Aa history Lovers 2004 moderators Nancy Olson and Glenn F. Chesnut page

world at large still does not conduct itself as the Kingdom of God, the

Kingdom exists today for all those who will turn to it.

For those of us who have found our lives unmanageable, the Kingdom of God is

our sure refuge. By acknowledging ourselves as the subjects of a Power greater

than our own, as obedient to the laws of life that have grown out of the

experience of mankind throughout the ages, we can restore ourselves. We place

ourselves in the Kingdom of God within us.

What is the Kingdom of God? The Apostle Paul ssaid it is not meat or drink.

That means it is not the material side of lift. Those whose interests lie

alone in bread, in wealth , in the comforts of life, do not find the Kingdom

of God. They are more likely to find themselves victims of lust and greet, to

find themselves selfish and intolerant, to find themselves where we found

ourselves as the result of our one-sided interest in material things.

The Kingdom of God, said Paul, is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy

Spirit.

Some of us shy away from words like 'righteousness,'' which have a

'goody-goodv'' sound. But what is a righteous man but one who is upright and

honest and fair and free from the will to do wrong.

The Kingdom of God. we might say, is the realm of honesty and unselfishness

and purity and love, the four principles that guide our efforts to remake our

lives. Some of our members call them the Four Absolutes.

The Kingdom of God is peace: the peace from the tortures of the mind and the

flesh that we have suffered so many years. With honesty and unselfishness and

purity and love, by being upright and fair and free from the will to do wrong,

by casting from us the errors that have troubled us, we can relax and find

peace in the Kingdom of God.

The Kingdom of God is joy in the Holy Spirit. Perhaps Paul meant to suggest

that it is the joy that comes to us through acceptance of the Holy Spirit. And

so it is. But many of us, who have spent so many years in error and have been

inclined to look with contempt upon those persons who followed the way of God,

tend to keep the Holy

Spirit at arm's length. Many are inclined to think that it is not quite 'grown

up'' to find joy in the Holy Spirit. Thus we persist in error, and deprive

ourselves of the opportunity to find peace. We have to let ourselves find joy

in the Holy Spirit.

It is well to recall the first three of the Twelve Steps. We confessed that we

were powerless over alcohol and that our lives had become unmanageable. We

decided that a Power greater than our own could restore us to sanity. We

undertook to place our lives and our wills in the hands of that Power.

So now we acknowledge the Supreme Power, 'Our Father.'' We regard that Power

reverently. And we ask that we live today in the realm of that Power, when we

are upright, where we find peace, where we find joy in the Holy Spirit.

Thy Kingdom come.

May 1944

'Thy Will Be Done''

So words that we can utter are as vital to us as these words in the Lord's

Prayer, 'Thy will be done.'' In uttering these words we surrender to the will

of a Power greater than our own. This is the essential act in the third of the

Twelve Steps, the step that is the very heart of our program.

The instincts that rule our material selves are largeIy instincts of

self-preservation. They make Self our first concern and they are the causes of

most of the troubles that we can fall into. Self-concern leads to egotism, to

self-assertion, to vanity, to lack of concern for the feelings of others: It

leads to things that destroy us: lust, greed, and similar excesses of body

passions.

A sane view of lift is that all things are good in their right use. But we

have devoted ourselves to the misuse of a number of things and have regarded

ourselves accountable to no man. Now that the bill for our misconduct has been

presented, we find ourselves thoroughly rooted in misuse and thoroughly the

victims of our impulses.

Now that we are in AA, most of us have recognized our chief errors. Most of us

see the need for control, for responsible action, for curbs on selfish acts.

We have seen how some of the results of our habits of thought, in resentment,

in self-pity, in jealousy, in other aspects of self-love, return again and

again to harass us.

Our head strong tendencies demand surrender, demand a yielding of ourselves to

the will of an external power. To place ourselves in the hands of that Power,

we have to create new habits of action to keep us out of old ruts.

We may continue to do all the things that nature intended us to do, bur it is

important that we do those things under control. We must control impulses,

particularly those associated with our excesses.

Most difficult, perhaps, are those times when there is an urge that we cannot

define, just a general tension under the skin and a hazy hut strong impulsive

feeling in the mind. These are times when it is particularly necessary to call

on the aid of the Supreme Power.

We must develop the habit of turning to the Supreme Power at all times, at

regular daily intervals, at times when we are under stress. Impulses should be

discharged by addressing ourselves directly to the Supreme Power and asking

for guidance. We must learn to see the signs of headstrong and self-willed

action and remember the troubles that such action has brought in the past. Our

watchword here is, 'Easy does it.''

It is the will of the Supreme Power that we love our neighbors, that we be

merciful and just in all our action. Perhaps we should be especially mindful

of the warning that we should not judge others. We have to learn to be

tolerant and to improve our own ways of living.

These things are hard at first because they run so contrary to the habits we

have developed. Our task is to develop new habits in which we place the

direction of our lives in the hands of a Power greater than our own. We have

to do it first by conscious effort. Eventually we find that when we turn to

the Supreme Power and accept the guidance of that power, the painful shackles

fall away and the driving impulses lose their force and we find a measure of

peace.

June 1944

'Give Us this Day Our Daily Bread''

This is the 21-Hour Plan of life in the Lord's Prayer, and as such it is far

from being the simple petition for the gift of food that it seems. This

petition is worthy of our particular consideration, since it has special

meanings for us in AA.

'Bread'' in the Lord's Prayer means all the things that man needs to sustain

life. The petition is concerned wholly with material things. Every material

thing, whether it is food, clothing, shelter, a convenience of life or a means

of pleasure, is solely the product of the labor of man applied to the gifts of

nature. We get nothing without labor, but our labor would not be fruitful were

it not for the gifts of nature, which are the fruits of the labor of God. It

is a fundamental law that man must work if he is to live. It is a fundamental

truth that life depends on God's bounty.

'Give us this day our daily bread'' is first of all an acknowledgment that we

are dependent upon God's bounty. But those who will take the trouble to read

the Sermon on the Mount, in which the Lord's Prayer appears, will discover

ample evidence that the word 'daily'' in this petition is of greatest

importance.

'Give us today bread for today,'' the petition means tomorrow's bread we will

seek tomorrow. Thus, this is a renunciation, one that grows out of the last of

the Ten Commandments (covetousness). It is linked spiritually with the

declaration that 'Man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word that

proceedeth out of the mouth of God.'' Granted that man must have bread, he

must not make the pursuit of material things the ruling passion of his life.

Now this is of particular interest to us. For most of us in AA became

alcoholics largely because of our concern over material things. A few of our

younger alcoholics are simply undisciplined children who have devoted

themselves to the pursuit of pleasure and escape from the responsibilities of

life. But most of our older alcoholics are men and women who have suffered

frustration and disappointment, who have discovered that the aims they had in

youth never are to be realized. We have had to cut our patterns to fit our

opportunities, to walk when we had hoped to soar aloft. Moreover, the

depression that preceded the present war made alcoholics of many men who

ordinarily would have escaped.

Devotion to material things made tragedy out of disappointment.

No one would suggest that we turn away from the material entirely. We must

care for our needs and our family's needs. And in our present economic order,

a prudent man will save something if he can.

But if we are to have health, economic pursuits must not be our ruling

passion. Ambition and pride and covetousness, the desire for wealth and the

demand for power must be curbed, and with them, the resentment and jealousy

that come in the wake of frustration. We have to learn to be satisfied with

what we can achieve, and in learning to be satisfied, it is well to renounce

something of our aims. We may start by being practical. We may

go on by finding interest in higher things. The man who has given up greed is

on the way to happiness.

July 1944

'Forgive Us Our Trespasses''

'Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.''

No one who has completed his moral inventory can pass over this petition

lightly.

First, what are trespasses? Any act contrary to the moral law, a neglect of

duty, an injury or wrong to another person, is a trespass. 'Moral'' is used

here in its proper sense as pertaining to action with reference to right and

wrong and obligation of duty. It refers not only to things we have done but

also to things we have neglected to do.

Some of our trespasses are easy to recognize. We have no difficulty in seeing

our guilt in them. Others may be more difficult, partly because we have spent

so much time in justifying and excusing our acts or neglects that we have come

to think of justification as answering the accusation. It is precisely at this

point that our moral inventories must become fearless. Every excuse or

justification must be challenged as being in itself evidence of guilt.

We should examine our conduct in detail and specify each trespass. This is

important. The Lord's Prayer does not excuse us from responsibility for our

acts. Nor is it a license for repetition of wrongful acts. We are bound to

make reparation for harm that we have done, and we are bound to cease doing

harm.

Our prayer is made daily. So should our inventories be made daily. In our

prayer, we should keep in mind the things the inventories have revealed, so

that we may make progress in correcting our faults.

'Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.'' This

petition is conditional. No one who is not willing to forgive can expect to be

forgiven. No one who harbors hatred, malice and resentment in his heart can

expect to find peace.

This condition is of particular concern to us, since so many of us suffer

through resentment, self pity, jealousy, self love. It has been the experience

of all of us who try to control resentment that most of the causes of our

resentments are found to be either imaginary or petty, and that they actually

have done us no real harm. When we can rid ourselves of these resentments, we

shall make progress.

Honest inventory often will reveal that in those cases in which we have

suffered in our dealings with others, some of the fault, much of the fault, or

even most of the fault has been ours. But even in those few instances in which

we have suffered genuine injury at the hands of others, we are bound to

forgive. Certainly we gain nothing but harm to ourselves when we allow

resentment to fill our minds and consume our energies. When we forgive, we

heal our minds.

August 1944

'Lead Us Not Into Temptation''

These words of the last petition of the Lord's Prayer come from our lips with

greatest fervor. We have turned to prayer in a desperate hour to plead for

deliverance and we ask that we may be taken out of the path of temptation.

There is no doubt in the mind of any one who is in trouble what the words of

this petition mean, and there is rather little doubt, at least at first, what

we wished to be saved from.

Temptation has sly ways, however. After we have all the gaps plugged.

Temptation begins to whisper fairy tales into our ears, trying to get us to

open up at least one of the gaps. Temptation hints that the diagnosis we made

when we took the first of the Twelve Steps was not quite right. Why not take

just one now and then? And why not ask to be delivered from the temptation of

taking more than one? But then, three would be better, why not never more than

three?

Or, Temptation may make a more direct assault. We're as big as God is: we can

step off that cliff!

Well, maybe not quite; but we are capable of handling ourselves, and there is

no reason why we cannot go down to the water's edge and wade around abit! We

forget that for us there is no shallow water.

Temptation stays with us, trying to build up our confidence, trying to make us

believe that we have been cured, scoffing at the old troubles. Temptation

slips in at the side door when we become proud and satisfied. It is the

greatest to those who have persisted in remaining at the threshold of evil by

always having that 'Some day!'' in the back of the mind. The most persistent

temptation we have is the temptation to change the diagnosis. When we turn our

backs firmly against that temptation we are likely to stay out of trouble.

Self love is a great pitfall, and the source of the great sins. Many of the

temptations here seem rather innocent. But they lead, step by step to denial

of the Supreme Power, to exaltation of the self.

For us, deliverance and temptation go together, and one of the most important

evils that we seek to be freed from is temptation. Drink has become so much a

part of our lives that we associate virtually every act with it. The result is

that the idea of drink, the urge to take a drink or to go to get a drink

constantly pops into the mind for no apparent reason. The Devil here is

experience.

As our sins may be forgiven if we are truly contrite, so may we be delivered

from the evils we have created for ourselves, by being sorry for our misdeeds,

by undertaking to make good for any injury we have done to others, and by

striving not to offend again. We are bound to take positive action for the

right and the good, and we are bound not to allow ourselves drift with our

inclinations. We place ourselves in the hands of the Supreme Power and follow

the lead we receive from that power, away from temptation, away from evil.

September 1944

'For Thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory Forever.''

Thus the Lord's Prayer ends, with words of surrender. The kingdom of God is

God's kingdom. The power in the kingdom is God's power. And the glory for the

works in the kingdom is God's glory.

The kingdom is not ours, though we are part of it. The power is not ours,

though God gives us a little of his power for our own use. The glory is not

ours, but God's

We should do well not to mumble these words when we say the Lord's Prayer, and

not to hurry through them. We should do well to think as we say them. The

kingdom and the power and the glory are God's, not ours.

Many of us thought the whole kingdom ours, or thought it should be. Many of us

thought the power ours, and abused such power as we had. Or we thought the

power should be ours, and WE kicked at everything when we found it was not. We

finally kicked ourselves down. And many of us, all too may of us, thought the

glory ours. Big shots. Important guys. Bigger than our neighbors. Bigger than

God. Spoiled children when no one else agreed with our notions.

Now, the sin that the Bible talks about is the sin of imagining ourselves

bigger than God. We start by imagining ourselves bigger than any other person.

We insist on running everything our own way, regardless of the rules that men

have found necessary throughout civilized life. We went from the great sin to

the deadly sins and thence to the gutter. We fount it hard to learn, and some

of us find it is easy to unlearn.

When the bad days are gone and good days come again, some of us forget the

lessons of those evil days. Old yearnings stir up in us. Pride awakens, with

perhaps an extra urge to wipe out the memory of the bad days and to show the

world that we are great. Some want power in business, some in politics, some

in AA, some elsewhere. Some of us want others to bow to us, to admit our power

and our glory. Some of us go so far as to act on these urges. The result is

trouble. Eventually, it is the same old trouble. We have seen it happen many

times, sometimes with men quite old in AA.

The kingdom and the power and the glory are God's not ours. The wise man

yields first place to God. The wise man avoids seeking advantage over others,

or even seeking equal place with others. The wise man keeps himself on a leash

and thus gains peace. The wise man is humble.

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++++Message 1952. . . . . . . . . . . . Bare Witness

From: marywb . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/27/2004 10:58:00 AM

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Does anyone know where the phrase "may bear witness" came from in the

3rd Step Prayer?

I have a newcomer who is having lots of trouble with that phrase.

Thanks.

God, I offer myself to Thee--to build with me and to do with me as

Thou wilt.Relieve me from the bondage of self, that I may better do

Thy will. Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear

witness to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love and Thy Way of

life. May I do Thy will always!

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++++Message 1953. . . . . . . . . . . . Characters in the Twelve Steps and

Twelve Traditions.

From: Byron Bateman . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/27/2004 2:29:00 AM

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I have been trying to find the identities of two individuals that Bill W.

wrote about in the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions.

I have always been curious about the identity of the "Tough Irishman"

mentioned on pp.152-153, (Tradition Five) of the 12x12.

Also, the well-loved clergyman referred to on p. 63, (Step Six) of the 12x12,

who said; "This is the step that separates the men form the boys"

I would appreciate any help that anyone might supply on these two individuals.

Byron Bateman

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++++Message 1954. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Characters in the Twelve Steps and

Twelve Traditions.

From: Bruce Lallier . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/27/2004 6:19:00 PM

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I believe the well loved clergyman was Father Dowling.

----- Original Message -----

From: Byron Bateman

To: [e-mail]

Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2004 3:29 AM

Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Characters in the Twelve Steps and Twelve

Traditions.

I have been trying to find the identities of two individuals that Bill W.

wrote about in the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions.

I have always been curious about the identity of the "Tough Irishman"

mentioned on pp.152-153, (Tradition Five) of the 12x12.

Also, the well-loved clergyman referred to on p. 63, (Step Six) of the

12x12, who said; "This is the step that separates the men form the boys"

I would appreciate any help that anyone might supply on these two

individuals.

Byron Bateman

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++++Message 1955. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Characters in the Twelve Steps and

Twelve Traditions.

From: lee . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/27/2004 6:23:00 PM

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I would say that the tough Irishman was Ryan M. of the Gabriel Heatter

interview fame and the clergyman was Father Dowling, Bill's spiritual sponsor.

A good and entertaining source for a talk on Morgan is a tape that Bill made

on 1954 in San Antonio on the making of the Big Book.

lee

"This is my simple religion.

There is no need for temples;

no need for complicated philosophy.

Our own brain, our own heart is our temple;

the philosophy is kindness."

-Dalai Lama

----- Original Message -----

From: Byron Bateman

To: [e-mail]

Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2004 3:29 AM

Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Characters in the Twelve Steps and Twelve

Traditions.

I have been trying to find the identities of two individuals that Bill W.

wrote about in the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions.

I have always been curious about the identity of the "Tough Irishman"

mentioned on pp.152-153, (Tradition Five) of the 12x12.

Also, the well-loved clergyman referred to on p. 63, (Step Six) of the

12x12, who said; "This is the step that separates the men form the boys"

I would appreciate any help that anyone might supply on these two

individuals.

Byron Bateman

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++++Message 1956. . . . . . . . . . . . Ancient origins of the Serenity Prayer

From: Glenn Chesnut . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/28/2004 12:15:00 PM

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In terms of the ancient background of the Serenity Prayer, the distinction

between "the things we do not have the power to change" and "the things we do

have the power to change" is a fundamental and central part of ancient

Greco-Roman Stoic philosophy. In ancient Greek (in the Stoic literature), it

is called the distinction between ta ouk eph' hemin and ta eph' hemin, that