been looking for in a bottle.
--unknown
Today is full of miracles!
--Ruth Fishel
"The principles you live by create the world you live in; if you change the principles you
live by, you will change your world."
--Blaine Lee
"What we see depends mainly on what we look for."
--John Lubbock
The ultimate lesson all of us have is unconditional love, which includes not only others but
ourselves as well.
--Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
************************************************** *********
Father Leo's Daily Meditation
BEAUTY
"Not every woman in old
slippers can manage to look like
Cinderella."
-- Don Marquis
Beauty is not what you wear or look like; beauty is within. We begin to love ourselves
when we see the beauty that God has given to each and every one of us forever. God's
image and beauty is expressed through our attitudes and feelings, how we greet and
listen to each other and the gentle dignity we afford to another human being.
For years I saw myself as ugly, boring, useless and stupid. This message came from
parents who forever compared me with others and for years I believed their message.
I hid through my teen-age years and quietly tried to escape in food, alcohol and
drugs.
Then after a crisis I met people who had felt the same but were now feeling different.
They loved me until I could begin to love myself. Now I like me. Now I can love me.
Today I can like and love you.
Help me to see the beauty in the wrinkle; the power in the pain.
************************************************** *********
"He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the
Almighty."
Psalm 91:1
"Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This
then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in
his presence."
I John 3:18-19
"Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, 'I am the light of the world. Whoever follows
me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.'"
John 8:12
************************************************** *********
Daily Inspiration
Imagine joy and you will find it. Lord, I thank You for the people that need me and love me, for the ability to hope and especially for the ability to love.
One of life's greatest rewards is not what we get, but what we become. Lord, give me the courage to be all that I can.
A NEW STATE OF CONSCIOUSNESS
He has been granted a gift which amounts to a new state of consciousness and being.
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p 107
Many of us in A.A. puzzle over what is a spiritual awakening. I tended to look for a
miracle, something dramatic and earth shattering. But what usually happens is that a
sense of well-being, a feeling of peace, transforms us into a new level of awareness.
That's what happened to me. My insanity and inner turmoil disappeared and I entered
into a new dimension of hope, love and peace. I think the degree to which I continue
to experience this new dimension is in direct proportion to the sincerity, depth and devotion
with which I practice the Twelve Steps of A.A.
************************************************** *********
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
In spite of all we have learned in A.A., our old way of thinking comes back on us,
sometimes with overwhelming force, and occasionally some of us have slips. We forget
or refuse to call on the Higher Power for help. We seem to deliberately make our minds
a blank so far as A.A. training goes, and we take a drink. We eventually get drunk. We
are temporarily right back where we started from. Those who have had slips say
unanimously that they were no fun. They say A.A. had taken all the pleasure out of
drinking. They knew they were doing the wrong thing. The old mental conflict was back
in full force. They were disgusted with themselves. Am I convinced that I can never get
anything more out of drinking?
Meditation For The Day
Give something to those who are having trouble, to those whose thoughts are confused,
something of your sympathy, your prayers, your time, your love, your thought, your self.
Then give of your own confidence, as you have had it given to you by the grace of God.
Give of yourself and of your loving sympathy. Give your best to those who need it and
will accept it. Give according to need, never according to deserts. Remember that the
giving of advice can never take the place of giving of your self.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that as I have received, so may I give. I pray that I may have the right answer to
those who are confused.
************************************************** *********
As Bill Sees It
Circle and Triangle, p. 307
Above us, at the International Convention at St. Louis in 1955, floated
a banner on which was inscribed the then new symbol for A.A., a circle
enclosing a triangle. The circle stands for the whole world of A.A.,
and the triangle stands for A.A.'s Three Legacies: Recovery, Unity,
and Service.
It is perhaps no accident that priests and seers of antiquity regarded
this symbol as a means of warding off spirits of evil.
<< << << >> >> >>
When, in 1955, we oldtimers turned over our Three Legacies to the
whole movement, nostalgia for the old days blended with gratitude for
the great day in which I was now living. No more would it be
necessary for me to act for, decide for, or protect A.A.
For a moment, I dreaded the coming change. But this mood quickly
passed. The conscience of A.A. as moved by the guidance of God
could be depended upon to insure A.A.'s future. Clearly my job
henceforth was to let go and let God.
A.A. Comes of Age
1. p. 39
2. pp. 46.48
************************************************** *********
Walk In Dry Places
Holding hands and hugging
Sincerity
The custom of holding hands while saying the Lord's Prayer has been adopted by many AA groups. We have also seen more hugging than in the past, even between the most unlikely members.
Are these new practices good or bad? In accordance with AA tradition, we have to leave such questions to the group conscience.
One thought, however, is that such physical actions do not necessarily mean that any true spiritual bonding has taken place. The old-timers who never held hands or hugged still had a great closeness in spirit and in feeling.
We must also consider that we may be violating the privacy of the person who doesn't wish to hold hands or hug. If such a person chooses to stand outside the hand=holding circle, he or she maybe cast in the role of dissenter. Would that be fair?
Hand -holding and hugging may be here to stay, but let's not make them out to be more than mere physical expressions. The program of the heart is still first.
I'll remember today that true bonding is spiritual, not physical.
************************************************** *********
Keep It Simple
Each day, somewhere in the world, recovery begins when one alcoholic talks with another alcoholic, sharing experience, strength, and hope. ---Alcoholics Anonymous
All over the world, recovering men and women use the same Twelve Steps to live their lives.
Our fellowship keeps growing. The bigger it gets, the faster it grows. Why? Because the program brings our spirits back to life. All over the world, many of us were dying, and now we’re full of life and love. We are bringing our world bake to life. As we share our experience, strength, and hope, we help others join us in coming back to life.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, help me stay sober today. Guide me and all others who are doing Your will today.
Action for the Day: Today, I’ll think of three things I can do to help spread the message of AA and NA.
************************************************** *********
Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition
BUILDING A NEW LIFE - Hallucinating and restrained by sheriff's deputies and hospital staff, this once-happy family man received an unexpected gift from God--a firm foundation in sobriety that would hold up through good times and bad.
During that year, I was offered a job with the city and one with a construction company out of town. My sponsor counseled me to stay where I had support of my group and my A.A. friends; I was too young in the program for an adventure. I went with the city and am now retired from there. A guy like me--with one employer for eighteen years!
p. 484
************************************************** *********
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
Step Two - "Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity."
Let's look first at the case of the one who says he won't believe--the belligerent one. He is in a state of mind which can be described only as savage. His whole philosophy of life, in which he so gloried, is threatened. It's bad enough, he thinks, to admit alcohol has him down for keeps. But now, still smarting from that admission, he is faced with something really impossible. How he does cherish the thought that man, risen so majestically from a single cell in the primordial ooze, is the spearhead of evolution and therefore the only god that his universe knows! Must he renounce all this to save himself?
p. 25
************************************************** *********
Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action.
--William James
Money is not required to buy one necessity of the soul.
--Henry David Thoreau
If you want to accomplish the goals of your life, you have to begin with the Spirit.
--Oprah Winfrey
The steps did for me the very thing I kept hoping alcohol would do for me --- they gave me the
peace and serenity I had been looking for in a bottle.
--unknown
Today is full of miracles!
--Ruth Fishel
"The principles you live by create the world you live in; if you change the principles you
live by, you will change your world."
--Blaine Lee
"What we see depends mainly on what we look for."
--John Lubbock
The ultimate lesson all of us have is unconditional love, which includes not only others but
ourselves as well.
--Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
************************************************** *********
Father Leo's Daily Meditation
BEAUTY
"Not every woman in old
slippers can manage to look like
Cinderella."
-- Don Marquis
Beauty is not what you wear or look like; beauty is within. We begin to love ourselves
when we see the beauty that God has given to each and every one of us forever. God's
image and beauty is expressed through our attitudes and feelings, how we greet and
listen to each other and the gentle dignity we afford to another human being.
For years I saw myself as ugly, boring, useless and stupid. This message came from
parents who forever compared me with others and for years I believed their message.
I hid through my teen-age years and quietly tried to escape in food, alcohol and
drugs.
Then after a crisis I met people who had felt the same but were now feeling different.
They loved me until I could begin to love myself. Now I like me. Now I can love me.
Today I can like and love you.
Help me to see the beauty in the wrinkle; the power in the pain.
************************************************** *********
"He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the
Almighty."
Psalm 91:1
"Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This
then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in
his presence."
I John 3:18-19
"Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, 'I am the light of the world. Whoever follows
me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.'"
John 8:12
************************************************** *********
Daily Inspiration
Imagine joy and you will find it. Lord, I thank You for the people that need me and love me, for the ability to hope and especially for the ability to love.
One of life's greatest rewards is not what we get, but what we become. Lord, give me the courage to be all that I can.