FR. LEO'S DAILY MEDITATION #essentialsofrecovery

HELL

The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who, in time of great moral crises, maintain their neutrality.”

~ Dante Alighieri ~

Often, we create a personal hell not by what we perpetrate but by what we allow to happen. Much of the loneliness and isolation addicts and their families experience results from remaining hidden and silent. The pretense that everything is okay is not only untrue but deadly.

Today I choose not to be neutral. I speak about my alcoholism to wage war against the disease that nearly killed me. I speak out about addiction so society cannot say it did not know what was happening. I speak up for treatment and recovery because I know they work in the vast majority of cases. I am not neutral when it comes to addiction because I am fighting for my life.

Give me the courage to speak up in a crowd. Let me live the message I was privileged to receive. 

© 2008 Leo Booth 

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ONE DAY AT A TIME #essentialsofrec #Religion #Hell #Spirituality

RELIGION

Religion is for people who don’t want to go to hell.
Program is for people who have already been there.

~ Unknown ~

I was religious when I came into program and I was ready and willing to tell everyone what the “true” faith was. I went to church every Sunday. I was a religion teacher. I knew it all.

The truth is I didn’t know ANYTHING. It didn’t take long for me to begin to question my own religiosity. In fact, it began at Steps two and three. Before long, I wondered if there was a God at all. If there was, is God a He, a She or an It? Then I decided, yes there was a God, but did He/She/It care about me?

The real truth is God is who God needs to be to work through me. There’s no right or wrong answer to my questions. What I DO know is that God loves me just the way I am.

The greatest gift my Higher Power gave me came on the day I looked up to “heaven” and told God, “I don’t believe in You!” And that still, quiet voice inside of me asked, “Then to Whom are you speaking?”

One Day at a Time . . .

I don’t have to have theological “proof” that there is a Power greater than myself. I just need to believe.

~ Debbie ~

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THE EYE OPENER #essentialsofrec #life #Hell

What exists in the life to come we can leave the theologians, but the actual existence of Heaven and Hell here on earth is indisputable to us who have lived in both.

If most of the Bible thumpers that continually rave about the treats of Hell could know the Hell the poor practicing alcoholic is going through, it would scare them to death.

Published by Hazelden

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FR.LEO'S DAILY MEDITATION #essentialsofrec #Recovery #Hell

HELL

“The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who, in time of great moral crises, maintain their neutrality.”
~ Dante Alighieri ~

Often, we create a personal hell not by what we perpetrate but by what we allow to happen. Much of the loneliness and isolation addicts and their families experience results from remaining hidden and silent. The pretense that everything is okay is not only untrue but deadly.

Today I choose not to be neutral. I speak about my alcoholism to wage war against the disease that nearly killed me. I speak out about addiction so society cannot say it did not know what was happening. I speak up for treatment and recovery because I know they work in the vast majority of cases. I am not neutral when it comes to addiction because I am fighting for my life.

Give me the courage to speak up in a crowd. Let me live the message I was privileged to receive. 

© 2008 Leo Booth

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Or Follow Us On Twitter #essentialsofrec

Keep It Simple #essentialsofrecovery

Hell is not to love anymore.

—George Bernanos

Someone in an AA group said, “From the first day I started this program, I felt like I had died and gone to heaven.” This person had walked into a room full of love. In recovery, we are spiritual people because we believe in love. We have faith in love.

Love is respect. Love is truth with kindness. Love is being willing to forgive and help others.

Love is thinking about how our Higher Power wants us to act. Love is what we do best. We have turned our will and our life over to love.

Prayer for the Day: I pray that I may love all parts of life. Higher Power, help me seek out love, not material things.

Action for the Day: Today, I’ll think about what I love about recovery. I will share this with a couple of friends and my Higher Power.

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THE EYE OPENER #essentialsofrec #Recovery #Hell

  9
December

Remember when they used to tell us, “If you don’t stop drinking you’ll go straight to Hell”? What a laugh that is — trying to tell us about Hell when we had been living in it for years. If we had told them about the Hell we knew, it would probably have scared them into drinking.

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One Day At A Time #essentialsofrec #Courage #Addiction #Success

 25
October  

Courage


“If you’re going through hell, keep going.”

–Winston Churchill

Recovery work takes great courage. Everyone who tells you differently has not explored themselves in great depth.

It takes great courage for many of us to get up each morning to face a day of physical challenge. Others feel the pull of emotions, job, or family issues.

If but for today, reach inside and give yourself a big hug for being willing to hang on one minute longer. That minute will turn into moments, and before you know it, you will have lived out the Program message, “One day at a time.”

One day at a time…
I will honor and celebrate the courage shown in working this program.

~ January K.

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After the Tears #essentialsofrec #Recovery #Hell

  5
October

“My story has a happy ending, but not of the conventional kind. I had a lot more hell to go through. But what a difference there is between going through hell without a power greater than one’s self, and with it! …(M)y teetering tower of worldly success collapsed. My alcoholic associates fired me, took control and ran the enterprise into bankruptcy. My alcoholic wife took up someone else, divorced me and took with her all my remaining property. The most terrible blow of my life befell me after I’d found sobriety through AA. …One night my son, when he was only 16, was suddenly and tragically killed. The Higher Power was on deck to see me through, sober. I think He’s on hand to see my son through, too. I think He’s on hand to see all of us through whatever may come to us.”

 – Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, “They Stopped in Time,” Ch 16 (“Me an Alcoholic?”), p 437.

Today, grant me foresight to know and be prepared for the day when my AA Program is called upon to see me sober through the bad and not only the good. I must accept that bad things are going to happen in my life sober and that AA is not a promise that the bad will not happen. But AA is a promise that I can get through the bad sober if I not only adhere to the Twelve Steps but also trust a Higher Power that is stronger than me. I absolutely must be willing to be open to the idea of a Higher Power, however, even if that Power is the Program itself. On good days, it’s easy to talk the talk of AA; on bad ones, it’s another to walk the walk. Disappointments and even tragedy can be expected to hit me, just as they do the non-alcoholic and non-addicted person. Let me begin today to invest in a Program strong enough that I can draw upon when the good days aren’t so good. And our common journey continues. 

After the tears. – Chris M.

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The Eye Opener #essentialsofrec #Recovery #Hell

  1
April

What exists in the life to come, we can leave to the theologians. But the actual existence of Heaven and Hell here on earth is indisputable to us who have lived in both.

If most of the Bible thumpers that continually rave about the threats of Hell could know the Hell the poor practicing alcoholic is going through, it would scare them to death.

Copyright Hazelden Foundation

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