Twelve Steps for Catholics ~ part 21

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The Twelve Steps

are for

Everyone

More

on

Step Eleven

"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."

Continuation of the chapter on Step Eleven from Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

This chapter so far has covered the necessity of prayer and meditation with some simple helpful hints on how to meditate. The focus has been on the Peace Prayer of St. Francis being used as an aid to meditation.

First part of chapter
Second part of chapter
Third part of chapter

Fourth part of chapter

Emphasis mine. My comments in red

This much could be a fragment of what is called meditation, perhaps our very first attempt at a mood, a flier into the realm of spirit, if you like. It ought to be followed by a good look at where we stand now, and a further look at what might happen in our lives were we ale to move closer to the ideal we have been trying to glimpse. Meditation is something which can always be further developed. It has no boundaries, either of width or height. Aided by such instruction and example as we can find, it is essentially an individual adventure, something which each one of us works out in his own way. But its object is always the same: to improve our conscious contact with God, with His grace, wisdom, and love. And let's always remember that meditation is in reality intensely practical. One of its first fruits is emotional balance. With it we can broaden and deepen the channel between ourselves and God as we understand Him.

Now, what of prayer? Prayer is the raising of the heart and mind to G0d - and in this sense it includes meditation. How may we go about it? And how does it fit in with meditation? Prayer, as commonly understood, is a petition to God. The Catechism of the Catholic Church lists four different types of prayer. Prayer of petition is one and the others are: Blessing and Adoration, Intercession, Thanksgiving and Praise. Having opened our channel as best we can, we try to ask for those right things of which we and others are in the greatest need. And we think that the whole range of our needs is well defined by that part of Step Eleven which says: "...knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out." A request for this fits in any part of our day.

In the morning we think of the hours to come. Perhaps we think of our day's work and the chances it may afford us to be useful and helpful, or of some special problem that it may bring. Possibly today will see a continuation of a serious and as yet unresolved problem left over from yesterday. Our immediate temptation will be to ask for specific solutions to specific problems, and for the ability to help other people as we have already thought they should be helped. In that case, we are asking God to do it our way. Therefore, we ought to consider each request carefully to see what its real merit is. Even so, when making specific requests, it will be well to add to each one of them this qualification:"...if it be Thy will." We ask simply that throughout the day God place in us the best understanding of His will that we can have for that day, and that we be given the grace by which we may carry it out.

As the day goes on, we can pause where situations must be met and decisions made, and renew the simple request: "Thy will, not mine, be done." If at these points our emotional disturbance happens to be great, we will more surely keep our balance, provided we remember, and repeat to ourselves, a particular prayer or phrase that has appealed to us in our reading or meditation. Just saying it over and over will often enable us to clear a channel choked up with anger, fear, frustration, or misunderstanding, and permit us to return to the surest help of all - our search for God's will, not our own, in the moment of stress. At these critical moments, if we remind ourselves that "it is better to comfort than to be comforted, to understand than to be understood, to love than to be loved," we will be following the intent of Step Eleven.

I think the help of a good spiritual advisor is important. Your first choice should be your pastor or some other orthodox religious. Too often though, these resources are not available to us. Do not overlook the help of a pious friend who is willing to help you seek clarity. Far too often I hear people saying things such as, "God wants me to do such and such", or "This is God's will for me", with no consultation with someone who is willing to say, "What makes you so sure?"

Most of us do some form of this every time we sit and listen to our friends tell us their problems and we gently guide them in the right direction. Sometimes the guidance is not too gentle depending on the person we are dealing with, of course. I am prone to not suffer whining and self-serving excuses too well and have been known to call stupid thinking, well, stupid.

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In fact, I told Congress thanks, but no thanks, on that "bridge to nowhere." If our state wanted a bridge, I said, we'd build it ourselves. * * Sarah Palin





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Jet That Helped Defeat an Alaska Governor Is Sold

N.Y Times

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the waiting h/t to the heelers

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Wisdom of Bill W.

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"A.A. is no success story in the ordinary sense of the word. It is a story of suffering transmuted, under grace, into spiritual progress."

Bill W. from a letter, 1959
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Oprah just said that Obama’s speech was “transcendent” (I kid you not), and it was the “most amazing moment of my life.” Look out Eckhart Tolle. You're being dumped for the Obamanation.
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Recent comment from Tom in Vegas:

Ah, yes, Ogre Winfrey. Truly an amazing source of wisdom and philosophical understanding of human existence. By golly, if Oprah said Obama's speech was transcendent then you know it has to be true, otherwise why would she say it?? You see, a lot of people who dislike Oprah do so because their chakras are clogged with spiritual sewage. If we open ourselves and reveal the love and empathy of our inner goddess, not only will that act as "Liquid Drano" for the chakras but it will also reveal the wisdom of Oprah, and, for that matter Obama, to those unfortunate souls who cannot see it.

Also, having the right herbal blends helps out tremendously. And I strongly recommend a half hour to forty-five minutes of Yanni in the mornings, and crystal therapy in the evenings.I’ll be teaching a coarse on shamanism at the Oprah Winfrey’s Leadership Academy for Girls next month. The first lecture will focus on understanding the differences between a spiritual impulse and gas.


Tom - ROFLMAO
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OMGosh!

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What a Week!

~ ~ McCain/Palin 2008 ~ ~

and

another

award

Therese at Aussie Coffee Shop has given me this brightly colored Super Commenter.

Now I must pass this on to seven worthy people who must also pass it on to seven (or number of choice - my addition to the rules) worthy folk.

1. The first goes to Karen (Gemmie) at Gem of the Ocean. This gal is as loyal as they come. Luv ya, Karen
2. Tom in Vegas, my precious cyber-nephew, is always here for me. He hangs out at thatrallylongandhardtospellblog Science, Religion, and Miscellaneous Babble. It's not you Tom - it's me. Those are three words I have a horrible time spelling (yes, even sciene)
3. Phillip at Ponte Sisto deserves this award just for being so darn cute.......just saying
4. This one is for Paul at Sober Catholic. Great blog for everyone, not just us drunks
5. Elizabeth at A Catholic Mom Climbing the Pillars definitely deserves this award
6. Karen at Some Have Hats is a pleasure to read and I am a huge fan. So here's one for you, Karen.
7. And the last award will have to go to My Lord and Savior for being the number one commenter - ever.

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OMGosh, OMGosh, OMGosh

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McCain/Palin 2008

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A New Award

It's been just forever since anyone has given me an award. I saw this one floating around and in my usual mature fashion have been sitting in the corner crying, sucking my thumb, and twirling my hair because no one gave me one. I need more than the usual amount of attention, either good or bad, in order to maintain my equilibrium. Well, God heard my voice whining out in the wilderness and sent me not one, but two people to give me this wonderful award.

Roses and Jessamine awarded me with the Blogging Friends Forever Gold Card. Even though Roses and Jessamine sounds like two people it is only one dear girl in Sussex, UK. Go visit her but be forewarned. If during your visit you think your computer has contracted a fatal disease and is about to blow up (which I did), it is only Mint Sauce, her pet lamb you are hearing. If you are really bored today you can scroll down and play with Mint.

And, the very next day to my utter joy, my cyber-nephew (who just had a birthday and is now almost as old as me) Tom in Vegas of Science, Religion, and Miscellaneous Babble (otherwise known as the reallylongandalmostimpossibletospellblogname) gave me another Gold Card. I am truly blessed!

Now I must pass this wonderful award on to five wonderful friends.

The Blogging Friends Forever Rules are:

1. Only five people allowed. (That about wipes out my visitor log)

2. Four have to be dedicated followers of your blog. (Hmmmmmm)

3. One has to be someone new, or recently new to your blog, or live in another part of the world.

4. You must link back to whoever gave you the 'Blogging Friends Forever' award.


So here goes:

1. The first award is to welcome back our vacationing "Cranky Cathy" at the Recovering Dissident Catholic. Her time away resting and playing (can you say rehab, wink, wink) has mellowed her. Her post yesterday and today concerning Nancy Pelosi is wonderful.

2. Catholicandgop over at Faith and Country has earned an award for actually commenting on some of the inane things I've said.

3. Kirk my friend at Practicing God's Presence deserves an award, not only for being a very special on-line friend, but also for being such a great cook and sharing pictures of his goodies.

4. "Robert Kumpel" over at St. John's Valdosta is probably not a dedicated reader but he should be. Since I am a rather dedicated follower of his, I figure it's ok. Not a day goes by that I don't regale my husband with something Robert posts.

5. And finally to my neighboring blogger, Mark in Spokane at Libertas et Memoria, who happens to be named Mark (what a coincidence) goes the final award. Mark is new to blogging and hasn't been blessed with an award or bothered by a meme yet. It's time he faced the real challenges of blogging. Mark, it's not about being intelligent, clever, or even getting your commas in the right place. It's really about dealing with a barrage of peripheral stuff.

Mark is an attorney and I promised to hook him up with a few other "legal eagles." Mark - visit Digi at Digital Hairshirt ,who happens to be one of the best writers in the blogosphere. Digi is funny, smart, and always entertaining. Kit over at By the Brook is also in the law business and would love to meet you, Mark.

Update: Wonderful ebeth over at a Catholic Mom Climbing the Pillars gave me this award, too. I love this lady!!!
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A thing is not necessarily true because badly uttered, nor false because spoken magnificently. St. Augustine

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From the comment box:

We’d be very glad if you could post about the new blog, also based in Co. Kildare, and link to it - St. Conleth's Catholic Heritage Association . In particular, we’d be glad if you could bring to the attention of your readers the news that there will be a Traditional Latin Mass for the Holy Year of St. Paul in St. Paul’s Church, Emo, Co. Laois, Ireland, on Saturday, 30th August, 2008, for which the Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin has granted, under the usual conditions, the Plenary Indulgence for the Pauline Holy Year.

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Irish Poet

I found the following on The Heelers Diaries. James Healy (heelers) lives in Kilcullen, County Kildare, Ireland , and calls himself "the greatest living poet in Ireland." I'll have to take his word for that since I don't know all the poets in Ireland. Actually, I don't know any poets in Ireland. Take some time to visit the world according to James - you won't be disappointed.
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"You are the only power I recognise in the universe," I said. "I am not afraid of anything else that pretends it's a power. I am not afraid of Arab Muslim terrorists. I am not afraid of the Irish government. I am not afraid of corrupt police officers. I am not afraid of street thugs. I am not afraid of the future. I am not afraid of having no money. I am not afraid of getting old. I am not afraid of my own mind. I am not afraid of unemployment. I am not afraid of any memory. I am not afraid of any disease. I am not afraid of the Freemasons. I am not afraid of the dark. I am not afraid of Satan. I am not afraid of the Johnston Press... Your Lordship Jesus is the only thing I recognise and the only thing I care about. Losing you Lord Jesus is the only thing I fear and I cannot fear even that because I trust completely in your love."
Reprinted with permission from the Heelers Diaries
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After reading this great meditation take time to read what an Irish citizen thinks of Obama, President Bush, and the Muslims.
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Bill Clinton is giving his speech to the DNC on the feast day of St. Monica. Who says God doesn't have a sense of humor!

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Twelve Steps for Catholics ~ part 20

Step Eleven

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."

Continuation of the chapter on Step Eleven from
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

First part of chapter

Second part of chapter

Third part of chapter

Emphasis mine. My comments in red

As beginners in meditation, we might now reread this prayer (prayer of St. Francis/see previous post) several times very slowly, savoring every word and trying to take in the deep meaning of each phrase and idea. It will help if we can drop all resistance to what our friend says. For in meditation, debate has no place. We rest quietly with the thoughts of someone who knows, so that we may experience and learn.

As though lying upon a sunlit beach, let us relax and breathe deeply of the spiritual atmosphere with which the grace of this prayer surrounds us. Let us become willing to partake and be strengthened and lifted up by the sheer spiritual power, beauty, and love of which these magnificent words are the carriers. Let us look now upon the sea and ponder what its mystery is; and let us lift our eyes to the far horizon, beyond which we shall seek all those wonders still unseen.

"Shucks!" says somebody. "This is nonsense. It isn't practical."

When such thoughts break in, we might recall, a little ruefully, how much store we used to set by imagination as it tried to create reality out of bottles. Yes, we reveled in that sort of thinking, didn't we? I spent 30 years of my life living in the alcoholic haze of my imagination. It was not very constructive. And though sober nowadays, don't we often try to do much the same thing? Well, sure. It's what I call my "drunk" days. Perhaps our trouble was not that we used our imagination. Perhaps the real trouble was our almost total inability to point imagination toward the right objectives. There's nothing the matter with constructive imagination; all sound achievement rests upon it. After all, no man can build a house until he first envisions a plan for it. Well, meditation is like that , too; it helps to envision our spiritual objective before we try to move toward it. So let's get back to that sunlit beach - or to the plains or to the mountains, if you prefer.

When, by such simple devices, we have placed ourselves in a mood in which we can focus undisturbed on constructive imagination, we might proceed like this:

Once more we read our prayer, and again try to see what its inner essence is. We'll think now about the man who first uttered the prayer. First of all, he wanted to become a "channel." Then he asked for the grace to bring love, forgiveness, harmony, truth, faith, hope, light, and joy to every human being he could.

Next came the expression of an aspiration and a hope for himself. He hoped, God willing, that he might be able to find some of these treasures, too. This he would try to do by what he called self-forgetting. What did he mean by "self-forgetting," and how did he propose to accomplish that?

He thought it better to give comfort than to receive it; better to understand than to be understood; better to forgive than to be forgiven.

I am disturbed and upset by the recent statements made by some of our leading politicians. In particular, those that call themselves Catholic make me the saddest. But it also saddens me to see journalists, bloggers, and political commentators lower themselves to write with a degree of ugliness and anger that takes my breath away. I doubt this is the channel St. Francis had in mind when he wrote his prayer.

I'm just as guilty and am quite capable of whiling away many an hour at the dining room table ripping into any and everybody that doesn't meet my expectations. As an alcoholic I am well aware of the dangers of this wallowing in anger. I love the old saying that to harbor anger and resentments is like taking poison and waiting for the other guy to die. Little by little we die inside and block the grace of God when we persist in this attitude.

Now, more than ever, we need to pray for our politicians, bishops, priests, and ourselves.

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Wisdom of Bill W.

The Step
that
Keeps us Growing

Sometimes, when friends tell us how well we are doing. we know better inside. We know we aren't doing well enough. We still can't handle life, as life is. There must be a serious flaw somewhere in our spiritual practice and development.

What, then, is it?

The chances are better than even that we shall locate our trouble in our misunderstanding or neglect of A.A. Step Eleven - prayer, meditation, and the guidance of God.

The other Steps can keep most of us sober and somehow functioning. But Step Eleven can keep us growing, if we try hard and work at it continually.

Bill W.

Grapevine Magazine, June 1958

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I would have to say that I am sober and somewhat functioning. More prayer needed!

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Wisdom of Bill W.

Results

of

Prayer

As the doubter tries the process of prayer, he should begin to add up the results. If he persists he will almost surely find more serenity, more tolerance, less fear, and less anger. He will acquire a quiet courage, the kind that isn't tension-ridden. He can look at "failure" and "success" for what these really are. Problems and calamity will begin to mean his instruction, instead of his destruction. He will feel freer and saner.

The idea that he may have been hypnotizing himself by autosuggestion will become laughable. His sense of purpose and of direction will increase. His anxieties will commence to fade. His physical health will be likely to improve. Wonderful and unaccountable things will start to happen. Twisted relations in his family and on the outside will improve surprisingly.

Bill W. (co-founder A.A.)

Grapevine Magazine, 1958

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Twelve Steps for Catholics ~ part 19

Step Eleven

Continuation of the chapter on Step Eleven from

Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Emphasis mine. My comments in red

"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."

First part of chapter

Second part of chapter

As we have seen, self-searching is the means by which we bring new vision, action, and grace to bear upon the dark and negative side of our natures. It is a step in the development of that kind of humility that makes it possible for us to receive God's help. Yet it is only a step. We will want to go further. Ah yes, here's that old humility rearing its head again. Thy will, not mine.

We will want the good that is in us all, even in the worst of us, to flower and to grow. Most certainly we shall need bracing air and an abundance of food. But first of all we shall want sunlight; nothing much can grow in the dark. Meditation is our step out into the sun. How, then, shall we meditate? The authors are referring to Christian meditation. It is a way to listen to God. Meditation that calls for you to "empty yourselves" is not Christian. At the time this was written Eastern meditation and its offshoots had not really entered the mainstream of our society.

The actual experience of meditation and prayer across the centuries is, of course, immense. The world's libraries and places of worship are a treasure trove for all seekers. It is to be hoped that every A.A. who has a religious connection which emphasizes meditation will return to the practice of that devotion as never before. But what about the rest of us who, don't even know how to begin?

Well, we might start like this. First let's look at a really good prayer. We won't have far to seek; the great men and women of all religions have left us a wonderful supply. Here let us consider one that is a classic.

Its author was a man who for several hundred years now has been rated as a saint. We won't be biased or scared off by that fact, because although he was not an alcoholic he did, like us, go through the emotional wringer. And as he came out the other side of that painful experience, this prayer was his expression of what he could then see, feel, and wish to become:

"Lord make me a channel 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. Amen

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~~ It's Tom's Birthday ~~

Tom in Vegas (my cyber-nephew) is having a birthday today. Go and wish him a wonderful one and have a glass of champagne on me.

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Happy Birthday Tom

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Circle of Life

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R.I.P.

Little Birdie

August 24, 2008

Birdie was unable to overcome his injuries and quietly passed away last night. He is in a better place where birdies are 2 feet long instead of 2 inches, and the cats are 2 inches instead of 2 feet.

We are happy to have made his final hours comfortable and safe.

His final resting place is under one of our beautiful willows in an area under renovation.




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Ending the Circle of Life

Erica in her Cat Bib

Purple is the color of royalty

Circle of Life

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Look what Erica spit out in the barn......

To put it in perspective the dish is about 3" in diameter. Birdie thinks it's a bird bath.

and Erica is back in her Cat Bib............
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Twelve Steps for Catholics ~ part 18

Step Eleven

Continuation of the Step Eleven chapter in Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. My emphasis in bold and my comments in red. First part of chapter in preceding post.

Sometimes we took a slightly different tack. Sure, we said to ourselves, the hen probably did come before the egg. No doubt the universe had a “first cause” of some sort, the God of the Atom, maybe, hot and cold by turns. But certainly there wasn’t any evidence for a God who knew or cared about human beings. We liked A.A, all right, and were quick to say that it had done miracles. But we recoiled from meditation and prayer as obstinately as the scientist who refused to perform a certain experiment lest it prove his pet theory wrong. Of course we finally did experiment, and when unexpected results followed, we felt different; in fact we knew different; and so we were sold on meditation and prayer. And that, we have found, can happen to anybody who tries. It has been well said that “almost the only scoffers at prayer are those who never tried it enough.” It’s the “try it, you’ll like it” ploy.

Those of us who have come to make regular use of prayer would no more do without it than we would refuse air, food, or sunshine. And for the same reason. When we refuse air, light, or food, the body suffers. And when we turn away from meditation and prayer, we likewise deprive our minds, our emotions, and our intuitions of vitally needed support. As the body can fail its purpose for lack of nourishment, so can the soul. We all need the light of God’s reality, the nourishment of His strength, and the atmosphere of His grace. To an amazing extent the facts of A.A. life confirm this ageless truth.

There is a direct linkage among self-examination, meditation, and prayer. Taken separately, these practices can bring much relief and benefit. But when they are logically related and interwoven, the result is an unshakable foundation for life. Now and then we may be granted a glimpse of that ultimate reality which is God’s kingdom. And we will be comforted and assured that our own destiny in that realm will be secure for so long as we try, however falteringly, to find and do the will of our own Creator.

This entire chapter reminds me of my car selling days. Earlier in the chapter the authors very briefly sympathize with the agnostic. Then they just ignore the first objection which is rarely the real objection, and proceed to sell the benefits. Brilliant approach.

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From the Writings

of

Saint Rose of Lima

Feast Day Celebrated August 23

"If only mortals would learn how great it is to possess divine grace, how beautiful, how noble, how precious. How many riches it hides within itself, how many joys and delights! No one would complain about his cross or about troubles that may happen to him, if he would come to know the scales on which they are weighed when they are distributed to men."

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Twelve Steps for Catholics ~ part 17

Step Eleven

"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."

Preparing to write about Step Eleven had me re-reading the pertinent chapter in Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, a book first published in 1952 to help clarify the Steps of A.A. As we grow and change, we can read something familiar and still see completely new concepts and receive all sorts of new insights. It has been over two years since I read this chapter and I was so taken aback at the wisdom I was left speechless. It is rare for an Italian woman to be left "speechless" – a condition that usually occurs at the time of death (and I’m not even convinced death would slow our mouths down one teeny tiny bit.)

I consider myself somewhat of an expert on books written about prayer. My problem is I have a tendency to read books about prayer rather than just pray. It is one of the classic symptoms of a procrastinator. We have to make sure all proper information is gathered so we can embark on our task without fear of failure.

Procrastinators also compare ourselves with anyone and everybody. And we usually come out at the bottom of the heap. So it with no great surprise that as I am reading this chapter my little inner voice was chanting, “What could you possibly say that would be better than this?” And you know what? For once my inner voice was right. I can’t say it any better.

Since many of my readers are not alcoholics and would not be likely to have a copy of this book handy, I have decided to treat all of you to the complete chapter on Step Eleven. This will be like the old days of serial movies on Saturday afternoon. I will give you a few paragraphs each day to reflect on and hopefully put into action in your own lives. If I decide to drop in my two cents worth, which is about all it will be worth, my comments will be in red. Enjoy.

Remember: The Twelve Steps are for Everyone!

Step Eleven
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, page 96

Prayer and Meditation are our principal means of conscious contact with God.

We A.A.’s are active folk, enjoying the satisfactions of dealing with the realities of life, usually for the first time in our lives, and strenuously trying to help the next alcoholic who comes along. So it isn’t surprising that we often tend to slight serous meditation and prayer as something not necessary. To be sure, we feel it is something that might help us to meet an occasional emergency, but at first many of us are apt to regard it as a somewhat mysterious skill of clergyman, from which we may hope to get a secondhand benefit. Or perhaps we don’t believe in these things at all.

To certain newcomers and to those one-time agnostics who still cling to the A.A. group as their higher power, claims for the power of prayer may, despite all the logic and experience in proof of it, still be unconvincing or quite objectionable. Remember I told you one of the goals of A.A. was to lead people to God? Watch how gently this is done as this chapter unfolds. Those of us who once felt this way can certainly understand and sympathize. We well remember how something deep inside us kept rebelling against the idea of bowing before any God. Many of us had strong logic, too, which “proved” there was no God whatever. What about all the accidents, sickness, cruelty, and injustice in the world? What about all those unhappy lives which were the direct result of unfortunate birth and uncontrollable circumstances? Surely there could be no justice in this scheme of things, and therefore no God at all.

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New Blogger

on the

Block

Take time to visit a brand new blogger. Rosario can be found at Crown of Thorns. Crown of Glory. This young lady is wise way beyond her years. Stop by and say hello and make her feel welcome.

Also new and waiting for you to stop by is Mark in Spokane. Mark is an attorney and we will forgive him for that 'cause he's a really neat guy. His blog Libertas et Memoria, to quote him, is "a blog on law, politics, faith and culture from the capital of the Inland Northwest." What makes me particularly happy is to have a blogger so close to home. It seems like most my blogger buddies are in Ohio or Minnesota.


Patrick Archbold over at Creative Minority Report has started up his screenplay writing with a bang. Stop over and read The Ineffables - Scene One. I can't wait for Scene Two.

Avon Calling

So guess who called and left a message? No, it wasn't the Holy Father, although he might call later. It was Ebeth over at A Catholic Mom Climbing the Pillars. Even my husband, who is not a huge fan of blogging, looked at me and said, "a blogger comes to life, cool!" I haven't had a chance to call her back yet, but I've had the message playing on continuous loop for the entire morning just to hear her cute accent.

Elizabeth (ebeth) is my new Avon lady. I'm into saving time and money and ordering on-line is a great way to do this. Avon, the largest cosmetics and skin care company, has some really fine products available. And guys, it's just not for ladies. Allow me to introduce you to some things I have purchased in the past few weeks that I think are exceptional products.

I just started using the Anew Clinical Deep Crease Concentrate and I am beyond impressed. Since I tend to knit my brows when I am in deep thought (about once per year), I had developed two little lines. In just a few days of using this stuff the lines are all but gone. Now if it would just make my hips disappear life would be really good.

For all you cold weather types (including you guys who are reading), Dew Kiss is the best lip balm I have ever used. EVER! And you can't beat the price. It's not waxy, shiny, or smelly.

And ladies, if you're as outraged by the price of lip liners as I am you can't beat the Glimmer Sticks. They're on sale right now for $2.99 - yep, ya heard me, $2.99 for a lip liner that winds up and down - no sharpening needed! Be still my beating heart.

Stop over and visit ebeth. She has an Avon link on her sidebar. Or, for those of you in a hurry here's her Avon home page. Shop the catalog, place your order and for a mere $3.00 UPS will bring it to you. And maybe Ebeth will call you, too!

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Really Big News

(no, I'm not pregnant)

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It's raining...

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I can brain again!!

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Back later with some more of my brilliant observations about something or another.

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From Roses and Jessamine

"Things without all remedy should be without regard; what's done is done."- Macbeth III:ii

And from Gemmie (Karen, Gem of the Ocean)

"Our revels now are ended.
These our actors,
As I foretold you,
were all spirits,
and Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind.
We are such stuff
As dreams are made on;
and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.

--Prospero, Act IV, scene i"

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Don't you just love Shakespeare??

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Set a few records today. Hit 102 but it will be cool soon....

moar funny pictures

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,

To the last syllable of recorded time;

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death.

Out, out, brief candle!

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,

And then is heard no more.

It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.

Macbeth Act 5, Scene 5,, 19-28

Some of us have more trouble with tomorrow than others.......

From starving stray

to member of a family......

Twelve Steps for Catholics ~ part 16

Steps Eleven

and

Twelve

Step Eleven: 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.

Step Twelve: 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.

"In the first six months of my own sobriety, I worked hard with many alcoholics. Not a one responded. Yet this work kept me sober. It wasn't a question of those alcoholics giving me anything. My stability came out of trying to give, not out of demanding that I receive." Bill W. Grapevine Magazine 1958

Tomorrow I will go into more detail on these steps and how it corresponds so closely with Catholic teachings. After Steps 11 and 12 I will be spending time on the movement loosely referred to as "New Age". I'll be looking at the some of the history and the spreading of this type of thinking and how it is affecting our church today. As always, I will try to be simple and straight forward.

Catholic Carnival

Catholic Carnival is up and running. Jay at Living Catholicism is hosting this week. It's based on Humane Vitae so it's a must see. I have a permanent link box on my sidebar that updates automatically each week showing the current Catholic Carnival and the upcoming one. Pretty cool how this technology stuff works.

Newsflash:

from the 11:00 pm local news............


"People in Spokane who leave their garage doors open are leaving themselves vulnerable to criminals with questionable morals."

Huh??

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Father Ed Dowling

and

AA's Bill W.

by Robert Fitzgerald, S.J

Bill Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, was down. His feet hung over the end of the bed that nearly filled the small room he and his wife, Lois, had rented above the 24th Street AA Club in New York. It was a cold, rainy November in 1940. Lois, who supported them both with a job at a department store, was out. Bill was wondering whether the stomach pain he was feeling was an ulcer.

The walls were closing in. Thousands of copies of the Big Book were waiting in a warehouse, unsold. A few people were sober, but Bill was frustrated. How could he reach all who wanted help? Nine months earlier, a gathering of rich New Yorkers had come and gone with applause for the young movement, but no money. Hank P., after complaining for half a year, finally got drunk in April. Rollie H., a nationally famous ball-player, sobered up but broke AA's policy of anonymity by calling the press for a full name-and-photograph story.

Eventually, Bill fell into the same trap as Rollie; he began calling reporters, too, wherever he gave talks. Now he was becoming the center of attention. He had just returned from Baltimore, where a minister had asked him to face the self-pity in his own talk. He was depressed. What if he -- five years sober -- were to drink?

It was 10 p.m. The doorbell rang. Tom, the Club's maintenance man, said there was "some bum from St. Louis" to see him. Reluctantly, Bill said, "Send him up." To himself, he muttered, "Not another drunk. "

But Bill welcomed the stranger, all the same. As the man shuffled to a wooden chair opposite the bed and sat down, his black raincoat fell open, revealing a Roman collar.

"I'm Father Ed Dowling from St. Louis," he said. "A Jesuit friend and I have been struck by the similarity of the AA twelve steps and the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius."
"Never heard of them."
Father Ed laughed. This endeared him to Bill.

Robert Thomsen tells the rest of the story this way in his book, Bill W.:

"The curious little man went on and on, and as he did, Bill could feel his body relaxing, his spirits rising. Gradually he realized that this man sitting across from him was radiating a kind of grace...
Primarily, Father Ed wanted to talk about the paradox of AA, the 'regeneration,' he called it, the strength arising out of defeat and weakness, the loss of one's old life as a condition for achieving a new one. And Bill agreed with everything..."

Soon Bill was talking about all the steps and taking his fifth step (telling the exact nature of his wrongs) with this priest who had limped in from a storm. He told Father Ed about his anger, his impatience, his mounting dissatisfactions. "Blessed are they," Father Ed said, "who hunger and thirst."

When Bill asked whether there was ever to be any satisfaction, the priest snapped, "Never. Never any." Bill would have to keep on reaching. In time, his reaching would find God's goals, hidden in his own heart. Thomsen continues:

"Bill had made a decision, Father Ed reminded him, to turn his life and his will over to God ... he was not to sit in judgment on how he or the world was proceeding. He had only to keep the channels open ... it was not up to him to decide how fast or how slowly AA developed ... For whether the two of them liked it or not, the world was undoubtedly proceeding as it should, in God's good time."

Father Ed continued quoting Bill's work to him. No one had been able to maintain perfect adherence to the principles. None were saints. They claimed spiritual progress, not spiritual perfection.

Before Father Ed left, he pulled his body up, and leaning on his cane he thrust his head forward and looked straight into Bill's eyes. There was a force in Bill, he said, that was all his own. It had never been on this earth before, and if Bill did anything to mar it or block it, it would never exist anywhere again. That night, for the first time in months, Bill Wilson slept soundly.

Thus began a 20-year friendship nourished by visits, phone calls, and letters. Both men spoke the language of the HEART, learned through suffering: Bill from alcoholism, Father Ed from arthritis that was turning his back to stone.

Bill turned to Father Ed as a spiritual sponsor, a friend. Father Ed, in a letter to his provincial, noted that he saw his own gift for AA as a "very free use of the Ignatian Rules for the Discernment of Spirits for the second week of the Spiritual Exercise."

Thus Father Ed endorsed AA for American Catholics with his appendix in the Big Book and his Queen's Work pamphlet of 1947. He was the first to see wider applications of the twelve steps to other addictions, and wrote about that in Grapevine (AA's magazine) in the spring 1960 issue. Bill added a last line to that Grapevine article: "Father Ed, an early and wonderful friend of AA, died as this last message went to press. He was the greatest and most gentle soul to walk this planet. I was closer to him than to any other human being on earth."

For his part, Father Ed counted many gifts from Bill. He had told his sister, Anna, that the graces he received from their meeting were equivalent to those received at his own ordination. And he thanked Bill for letting him "hitchhike" on the twelve steps. In 1942 he wrote to Bill that he had started a national movement for married couples to help each other through the twelve steps: CANA (Couples Are Not Alone). He used the steps to help people with mental difficulties, scruples, and sexual compulsions.

When chided by an AA member about his smoking, Father Ed stopped with help from the twelve steps and wrote to Bill that as a result he was becoming as "fat as a hog." Next, he tried to use the twelve steps with his own compulsive eating. One story of his struggle ends with Father Ed one night eating all the strawberries intended to feed the whole Jesuit Community. He became so sick he had to receive last rites. He went from 242 to 167 pounds and up again like a yo-yo. He asked Bill to start an 00 ("obese obvious") group.

Often Father Ed spoke of being helped by attending an open AA meeting and wrote to Bill that AA was his "lonely hearts club." In his last 20 years his ministry changed radically due to AA and his friendship with Lois and Bill. He gave CANA conferences for families, using the twelve steps, once a month from 1942 to 1960. He cheered Lois on as she started and continued with Al-Anon. Father Ed rejoiced that in "moving therapy from the expensive clinical couch to the low-cost coffee bar, from the inexperienced professional to the informed amateur, AA has democratized sanity."

He wrote his superior to free up another Jesuit, Father John Higgins, who was recovering from mental illness, to work with Recovery Inc., a group Dr. Abraham Low had started for people with mental problems. Those groups for mental illness were especially close to Father Ed's heart as there was a history of depression in his own family. He called people to be "wounded healers" for each other.

Was there anything from the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius in Father Ed's gift to Bill? Father Ed pointed out parallels between the Spiritual Exercises and the twelve steps several times, but Bill had written the twelve steps before he ever heard of the Spiritual Exercises.

Father Ed did give Bill a copy of the Spiritual Exercises in 1952, underlining the "Two Standards" meditation. When Father Ed met Bill, moreover, he had called him to the place where he bottomed out and surrendered to his Higher Power. Father Ed believed that this was the place where humiliations led to humility and then to all other blessings. In saying this, he paraphrased Ignatius's closing prayer of the "Two Standards" meditations. And this, Father Ed maintained, was where the Exercises become most like AA.

He went a step further and invited Bill to make choices based on poverty and humility rather than on money, power, or fame.
This suggestion helped Bill Wilson turn down an honorary degree from Yale. On the packet of letters dealing with his decision, he wrote: "To Father Ed, with gratitude." In the letter to Yale he stated his reasons for declining the honor:

"My own life story gathered for years around an implacable pursuit of money, fame, and power, anti-climaxed by my near sinking in a sea of alcohol. Though I survived that grim misadventure, I well understand that the dread neurotic germ of the power contagion has survived in me also. It is only dormant and it can again multiply and rend me -- and AA, too. Tens of thousands of AA members are temperamentally like me. They know it, fortunately, and I know it. Hence our tradition of anonymity and hence my clear obligation to decline this honor with all the immediate satisfaction and benefit it could have yielded."

This, then, is where Father Ed met Bill that rainy night long ago, in the small room where bottoming out opens up to life, where humiliations lead to humility -- and to all other blessings.

From The Catholic Digest, April 1991

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Faith

Faith is more than our greatest gift; its sharing with others is our greatest responsibility. May we of A.A. continually seek the wisdom and the willingness by which we may well fulfill that immense trust which the Giver of all perfect gifts has placed in our hands.

Bill W., Grapevine Magazine, April 1961

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Daily Acceptance


Not just for alcoholics...


"Too much of my life has been spent in dwelling upon the faults of others. This is a most subtle and perverse form of self-satisfaction, which permits us to remain comfortably unaware of our own defects. Too often we are heard to say, "If it weren't for him (or her), how happy I'd be!" Bill W., Letter, 1966

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Our first problem is to accept our present circumstances as they are, ourselves as we are, and the people about us as they are. This is to adopt a realistic humility without which no genuine advance can even begin. Again and again, we shall need to return to that unflattering point of departure. This is an exercise in acceptance that we can profitably practice every day of our lives.

Provided we strenuously avoid turning these realistic surveys of the facts of life into unrealistic alibis for apathy or defeatism, they can be the sure foundation upon which increased emotional health and therefore spiritual progress can be built. Grapevine Magazine, March 1962

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