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Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood [God], praying only for knowledge of [God’s] will for us and the power to carry that out.   —Step 11 of the Twelve Steps    Father Richard connects prayer and meditation to a deepening acceptance of the will of God:   The word prayer, which Bill W. used in Step 11, juxtaposed with the word meditation, is a code word for an entirely different way of processing life. When we “pray,” we are hopefully moving from an egocentric perspective to a soul-centric perspective. It’s th ..read more

A daily examination of consciousness sounds like a very good thing indeed.   —Richard Rohr  Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.   —Step 10 of the Twelve Steps   Richard Rohr names how Step 10 is beneficial when practiced from a contemplative stance:  I must admit: When I first read Step 10, I wanted to say, “OK, come now, let’s get on to something a bit more positive and evolved. This is beginning to feel like an endless examination of conscience and will keep people navel-gazing forever.” I still recognize that as a ..read more

Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. —Step 9 of the Twelve Steps  Richard Rohr invites readers to consider the “skillful means” of making amends:   What Western religions sometimes called “wisdom,” the Eastern religions often called “skillful means.” Wisdom was not merely a heady aphorism, but a practical, best, and effective way to get the job done!   We might say Step 9 tells us how to use skillful means both to protect our own humanity and to liberate the humanity of others. Our amends to others shou ..read more

If you are bringing your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother or sister has anything against you, go first and be reconciled to him or her, and then come back and present your gift. —Matthew 5:23–24  Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.    —Step 8 of the Twelve Steps  Father Richard names the importance of acknowledging wrong and harm, while trusting in the gift of grace:  Despite the higher economy of grace and mercy lived and taught by Jesus, he didn’t entirely throw out the lower economy of ..read more

Humbly asked [God] to remove our shortcomings.   —Step 7 of the Twelve Steps  This week’s meditations continue to explore the wisdom of the Gospels and the Twelve Steps. Father Richard responds to the perennial question, “Why do we pray?”:  If God already knows what we need before we ask, and God actually cares about us more than we care about ourselves, then why do both Step 7 and Jesus say, each in their own way: “Ask, and you will receive. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:7)? Are we trying to talk God into things? Does the group wi ..read more

Sunday  Let me sum up the foundational ways that I believe Jesus and the Twelve Steps of AA are saying the same thing but with different vocabulary: We suffer to get well. We surrender to win. We die to live. We give it away to keep it.   —Richard Rohr  Monday  Radical powerlessness is radical freedom, liberating you from the need to control the ocean of life and freeing you to learn how best to navigate it.  —Rami Shapiro   Tuesday  To finally surrender ourselves to healing, we need to have three spaces opened within us—and all at the same time: o ..read more

Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. —Step 5 of the Twelve Steps  Richard Rohr names accountability and confession as vital in the healing process:  Early Christians were encouraged to participate in the healing power of communal confession: “So confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, and this will cure you” (James 5:16). Step 5 of the Twelve Steps says the same thing. Clearly, some notion of peer accountability and personal responsibility for our mistakes and failures is essential to heal or restore actual hum ..read more

Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. —Step 4 of the Twelve Steps   Father Richard helps us understand that a moral inventory or “shadow work” is a necessary part of the spiritual life:  I am convinced that some people are driven to addictions to quiet their constant inner critic, but it only gives them another thing to hate about themselves. What a vicious cycle! Moral scrutiny is not to discover how good or bad we are and regain some moral high ground, but to begin some honest “shadowboxing” which is at the heart of all spiritual awakening. Yes, “the tru ..read more

Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to God as we understood [God]. —Step 3 of the Twelve Steps  For Father Richard, surrendering our lives to God is the very essence of a spiritual life:   Surrender will always feel like dying, and yet it’s the necessary path to liberation. It takes each of us a long time to just accept—to accept what is; to accept ourselves, others, the past, our own mistakes, and the imperfection and idiosyncrasies of almost everything. Our lack of acceptance reveals our basic resistance to life. Acceptance isn’t our mode nearly as much as agg ..read more