Day By Day: Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts, Second Edition (Hazelden Meditations)

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Based on the readings from Holy Mass for every day of the month, Our Daily Readings lessons are for both older and younger learners. In addition to the Bible readings from Daily Mass, they include 'Questions for Reflection' which are based upon those Readings. We are gathered together in Thy name.” First, we are gathered together, bound by a common loyalty to God and to each other. Then, when this condition has been fulfilled, God is present with us. Then, when God is there and one with us, we voice a common prayer. Then it follows that our prayer will be answered according to God’s will. Then, when our prayer is answered, we are bound together in a lasting brotherhood of the spirit. The first psychiatrist to recognize the work of Alcoholics Anonymous, Dr. Harry Tiebout, used many concepts of the program in his own practice. Over many years, the doctor’s study of the conversion experience led him to see, first, that it is the act of surrender that initiates the switch from negative to positive; second, that the positive phase is really a state of surrender that follows the act of surrender; and third, that the state of surrender, if maintained, supplies an emotional tone to all thinking and feeling that ensures healthy adjustment. Am I living in a constant state of surrender? Today I Pray Each daily reading lesson includes a study guide, video, script, assessment and answer key as well as a virtual library of supplemental resources. This best-selling app from Hazelden Publishing offers daily thoughts, meditations, and prayers for those in recovery from alcohol and other drugs.

I admitted that I couldn’t win the battle against substance abuse and compulsions on my own. So I finally began to accept the critically important fact that dependence on a Higher Power could help me achieve what had always seemed impossible. I stopped running. I stopped fighting. For the first time, I began accepting. And for the first time, I began to be really free. Do I realize that it doesn’t matter what kind of shoes I’m wearing when I’m running away? Today I Pray Deacon Keith Fournier has been ordained as a Deacon for twenty six years. He and his wife have been married for 46 years. Together they raised five children and have seven grandchildren. The program and my friends in the fellowship have provided me with a whole new set of tools for living. Even the slogans that once seemed so trite and corny are now becoming an important part of my daily life: Easy does it; First things first; This too will pass. If I use all of my tools regularly and well, they’ll also help rid me of such negative feelings as guilt, anxiety, rebellion, and pride. When I’m feeling depressed, do I use the tools that have been proven effective? Or do I grit my teeth and suffer in painful silence? Today I Pray I pray that the bright colors of this day may not be blurred by muted vagaries of the future or dulled by storm-gray remnants from the past. I pray that my Higher Power will help me to choose my actions and concerns out of the wealth of busyness that each day offers. Today I Will Remember Since 1954, the words of Twenty-Four Hours a Day have become a stable force in the recovery of many individuals throughout the world. With more than 6.5 million copies of the text in print, Twenty-Four Hours a Day offers guidance for those living without alcohol or other drugs. Millions rely on these words as a spiritual resource that has practical applications to fit the daily life of those in recovery.

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I pray that I may not be caught up again in the downward, destructive spiral that removed me from myself and from the realities of the world around me. I pray that I may adjust to people and situations as they are instead of always trying, unsuccessfully and with endless frustration, to bend them to my own desires. Today I Will Remember The A.A. way is the way of sobriety, and yet there are slips. Why do these slips occur? Why don’t we all accept A.A. and stay sober from then on? There are many reasons, but it has been proven without exception that once we have become alcoholics we can never drink successfully again. This has never been disproved by any case we know of. Many alcoholics have tried drinking after a period of sobriety from a few days to a few years and no one that we know of has been successful in becoming a normal drinker. Could I be the only exception to this rule? May I learn to control my urge to control, my compulsion to manage, neaten, organize, and label the lives of others. May I learn to accept situations and people as they are instead of as I would like them to be. Thus, may I do away with the ongoing frustrations that a controlling person, by nature, faces continually. May I be entirely ready to have my Higher Power remove this defect of character. Today I Will Remember May my Higher Power grant me the patience to apply those same principles of faith and acceptance that are keys to my recovery to the whole of my emotional being. May I learn to recognize the festering of my own human anger, my hurt, my frustration, my sadness. With the help of my Higher Power, may I find appropriate ways to deal with these feelings without doing harm to myself or others. Today I Will Remember

Daily Readings should be the first class of the day, 5 days a week for students in every grade, in every Catholic School and with every Homeschool family." ~Deacon Keith Fournier

November 29, 2023

I’m beginning to see just how unnatural my old life actually was, and that it became increasingly unnatural as my disease progressed. The longer I’m in recovery, the more natural this new way of life seems. At first, it was impossible for me to extend my hand to a fellow person in recovery; such an act was wholly unnatural for me. But it is becoming increasingly easier for me to reach out to other people in recovery. Sharing my experience, strength, and hope is becoming a natural part of daily living. Have I learned that I can’t keep what I’ve gotten unless I give it away? Will I take the time to share today? Today I Pray Featuring an inspirational thought, meditation, and prayer for each day of the year. Twenty-Four Hours a Day offers you encouragement, support and wisdom to help you continue your path to spiritual and personal growth. Our program is based on the idea that the application of simple principles can produce profound effects in our lives. One such principle is that, if we ask, our Higher Power will care for us. Because this principle is so basic, we may tend to ignore it. Unless we learn to consciously apply this spiritual truth, we may miss out on something as essential to our recovery as breathing is to life itself. Since I came to recovery, I’ve become increasingly aware of the Serenity Prayer. I see it in recovery literature, on the walls of meeting rooms, and in the homes of newfound friends. 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. Do I understand the Serenity Prayer? Do I believe in its power and repeat it often? Is it becoming easier for me to accept the things I cannot change? Today I Pray

May peace fill the place within me that once harbored my despair. May an appreciation for living—even for life’s trials—cancel out my former negative attitudes. During heart-heavy moments, help me remember that my heart was once much heavier still. Today I Will Remember May I really believe that the complete surrender of my whole being to a Higher Power is the way to serenity. My Higher Power alone has the power to make me be and feel whole, so I can only be whole through my Higher Power. May I do away with any feelings of wanting to hold out and never admit defeat. May I unlearn the old adage that tells me I must never give up and realize that such pridefulness could keep me from recovery. Today I Will RememberLet me carry only the weight of twenty-four hours at one time, without the extra bulk of yesterday’s regrets or tomorrow’s anxieties. Let me breathe the blessings of each new day for itself, by itself, and keep my human burdens contained in daily perspective. May I feel the balance of a soul that continues growing more connected to its Higher Power. Today I Will Remember For a good part of my life, I saw things mostly in negative terms. Everything was serious, heavy, or just plain awful. Perhaps now I can truly change my attitude, searching out people in recovery who have learned how to live comfortably in the real world—without numbing their brains with mood-altering substances. If things get rough today, can I take a quiet moment and say to myself, as the philosopher Homer once said, Bear patiently, my heart—for you have suffered heavier things? Today I Pray In the past, and sometimes even now, I automatically have thought "Why me?" when I’m trying to learn that my first problem is to accept my present circumstances as they are, myself as I am, and the people around me as they are. Just as I finally accepted my powerlessness over my addiction, so must I accept my powerlessness over people, places, and things. Am I learning to accept life on life’s terms? Today I Pray It was far easier for me to accept my powerlessness over my addiction than it was for me to accept the notion that some sort of Higher Power could accomplish that which I had been unable to accomplish myself. Simply by seeking help and accepting the fellowship of others similarly afflicted, the craving left me. And I realized that if I was doing what I was powerless alone to do, then surely I was doing so by some Power outside my own and obviously greater. Have I surrendered my life into the hands of my Higher Power? Today I Pray