|
Introduction
Prayer is seeking answers and direction in life. Meditation is listening for answers from a Higher Power and developing the faith within us to accept these answers. Reflection is the study of ways to change the answers we get from prayer and meditation into action.
This second volume of prayers and inspirational readings was written and compiled to assist all Twelve Step Fellowship members with their prayer life and spiritual progress.
Those who are just beginning a life of recovery will find help by working the Eleventh Step. Those who have time in the Program will find a deepening of their spiritual life. Anyone who has trouble finding the "right words" to speak with his or her Higher Power may find exactly what he or she wants to say in one of these prayers.
The suggestion in the Eleventh Step—"sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him"—asks us to improve our prayer and meditation life. May these prayers help you improve your spiritual progress.
This book, as with volume 1 of The 12 Step Prayer Book, is a companion to the meditation book Easy Does It: A Book of Daily Twelve Step Meditations.
Many members have learned, through times of quiet reflection, to work into their recovery life the answers their Higher Power has given them as a result of their active practice of prayer and meditation.
184
I've Found a Reason
Dear God, as long as my life was preoccupied with my own problems, my own unwillingness and dark moods, I was critical, insensitive, rigid, and defiant. But when I honestly faced my defects and failures and the worst was known and surrendered to You, the whole nature of living changed. I am no longer the emotional center of all things and no longer take everything as personal to myself. I've found a reason for all the suffering through which I have passed. It is to be used in understanding and helping others. Out of darkness comes light.
185
Happy, Joyous, and Free
I am sure You want me to be happy, joyous, and free.
With Your help I will no longer believe that life has no meaning and is filled with sorrow.
You, the Twelve Steps, and our Fellowship have shown me I made my own misery. You didn't do it.
I pray I will avoid the deliberate manufacture of misery.
But if trouble comes, I will cheerfully make it an opportunity to demonstrate Your wisdom and power.
Adapted from material in Alcoholics Anonymous, Fourth Edition, page 133
186
Life Is a Gift
Thank you, God. May I remember during periods of depression,
The many times in my life when things do seem right, when I have those moments of clarity,
When I feel there is hope, when the sun shines down on me and warms my face, when Your love warms my heart.
I am reminded that life is a gift . . . this I pray.
187
Thanksgiving Prayer—Native American
Great and Eternal Mystery of Life,
Creator of All Things, I give thanks for
the beauty You put in every single one of
Your creations.
I am grateful that You did not fail in
making every stone, plant, creature, and
human being a perfect and whole part of
the Sacred Hoop.
I am grateful that You have allowed me
to see the strength and beauty of
All My Relations.
My humble request is that all of the
children of Earth will learn to see the
same perfection themselves.
May none of Your human children doubt
or question Your wisdom, grace, and
sense of wholeness in giving all of
Creation a right to be living extensions
of Your perfect love.
188
Where There Is Charity and Wisdom
Where there is charity and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance.
Where there is patience and humility, there is neither anger nor annoyance.
Where there is love and joy, there is neither greed nor selfishness.
Where there is peace and meditation, there is neither anxiety nor doubt.
by St. Francis of Assisi |
