Prayers

Serenity Prayer God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.

Third Step Prayer God, I offer myself to Thee-To build with me and to do with me as Thou wilt. Relieve me of 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. Reprinted with permission by A.A. World Services

Seventh Step Prayer "My creator, I am now willing that you should have all of me, good and bad. I pray that you now remove from me every single defect of character which stands in the way of my usefulness to you and my fellows. Grant me strength, as I go out from here, to do your bidding. Amen." From The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous p. 76

Eleventh Step Prayer (Also Known as Prayer of St. Francis) Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace! That where there is hatred, I may bring love. That where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness. That where there is discord, I may bring harmony. That where there is error, I may bring truth. That where there is doubt, I may bring faith. That where there is despair, I may bring hope. That where there are shadows, I may bring light. That where there is sadness, I may bring joy. Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort, than to be comforted. To understand, than to be understood. To love, than to be loved. For it is by self-forgetting that one finds. It is by forgiving that one is forgiven. It is by dying that one awakens to Eternal Life.

MORNING PRAYER God direct my thinking today so that it may be divorced from self pity, dishonest or self-seeking motives. Adapted from The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous p. 86 A Brief History of the Serenity Prayer Records from Alcoholics Anonymous show that Dr. Reinhold Niebuhr composed this prayer in 1932 as the ending to a longer prayer. In 1934, Dr. Howard Robbins, the Reinhold's friend & neighbour, requested permission to use that portion of the longer prayer in a compilation he was building at the time. It was published that year in Dr. Robbins’ book of prayers. In 1939, it came to the attention of an early A.A. member who liked it so much, he brought it to Bill W., the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. Bill & the staff read the prayer & felt that it particularly suited the needs of AA. Cards were printed & passed around. Thus the simple little prayer became an integral part of the AA movement.

The 3 Legacies

12 Traditions

1.  Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon AA unity.

2.  For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority-- a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.

3.  The only requirement for AA membership is a desire to stop drinking.

4.  Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or AA as a whole.

5.  Each group has but one primary purpose - to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.

6.  An AA group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the AA name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.

7.  Every AA group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.

8.  Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers.

9.  AA, as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.

10.  Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the AA name ought never be drawn into public controversy.

11.  Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films.

12.  Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities. From Alcoholics Anonymous, (pg. 562) with permission of A.A. World Services, Inc. Copyright © 2001 12 Concepts A.A.’s Twelve Steps are principles for personalrecovery. The Twelve Traditions ensure the unity of the Fellowship. Written by co-founder Bill W. in 1962, the Twelve Concepts for World Service provide a group of related principles to help ensure that various elements of A.A.’s service structure remain responsive and responsible to those they serve. The “short form” of the Concepts, which follows, was prepared by the 1974 General Service Conference. I. Final responsibility and ultimate authority for A.A. world services should always reside in the collective conscience of our whole Fellowship. II. The General Service Conference of A.A. has become, for nearly every practical purpose, the active voice and the effective conscience of our whole Society in its world affairs. III. To ensure effective leadership, we should endow each element of A.A.—the Conference, the General Service Board and its service corporations, staffs, committees, and executives—with a traditional “Right of Decision.” IV. At all responsible levels, we ought to maintain a traditional “Right of Participation,” allowing a voting representation in reasonable proportion to the responsibility that each must discharge. V. Throughout our structure, a traditional “Right of Appeal” ought to prevail, so that minority opinion will be heard, and personal grievances receive careful consideration. VI. The Conference recognizes that the chief initiative and active responsibility in most world service matters should be exercised by the trustee members of the Conference acting as the General Service Board. VII. The Charter and Bylaws of the General Service Board are legal instruments, empowering the trustees to manage and conduct world service affairs. The Conference Charter is not a legal document; it relies upon tradition and the A.A. purse for final effectiveness. VIII. The trustees are the principal planners and administrators of overall policy and finance. They have custodial oversight of the separately incorporated and constantly active services, exercising this through their ability to elect all the directors of these entities. IX. Good service leadership at all levels is indispensable for our future functioning and safety. Primary world service leadership, once exercised by the founders, must necessarily be assumed by the trustees. X. Every service responsibility should be matched by an equal service authority, with the scope of such authority well defined. XI. The trustees should always have the best possible committees, corporate service directors, executives, staffs, and consultants. Composition, qualifications, induction procedures, and rights and duties will always be matters of serious concern. XII. The Conference shall observe the spirit of A.A. tradition, taking care that it never becomes the seat of perilous wealth or power; that sufficient operating funds and reserve be its prudent financial principle; that it place none of its members in a position of unqualified authority over others; that it reach all important decisions by discussion, vote, and, whenever possible, by substantial unanimity; that its actions never be personally punitive nor an incitement to public controversy; that it never perform acts of government, and that, like the Society it serves, it will always remain democratic in thought and action.  Reprinted with permission of A.A. World Services, Inc. The 12 Steps of AA We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs. Reprinted from Alcoholics Anonymous, Pages 59 & 60, with permission of A.A. World Services, Inc. Copyright © 1939, 1955, 1976, 2001 12 Traditions Checklist These questions were originally published in the AA Grapevine in conjunction with a series on the Twelve Traditions that began in November 1969 and ran through September 1971. While they were originally intended primarily for individual use, many AA groups have since used them as a basis for wider discussion. Practice These Principles. . . Tradition One: Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon AA unity. 1.      Am I in my group a healing, mending, integrating person, or am I divisive? What about gossip and taking other members’ inventories? 2.      Am I a peacemaker? Or do I, with pious preludes such as “just for the sake of discussion,” plunge into argument? 3.      Am I gentle with those who rub me the wrong way, or am I abrasive? 4.      Do I make competitive AA remarks, such as comparing one group with another or contrasting AA in one place with AA in another? 5.      Do I put down some AA activities as if I were superior for not participating in this or that aspect of AA? 6.      Am I informed about AA as a whole? Do I support, in every way I can, AA as a whole, or just the parts I understand and approve of? 7.      Am I as considerate of AA members as I want them to be of me? 8.      Do I spout platitudes about love while indulging in and secretly justifying behavior that bristles with hostility? 9.      Do I go to enough AA meetings or read enough AA literature to really keep in touch? 10.  Do I share with AA all of me, the bad and the good, accepting as well as giving the help of fellowship? Tradition Two: For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority—a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern. 1.      Do I criticize, or do I trust and support my group officers, AA committees, and office workers? Newcomers? Old-timers? 2.      Am I absolutely trustworthy, even in secret, with AA Twelfth Step jobs or other AA responsibility? 3.      Do I look for credit in my AA jobs? Praise for my AA ideas? 4.      Do I have to save face in group discussion, or can I yield in good spirit to the group conscience and work cheerfully along with it? 5.      Although I have been sober a few years, am I still willing to serve my turn at AA chores? 6.      In group discussions, do I sound off about matters on which I have no experience and little knowledge? Tradition Three: The only requirement for AA membership is a desire to stop drinking. 1.      In my mind, do I prejudge some new AA members as losers? 2.      Is there some kind of alcoholic whom I privately do not want in my AA group? 3.      Do I set myself up as a judge of whether a newcomer is sincere or phony? 4.      Do I let language, religion (or lack of it), race, education, age, or other such things interfere with my carrying the message? 5.      Am I over impressed by a celebrity? By a doctor, a clergyman, an ex-convict? Or can I just treat this new member simply and naturally as one more sick human, like the rest of us? 6.      When someone turns up at AA needing information or help (even if he can’t ask for it aloud), does it really matter to me what he does for a living? Where he lives? What his domestic arrangements are? Whether he had been to AA before? What his other problems are? Tradition Four: Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or AA as a whole. 1.      Do I insist that there are only a few right ways of doing things in AA? 2.      Does my group always consider the welfare of the rest of AA? Of nearby groups? Of Loners in Alaska? Of Internationalists miles from port? Of a group in Rome or El Salvador? 3.      Do I put down other members’ behavior when it is different from mine, or do I learn from it? 4.      Do I always bear in mind that, to those outsiders who know I am in AA, I may to some extent represent our entire beloved Fellowship? 5.      Am I willing to help a newcomer go to any lengths—his lengths, not mine—to stay sober? 6.      Do I share my knowledge of AA tools with other members who may not have heard of them? Tradition Five: Each group has but one primary purpose—to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers. 1.      Do I ever cop out by saying, “I’m not a group, so this or that Tradition doesn’t apply to me”? 2.      Am I willing to explain firmly to a newcomer the limitations of AA help, even if he gets mad at me for not giving him a loan? 3.      Have I today imposed on any AA member for a special favor or consideration simply because I am a fellow alcoholic? 4.      Am I willing to twelfth-step the next newcomer without regard to who or what is in it for me? 5.      Do I help my group in every way I can to fulfill our primary purpose? 6.      Do I remember that AA old-timers, too, can be alcoholics who still suffer? Do I try both to help them and to learn from them? Tradition Six: An AA group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the AA name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose. 1.      Should my fellow group members and I go out and raise money to endow several AA beds in our local hospital? 2.      Is it good for a group to lease a small building? 3.      Are all the officers and members of our local club for AAs familiar with “Guidelines on Clubs” (which is available free from GSO)? 4.      Should the secretary of our group serve on the mayor’s advisory committee on alcoholism? 5.      Some alcoholics will stay around AA only if we have a TV and card room. If this is what is required to carry the message to them, should we have these facilities? Tradition Seven: Every AA group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions. 1.      Honestly now, do I do all I can to help AA (my group, my central office, my GSO) remain self-supporting? Could I put a little more into the basket on behalf of the new guy who can’t afford it yet? How generous was I when tanked in a barroom? 2.      Should the Grapevine sell advertising space to book publishers and drug companies, so it could make a big profit and become a bigger magazine, in full color, at a cheaper price per copy? 3.      If GSO runs short of funds some year, wouldn’t it be okay to let the government subsidize AA groups in hospitals and prisons? 4.      Is it more important to get a big AA collection from a few people, or a smaller collection in which more members participate? 5.      Is a group treasurer’s report unimportant AA business? How does the treasurer feel about it? 6.      How important in my recovery is the feeling of self-respect, rather than the feeling of being always under obligation for charity received? Tradition Eight: Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers. 1.      Is my own behavior accurately described by the Traditions? If not, what needs changing? 2.      When I chafe about any particular Tradition, do I realize how it affects others? 3.      Do I sometimes try to get some reward—even if not money—for my personal AA efforts? 4.      Do I try to sound in AA like an expert on alcoholism? On recovery? On medicine? On sociology? On AA itself? On psychology? On spiritual matters? Or, heaven help me, even on humility? 5.      Do I make an effort to understand what AA employees do? What workers in other alcoholism agencies do? Can I distinguish clearly among them? 6.      In my own AA life, have I any experiences which illustrate the wisdom of this Tradition? 7.      Have I paid enough attention to the book Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions? To the pamphlet AA Tradition—How It Developed? Tradition Nine: AA, as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve. 1.      Do I still try to boss things in AA? 2.      Do I resist formal aspects of AA because I fear them as authoritative? 3.      Am I mature enough to understand and use all elements of the AA program—even if no one makes me do so—with a sense of personal responsibility? 4.      Do I exercise patience and humility in any AA job I take? 5.      Am I aware of all those to whom I am responsible in any AA job? 6.      Why doesn’t every AA group need a constitution and bylaws? 7.      Have I learned to step out of an AA job gracefully—and profit thereby—when the time comes? 8.      What has rotation to do with anonymity? With humility? Tradition Ten: Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the AA name ought never be drawn into public controversy. 1.      Do I ever give the impression that there really is an “AA opinion” on Antabuse? Tranquilizers? Doctors? Psychiatrists? Churches? Hospitals? Jails? Alcohol? The federal or state government? Legalizing marijuana? Vitamins? Al-Anon? Alateen? 2.      Can I honestly share my own personal experience concerning any of those without giving the impression I am stating the “AA opinion”? 3.      What in AA history gave rise to our Tenth Tradition? 4.      Have I had a similar experience in my own AA life? 5.      What would AA be without this Tradition? Where would I be? 6.      Do I breach this or any of its supporting Traditions in subtle, perhaps unconscious, ways? 7.      How can I manifest the spirit of this Tradition in my personal life outside AA? Inside AA? Tradition Eleven: Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films. 1.      Do I sometimes promote AA so fanatically that I make it seem unattractive? 2.      Am I always careful to keep the confidences reposed in me as an AA member? 3.      Am I careful about throwing AA names around—even within the Fellowship? 4.      Am I ashamed of being a recovered, or recovering, alcoholic? 5.      What would AA be like if we were not guided by the ideas in Tradition Eleven? Where would I be? 6.      Is my AA sobriety attractive enough that a sick drunk would want such a quality for himself? Tradition Twelve: Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities. 1.      Why is it good idea for me to place the common welfare of all AA members before individual welfare? What would happen tome if AA as a whole disappeared? 2.      When I do not trust AA’s current servants, who do I wish had the authority to straighten them out? 3.      In my opinions of and remarks about other AAs, am I implying membership requirements other than a desire to stay sober? 4.      Do I ever try to get a certain AA group to conform to mystandards, not its own? 5.      Have I a personal responsibility in helping an AA group fulfill its primary purpose? What is my part? 6.      Does my personal behavior reflect the Sixth Tradition—or belie it? 7.      Do I do all I can do to support AA financially? When is the last time I anonymously gave away a Grapevine subscription? 8.      Do I complain about certain AAs’ behavior—especially if they are paid to work for AA? Who made me so smart? 9.      Do I fulfill all AA responsibilities in such a way as to please privately even my own conscience? Really? 10.  Do my utterances always reflect the Tenth Tradition, or do I give AA critics real ammunition? 11.  Should I keep my AA membership a secret, or reveal it in private conversation when that may help another alcoholic (and therefore me)? Is my brand of AA so attractive that other drunks want it? 12.  What is the real importance of me among more than a million AAs?

12 Promises

Are these extravagant promises? We think not.

1.  We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness.
2.  We will not regret the past, nor wish to shut the door on it.
3.  We will comprehend the word serenity.
4.  We will know peace.
5.  No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others.
6.  That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear.
7.  We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows.
8.  Self-seeking will slip away.
9.  Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change.
10.  Fear of people and economic insecurity will leave us.
11.  We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us.
12. We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.

* From the Book ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS Chapter 6 - "INTO ACTION" (Page 86) *

Letter to Anyone New to A.A.

Dear Friend,

Thank you for your interest in Alcoholics Anonymous. Links on this page are provided to help explain our recovery program and give a general idea of how A.A. works. You will see that the first and most important step in our program is admission by the alcoholic that he or she is powerless over alcohol, and that life has become unmanageable. It is often helpful for the alcoholic to talk with an A.A. member, because it may make it easier to understand the nature of the illness, and to accept A.A. help. 
Alcoholics Anonymous is a program of a new way of life without alcohol, a program that is working successfully for millions of men and women throughout the world, and in all walks of life. The experience of A.A. members is that alcoholism is a progressive illness that cannot be cured, but which, like some other illnesses, can be arrested by staying away from the first drink, one day at a time. 
We would encourage you to get in touch with the nearest A.A. Central Office or Intergroup to get further information on Alcoholics Anonymous, speak to an A.A. member or find local A.A. meetings. Many of these offices have web sites and email. 
A.A. members, as volunteers, are happy to offer help by sharing their experience, strength and hope in staying sober. One of the ways members stay sober is by helping other alcoholics to achieve sobriety.

Best wishes, General Service Office