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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