Steps to the Spirit

Send us Fan Mail In this episode I will be talking about what I consider the first of the promises from the first edition of the book, Alcoholics Anonymous . The promises start on page 83. Once again, I consider the following to be the first of the 12 promises: Promise 1: I will be amazed before I am halfway through. As I have said, I am not absolutely sure to what the term, before I am halfway th...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode I would like to continue with a discussion about (what I call) the introduction to the promises. It is the paragraph before, or at the beginning of, the promises, depending on how you like to look at them. The following is the line of which I’m speaking: If I am painstaking about this phase of my development … To begin, I feel a little confused about exactly what p...

Send us Fan Mail I have been looking forward to these upcoming episodes on the Promises. As I have said many times, all of my references to the 12-step program text are from the first edition of Alcoholics Anonymous, (p. 83) . In most of the current list of Promises that you will see throughout the 12-step meeting rooms will have a slightly different version of the 12 promises than that which you...

Send us Fan Mail In this final episode I will talk about last two lines in Reinhold Niebuhr’ s Serenity Prayer. They are below: So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,   And supremely happy with You forever in the next. Amen. So, what do you think about these two lines? For me, they are kind of superfluous. After all in the first line he asks for God to pay him back. It seems to me that th...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode I am making a break in the Serenity Prayer series in order to talk about the events we’ve experienced in the last week. It just so happens that these events emerge perfectly with our series on the Serenity Prayer. I’ve had plenty of opportunities to remember and resort to serenity prayer during our flood.   As some of you know I, and my beautiful child bride, Pat,...

Send us Fan Mail The next three lines in the Serenity Prayer, (I’ve noted them below), are, to me, the definition of step number three in the 12-step program. Not as I would have it,   Trusting that You will make all things right,   If I surrender to Your will, I don’t believe my newfound union and surrender could be described in a better way than this. I am saying in simple and direct terms, “God...

Send us Fan Mail Now that we are in our new season, number 4, episode 1, I will begin by continuing with the Serenity Prayer, as written by Reinhold Niebur. I’ll begin after the prayer says, (in our new version: Wisdom to know the difference ) and the original, which is the one we will be using, ( wisdom to distinguish one from the other ). I have included the remainder of the prayer below: Living...

Send us Fan Mail It’s a New Year tomorrow everyone and we all have a lot to celebrate and look forward to!. It all depends on our point of view! Happy New Year to all all!

Send us Fan Mail I certainly would like to start this episode by wishing you all a Merry Christmas! As I thought of what kind of Christmas message I would like to give in this podcast I found myself in a quandary of sorts. I guess it’s nothing new, but each year all the Santa and gift-giving hoopla seems to be more prominent. I think I’ve decided it may be better to have two separate Christmas hol...

Send us Fan Mail This episode on the serenity prayer is going to be about our wisdom to know the difference between what we can and cannot change. In the original Serenity Prayer, it goes like this: and the Wisdom to distinguish the one from the other . Now, wisdom sounds like a pretty awesome and inspired thing. But when I researched the word wisdom, I discovered that it is very often interchange...

Send us Fan Mail So, here we are, right after me describing to you my idea of prayer, we are asking God to give us courage. I believe, with all my heart, that we receive every single gift, strength, knowledge through the grace of God when we were created. I say this prayer as a reminder of the wonderful things I have been given that are available to me whenever I choose to use them. In this part o...

Send us Fan Mail This episode is going to be a little bit of a diversion from our discussion of the actual Serenity Prayer. At the end of the last episode I went off track a bit. I discovered somewhere in this head of mine, that I wanted to talk to you about my thoughts on prayer and how it is when I pray. When I was receiving my Catholic education there were many prayers. There were prayers in sc...

Send us Fan Mail This is part two of my series on the serenity prayer. In the last episode I wrote about the origins of the serenity prayer. Many folks think it is part of the 12-step program, but of course, it is not, although it is interwoven quite nicely throughout the program. In this episode we will get into the meat of the prayer. I am going to be using the original serenity prayer as writte...

Send us Fan Mail This is part one of a series about the Serenity Prayer. The Serenity Prayer is very well known and popular in all of the variations of 12-step programs. It is not an official part of any of these programs and it was certainly not included in the original publication of the book Alcoholics Anonymous. However, its ideas are  woven into the very fabric of the 12-step program. In this...

Send us Fan Mail Now that we have reached the end of this series of episodes about in the 12 steps in our day-to-day lives, I would like to end with an episode about me and how I think of myself as a citizen of the world. As I’ve said in the episodes on the 12 step, even though we sometimes think of these steps as originating in the program of Alcoholics Anonymous , I do not feel as though they we...

Send us Fan Mail in the first two episodes in which we examined step number 12, I spoke about what I consider to be the first two parts of the 12th step. This third, and final part of both the steps and of this series of episodes, is the perfect ending, or if you will, beginning ! This final phrase of the 12th step is that I practice these principles in all my affairs . What better idea could desc...

Send us Fan Mail In the last episode we spoke about a spiritual experience versus a spiritual awakening as well as the change, really inconsequential, in the 12th step where it says as a result of these steps versus as a result of this course of action . In this episode I will be speaking about the next phrase in the 12th step which says in the original, first edition 12 steps, I tried to carry th...

Send us Fan Mail Step number 12 is, perhaps, the step might think of the most is using in our day-to-day lives. My version of this step comes from the first edition of the book Alcoholics Anonymous . I have taken those steps and changed the wording slightly in order to make them more personal. So, my version of step 12 is as follows: Having had a spiritual experience as the result of this course o...

Send us Fan Mail Hello my friends, I’m so sorry for this interruption in these podcasts episodes four Steps to the Spirit. Today is Thursday, October 12, and I am doing this episode for Sunday, October 15. We would be on  step number 12, however, with the news In Israel this past week, I  feel as though I must do a special episode to address these events. I have been wondering, in the past few yea...

Send us Fan Mail In this second part of step 11 ,… praying only for knowledge of His will for us, and the power to carry that out , there is no question in my mind that the thing phrase, the power to carry that out, is the result of the belief and realization of the power we have in step number two. I would like to speak more about praying only for knowledge of His will for us . The knowledge and...

Send us Fan Mail So, here we are at step number 11. As I was speaking about steps number eight, nine, and ten I kind of realized that there wasn’t a whole lot of application of those steps in my everyday life. Of course, it is important to remember those folks I had harmed, including those new, harmful things I might do today. It is also important, on a daily basis, to try to make amends to those...

Send us Fan Mail Step¶ number 10 could be the poster child for working the steps in my day-to-day life. Of course, this step is an extension of step number four where we began our action steps. Step four was most likely a very cleansing experience if there were two things present. The first was our determination and sincerity in doing this step. This would actually help to satisfy the psychologica...

Send us Fan Mail All of the action steps can certainly be used in our daily routines. Step nine is the last of the action steps. Step nine is: “I made direct amends to such persons wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others”. I hate to admit it but, yes, I am human! During the day, (actually, quite often during the day), I say or do things that might be egocentric, with li...

Send us Fan Mail When I apply step eight to my day-to-day life there is one word that constantly shows itself. That word is awareness . If I try to make a list of all persons I have room, harmed, well, must be aware of who they are. Let’s face it, if I am living and working this 12-step program the way I it is directing me, there should be no persons I am harming on a daily basis. If I am making t...

Send us Fan Mail Steps six and seven are the least likely steps that we will use in our daily living. At the big take-away from these steps are the gifts that accompany them. The gift that accompanies step six is the gift of readiness . It is good for me to remember that as part of my new way of life, I try to be always ready to let go of those old defects of character and shortcomings. The gift t...