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12-25-2008, 07:17 PM
Daily Reflections
ACCEPTING SUCCESS OR FAILURE
Furthermore, how shall we come to terms with seeming
failure or success? Can we now accept and adjust to
either without despair or pride? Can we accept poverty,
sickness, loneliness, and bereavement with courage and
serenity? Can we steadfastly content ourselves with the
humbler, yet sometimes more durable, satisfactions when
the brighter, more glittering achievements are denied
us?
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 112
After I found A.A. and stopped drinking, it took a
while before I understood why the First Step contained
two parts: my powerlessness over alcohol and my life's
unmanageability. In the same way, I believed for a
long time that, in order to be in tune with the Twelve
Steps, it was enough for me "to carry this message to
alcoholics." That was rushing things. I was forgetting
that there were a total of Twelve Steps and that the
Twelfth Step also had more than one part. Eventually
I learned that it was necessary for me to "practice
these principles" in all areas of my life. In working
all the Steps thoroughly, I not only stay sober and
help someone else to achieve sobriety, but also I
transform my difficulty with living into a joy of
living.
************************************************** *********
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
I am glad to be a part of A.A., of that great fellowship
that is spreading over the United States and all over the
world. I am only one of the many A.A.'s, but I am one. I
am grateful to be living at this time, when I can help
A.A. to grow, when it needs me to put my shoulder to the
wheel and help keep the movement going. I am glad to be
able to be useful, to have a reason for living, a purpose
in life. I want to lose my life in this great cause and
so find it again. Am I grateful to be an A.A.?
Meditation For The Day
These meditations can teach us how to relax. We can be of
service to other people in a small way at least. And we
can be happy while doing it. We should not worry too much
about people we cannot help. We can make it a habit to
leave the outcome of the things we do to the Higher Power.
We can go along through life doing the best we can, but
without a feeling of urgency or strain. We can enjoy all
the good things and the beauty of life, but at the same
time depend deeply on God.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may give my life to this worthwhile cause.
I pray that I may enjoy the satisfaction that comes from
good work well done.
************************************************** *********
As Bill Sees It
Inward Reality, p.260
It is being constantly revealed, as mankind studies the material
world, that its outward appearance is not inward reality at all. The
prosaic steel girder is a mass of electrons whirling around each other
at incredible speed, and these tiny bodies are governed by precise
laws. Science tells us so. We have no reason to doubt it.
When, however, the perfectly logic assumption is suggested that,
infinitely beyond the material world as we see it, there is an all
powerful, guiding, creative Intelligence, our perverse streak comes to
the surface and we set out to convince ourselves that this isn't so.
Were our contention true, it would follow that life originated out of
nothing, means nothing, and proceeds nowhere.
Alcoholics Anonymous, pp. 48-49
************************************************** *********
Walk In Dry Places
Humility: Teachable and Honest
Open to growth.
Humility& is often used in the context of being honest enough to admit one's faults, but it also means being teachable. The truly humble person realizes there's always more to learn and is open to such learning.
If we think we have humility, we usually don't. However, we can look back and recognize times when we made wonderful progress while being deeply humble. This was particularly true when we recognized our alcoholism and achieved sobriety. In this one action, we changed our lives.
If we continue to practice the honesty, open-mindedness, and willingness that helped get us sober, these traits will be apparent in other areas of our lives. Though humility isn't generally sought as a way of life, it's the right way for recovering people.
I'll be open today to ideas from any direction. I can learn something from every person.
************************************************** *********
Keep It Simple
To be emotionally committed to somebody is very difficult, but to be alone is impossible. --Stephen Sondheim.
Let's face it, relationships are hard to work! But we are lucky! Recovery is about relationships. We learn how to set limits. We learn how to listen to and talk to others. In Step One, we begin a new relationship with ourselves. In Step Two and Three, we begin a relationship with our Higher Power. In later Steps, we mend our relationships with family and friends. In our relationship with our sponsor, we learn about being friends. And our past relationships with alcohol and other drugs is being replaced by people and our Higher Power.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, thank-you for all the new relationships. Thank-you for teaching me how to feel human again.
Action for the Day: Today, I'll make a list of all the new relationships I have now, due to my sobriety.
************************************************** *********
Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition
THERE IS A SOLUTION
So he returned to this doctor, whom he admired, and asked him point-blank why he could not recover. He wished above all things to regain self-control. He seemed quite rational and well-balanced with respect to other problems. Yet he had no control whatever over alcohol. Why was this?
He begged the doctor to tell him the whole truth, and he got it. In the doctor’s judgment he was utterly hopeless; he could never regain his position in society and he would have to place himself under lock and key or hire a bodyguard if he expected to live long. That was a great physician’s opinion.
But this man still lives, and is a free man. He does not need a bodyguard nor is he confined. He can go anywhere on this earth where other free men may go without disaster, provided he remains willing to maintain a certain simple attitude.
pp. 26-27
************************************************** *********
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
Step Two - "Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity."
The moment they read Step Two, most A.A. newcomers are confronted with a dilemma, sometimes a serious one. How often have we heard them cry out, "Look what you people have done to us! You have convinced us that we are alcoholics and that our lives are unmanageable. Having reduced us to a state of absolute helplessness, you now declare that none but a Higher Power can remove our obsession. Some of us won't believe in God, others can't, and still others
who do believe that God exists have no faith whatever He will perform this miracle. Yes, you've got us over the barrel, all right--but where do we go from here?"
p. 25
************************************************** *********
The paradox of control is simple. The more we try to control life, the less control we
have.
--Joan Borysenko, Ph.D.
A person who possesses true peace is not one whose life is without problems and
turmoil but is rather a person who has peace in spite of it.
--unknown
If you always do what you've always done, you will always be where you've always been.
--unknown
A B C = Acceptance, Belief, Change.
When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.
--unknown
************************************************** *********
Father Leo's Daily Meditation
APATHY
"The only thing necessary for
the triumph of evil is for good
men to do nothing."
-- Edmund Burke
I read about the Holocaust and I am ashamed. I am ashamed to belong to the human
race that allowed, by an overwhelming silence, the slaughter of millions. The ultimate
in people-pleasing is to do nothing. The fear of being an outcast or traitor allows the
addiction to Power to develop. Power is an addiction that is rarely discussed in
society. And yet evil needs people and politics to function alone it is but a word.
With this new day I seek to be involved in the good life. Today I am not afraid to
stand alone for what I believe to be the principles of a God-given spirituality. I know
evil because I know myself. I know tyranny and injustice because for years I
perpetrated negativity in my life. Now I choose to say "no". Today I seek to make
amends for past wrongs by being rigorously honest in all my affairs. Because I
know what it is to hate, I seek to love. I wish to be responsible in God's world.
Teach me not only to learn from past mistakes but translate this knowledge into
action.
************************************************** *********
"Nothing will be impossible with God."
Luke 1:37
Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; His greatness no one can fathom.
Psalm 145:3
"Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
strength."
Deuteronomy 6:5
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the
present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all
creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38-39
************************************************** *********
Daily Inspiration
If you think success and really believe it will happen, you will perform in a manner that leads to success. Lord, may I always avoid negative thoughts and visualize myself in the manner that You intended for me.
We are powerless to change our past, but we can change how we look at it. Lord, help me to realize that my past has made me a stronger person and show me that these experiences have taught me valuable life lessons.
ACCEPTING SUCCESS OR FAILURE
Furthermore, how shall we come to terms with seeming
failure or success? Can we now accept and adjust to
either without despair or pride? Can we accept poverty,
sickness, loneliness, and bereavement with courage and
serenity? Can we steadfastly content ourselves with the
humbler, yet sometimes more durable, satisfactions when
the brighter, more glittering achievements are denied
us?
TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 112
After I found A.A. and stopped drinking, it took a
while before I understood why the First Step contained
two parts: my powerlessness over alcohol and my life's
unmanageability. In the same way, I believed for a
long time that, in order to be in tune with the Twelve
Steps, it was enough for me "to carry this message to
alcoholics." That was rushing things. I was forgetting
that there were a total of Twelve Steps and that the
Twelfth Step also had more than one part. Eventually
I learned that it was necessary for me to "practice
these principles" in all areas of my life. In working
all the Steps thoroughly, I not only stay sober and
help someone else to achieve sobriety, but also I
transform my difficulty with living into a joy of
living.
************************************************** *********
Twenty-Four Hours A Day
A.A. Thought For The Day
I am glad to be a part of A.A., of that great fellowship
that is spreading over the United States and all over the
world. I am only one of the many A.A.'s, but I am one. I
am grateful to be living at this time, when I can help
A.A. to grow, when it needs me to put my shoulder to the
wheel and help keep the movement going. I am glad to be
able to be useful, to have a reason for living, a purpose
in life. I want to lose my life in this great cause and
so find it again. Am I grateful to be an A.A.?
Meditation For The Day
These meditations can teach us how to relax. We can be of
service to other people in a small way at least. And we
can be happy while doing it. We should not worry too much
about people we cannot help. We can make it a habit to
leave the outcome of the things we do to the Higher Power.
We can go along through life doing the best we can, but
without a feeling of urgency or strain. We can enjoy all
the good things and the beauty of life, but at the same
time depend deeply on God.
Prayer For The Day
I pray that I may give my life to this worthwhile cause.
I pray that I may enjoy the satisfaction that comes from
good work well done.
************************************************** *********
As Bill Sees It
Inward Reality, p.260
It is being constantly revealed, as mankind studies the material
world, that its outward appearance is not inward reality at all. The
prosaic steel girder is a mass of electrons whirling around each other
at incredible speed, and these tiny bodies are governed by precise
laws. Science tells us so. We have no reason to doubt it.
When, however, the perfectly logic assumption is suggested that,
infinitely beyond the material world as we see it, there is an all
powerful, guiding, creative Intelligence, our perverse streak comes to
the surface and we set out to convince ourselves that this isn't so.
Were our contention true, it would follow that life originated out of
nothing, means nothing, and proceeds nowhere.
Alcoholics Anonymous, pp. 48-49
************************************************** *********
Walk In Dry Places
Humility: Teachable and Honest
Open to growth.
Humility& is often used in the context of being honest enough to admit one's faults, but it also means being teachable. The truly humble person realizes there's always more to learn and is open to such learning.
If we think we have humility, we usually don't. However, we can look back and recognize times when we made wonderful progress while being deeply humble. This was particularly true when we recognized our alcoholism and achieved sobriety. In this one action, we changed our lives.
If we continue to practice the honesty, open-mindedness, and willingness that helped get us sober, these traits will be apparent in other areas of our lives. Though humility isn't generally sought as a way of life, it's the right way for recovering people.
I'll be open today to ideas from any direction. I can learn something from every person.
************************************************** *********
Keep It Simple
To be emotionally committed to somebody is very difficult, but to be alone is impossible. --Stephen Sondheim.
Let's face it, relationships are hard to work! But we are lucky! Recovery is about relationships. We learn how to set limits. We learn how to listen to and talk to others. In Step One, we begin a new relationship with ourselves. In Step Two and Three, we begin a relationship with our Higher Power. In later Steps, we mend our relationships with family and friends. In our relationship with our sponsor, we learn about being friends. And our past relationships with alcohol and other drugs is being replaced by people and our Higher Power.
Prayer for the Day: Higher Power, thank-you for all the new relationships. Thank-you for teaching me how to feel human again.
Action for the Day: Today, I'll make a list of all the new relationships I have now, due to my sobriety.
************************************************** *********
Alcoholics Anonymous - Fourth Edition
THERE IS A SOLUTION
So he returned to this doctor, whom he admired, and asked him point-blank why he could not recover. He wished above all things to regain self-control. He seemed quite rational and well-balanced with respect to other problems. Yet he had no control whatever over alcohol. Why was this?
He begged the doctor to tell him the whole truth, and he got it. In the doctor’s judgment he was utterly hopeless; he could never regain his position in society and he would have to place himself under lock and key or hire a bodyguard if he expected to live long. That was a great physician’s opinion.
But this man still lives, and is a free man. He does not need a bodyguard nor is he confined. He can go anywhere on this earth where other free men may go without disaster, provided he remains willing to maintain a certain simple attitude.
pp. 26-27
************************************************** *********
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
Step Two - "Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity."
The moment they read Step Two, most A.A. newcomers are confronted with a dilemma, sometimes a serious one. How often have we heard them cry out, "Look what you people have done to us! You have convinced us that we are alcoholics and that our lives are unmanageable. Having reduced us to a state of absolute helplessness, you now declare that none but a Higher Power can remove our obsession. Some of us won't believe in God, others can't, and still others
who do believe that God exists have no faith whatever He will perform this miracle. Yes, you've got us over the barrel, all right--but where do we go from here?"
p. 25
************************************************** *********
The paradox of control is simple. The more we try to control life, the less control we
have.
--Joan Borysenko, Ph.D.
A person who possesses true peace is not one whose life is without problems and
turmoil but is rather a person who has peace in spite of it.
--unknown
If you always do what you've always done, you will always be where you've always been.
--unknown
A B C = Acceptance, Belief, Change.
When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.
--unknown
************************************************** *********
Father Leo's Daily Meditation
APATHY
"The only thing necessary for
the triumph of evil is for good
men to do nothing."
-- Edmund Burke
I read about the Holocaust and I am ashamed. I am ashamed to belong to the human
race that allowed, by an overwhelming silence, the slaughter of millions. The ultimate
in people-pleasing is to do nothing. The fear of being an outcast or traitor allows the
addiction to Power to develop. Power is an addiction that is rarely discussed in
society. And yet evil needs people and politics to function alone it is but a word.
With this new day I seek to be involved in the good life. Today I am not afraid to
stand alone for what I believe to be the principles of a God-given spirituality. I know
evil because I know myself. I know tyranny and injustice because for years I
perpetrated negativity in my life. Now I choose to say "no". Today I seek to make
amends for past wrongs by being rigorously honest in all my affairs. Because I
know what it is to hate, I seek to love. I wish to be responsible in God's world.
Teach me not only to learn from past mistakes but translate this knowledge into
action.
************************************************** *********
"Nothing will be impossible with God."
Luke 1:37
Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; His greatness no one can fathom.
Psalm 145:3
"Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
strength."
Deuteronomy 6:5
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the
present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all
creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38-39
************************************************** *********
Daily Inspiration
If you think success and really believe it will happen, you will perform in a manner that leads to success. Lord, may I always avoid negative thoughts and visualize myself in the manner that You intended for me.
We are powerless to change our past, but we can change how we look at it. Lord, help me to realize that my past has made me a stronger person and show me that these experiences have taught me valuable life lessons.