Hope

Hope is the priceless ingredient for recovery.
This, AA gives, most frequently not in mere words.
Upon the alcoholic's first contact with AA, as he looks around the room and sees men and women respectively clothed and in their right minds, enjoying themselves, that flicker of hope begins to burn.
And he says to himself, "If these jokers can do it, I can."
The first need, beyond any other, is hope.
Without it, there is nothing.
~ Experience, Strength and Hope [Vol. 1], pp. 156-157


If I don't drink today, I have the hope of a tomorrow.'

Freedom

. . . we will be amazed before we are half way through.
We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness.
We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.
We will comprehend the word serenity and will know peace.
No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others.
~ Alcoholics Anonymous, pp.83-84


Within our wonderful new world, we have found freedom from our fatal obsession.

Instant Magic

Whenever I start climbing the walls for some reason -- usually because I'm unable to have things my way, like the behavior of my boss, my son's attitude, or even my country's politics -- I have an instant cure.
I close my eyes and visualize one of the many moments of past horror and humiliation: waking up in the street, begging a stranger for money, talking my way into buying a bottle on credit, or trying to convince a doctor to hospitalize me because I had nowhere to go.
This and the Serenity Prayer always work instant magic.
~AA Around the World, p. 33

'Someone'

In those days I had no one to whom I might take my troubles.
Today I have.
Today I have Someone who will always hear me;
I have a warm fellowship among men who understand my problems;
I have tasks to do and am glad to do them,
to see others who are alcoholics
and to help them in any way I can to become sober men.
I took my last drink in 1937.

~ Jim S., Akron, Ohio, early member~
- Experience, Strength and Hope, pp. 276-77

African Saying

Those who love you are not fooled by mistakes you have made or dark images you hold about yourself.

They remember your beauty when you feel ugly;
your wholeness when you are broken; your innocence when you feel guilty;

and your purpose when you are confused.

Hope

My hope is in what the eye has never seen.
Therefore, let me not trust in visible rewards.
My hope is in what the heart of man cannot feel.
Therefore let me not trust in the feelings of my heart.
My hope is in what the hand of man has never touched.
Do not let me trust what I can grasp between my fingers.

Let my trust be in Your mercy, not in myself.
Let my hope be in Your love, not in health, or strength, or ability or human resources.

If I trust You, everything else will become, for me, strength, health, and support.

Everything will bring me to heaven.

If I do not trust You, everything will be my destruction.

Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude

Time For Courage & Faith

[Circular Letter, Advent-Christmas, 1967]

The times are difficult.

They call for courage and faith.

Faith is in the end a lonely virtue.

Lonely especially where a deep authentic community of love is not an accomplished fact, but a job to be begun over and over...

Love is not something we get from Mother Church as a child gets milk from the breast: it also has to be given.

We don't get love if don't give any.

Christmas, then, is not just a sweet regression to breast-feeding and infancy.

It is a serious and sometimes difficult feast.

Difficult especially if, for psychological reasons, we fail to grasp the indestructible kernel of hope that is in it.

If we are just looking for a little consolation-we may be disappointed.

Let us pray for one another, love one another in truth, in the sobriety of earnest, Christian hope: for hope, says Paul, does not deceive.

A blessed and joyous Christmas to all of you.

Thomas Merton, The Road to Joy

Beautiful People

The most beautiful people are those who have
known defeat,
known suffering,
known struggle,
known loss, and
have found their way out of the depths.

These persons have
an appreciation,
a sensitivity, and
an understanding of life
that fills them with
compassion,
gentleness, and
a deep loving concern.

Beautiful people do not just happen.

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

Fear Not

Even amid the storms that threaten to sweep me away, I need not fear:  Jesus Christ, God-with-us, keeps me even through the wildest of storms.

God is the God of all of life – the chaos of the sea, the security of the land, the storm, and the stillness.

 

Fear not, I am with you;
be not dismayed;
I am your God.

I will strengthen you, and help you,
and uphold you with my right hand of justice.

(Is 41:10)

 

It is better for us to reach eternal bliss
after a few difficulties than to go down
into the depths of hell after brief joy.

~~ St. Caerarius of Arles

From My Mail Buoy: The Proper Path

The proper path is somewhere between hope and hopelessness.

Richard Rose

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Hope

The hope that is left after all your hopes are gone -- that is pure hope, rooted in the heart.

 

David Steindl-Rast
Gratefulness, the Heart of Prayer

 

 

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Daily Prayer

Higher Power, I give You my pain and I ask You to show me the lessons I'm to learn.

I ask for Your help in holding on to hope.

Help me to never forget that You and others are with me.

 

Today I will list the times during my active
addiction that I felt most hopeless.

Then I will think of what lessons
I learned from these moments.

How did others, my Higher Power, and
I transform these moments?

 

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Hope

Most of us have seen death close up. We have known the kind of suffering that wrenches the bones. But we have also known the sort of hope that makes the heart sing. . . . If you are a problem drinker, you already know about pain and loneliness.  We'd like you to find some of the peace and joy we have found in meeting the reality of life's ups and downs with a clear and steady heart.

Living Sober, p. 86

 

The soul would have no rainbow
if the eyes had no tears.

 

H O P E = Heart Open; Please Enter.

 

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Spiritual Self

Perhaps the truth which emerges is this:

If you have your spiritual self in order,

your earthly commitments will fall into order also.

“[S]eek first the kingdom [of God] and his righteousness,” said the carpenter from Nazareth, “and all these things will be given you besides” (Matthew 6:33).

Intercessions

Hear us, O God our Savior!

For those who are powerless,
-- that they may experience your power employed on their behalf.

For those who have abandoned hope,
-- that they may know your mercy.

For those who fail to see you in mystery,
-- that they may come to feel your gentle love.

In land torn by war,
-- bring a new life through peace.

To families and communities wounded by division,
-- bring a new life through peace.

To the dying and the bereaved suffering under the threat of death,
-- bring a new life through peace.

May the Lord deliver us from all evil and bring us to life everlasting.
Amen.

Excerpted from Magificat, April 2008

The Spring Rains

Expect to have hope rekindled.

Expect your prayers to be answered in wondrous ways.

The dry seasons in life do not last.

The spring rains will come again.
Sarah Ban Breathnach

www.gratefulness.org

Living with Hope

Optimism and hope are radically different attitudes.
Optimism is the expectation that things-the weather, human relationships, the economy, the political situation, and so on-will get better.
Hope is the trust that God will fulfill God's promises to us in a way that leads us to true freedom.
The optimist speaks about concrete changes in the future.
The person of hope lives in the moment with the knowledge and trust that all of life is in good hands.

All the great spiritual leaders in history were people of hope.
Abraham, Moses, Ruth, Mary, Jesus, Rumi, Gandhi, and Dorothy Day all lived with a promise in their hearts that guided them toward the future without the need to know exactly what it would look like.
Let's live with hope.

-- Henri Nouwen

New Year

As we look back over the year just gone, it has been a good year to the extent that we have put good thoughts, good words, and good deeds into it.
None of what we have thought, said, or done need be wasted.
Both the good and the bad experiences can be profited by.
In a sense, the past is not entirely gone.
The result of it, for good or evil, is with us at the present moment.
We can only learn by experience and none of our experience is completely wasted.
We can humbly thank God for the good things of the year that has gone.

I pray that I may carry good things into the year ahead.

I pray that I may carry on with faith, with prayer, and with hope.

-- Twenty-Four Hours A Day

Only One Boy

Recently, a class of sixth-graders was asked whether they could ever be truly happy.
Astoundingly, almost every child concluded that while they desired true and lasting happiness, it is impossible ever to attain it.
One child concluded that we should just stop desiring happiness.
One boy alone had hope.
His response to the questins was a resounding ,"Yes!"
He was also the only child who made reference to Christ.
He alone among his peers expressed confidence that he could be truly happy.
He wrote, "If my desire is infinite, the one necessary thing is God."
With the simplicity of a child he said, "No earthly thing can truly make us eternally happy, except for the Eucharist, which is still God."
That same week, Pope Benedict XVI said, "Only in reference to God's love which is revealed in Jesus Christ can man find the meaning of his existence and live in hope."
"As Jesus passed by, two blind men followed him, crying out, 'Son of David, have pity on us!'"
The presence of Christ awakenedin those two men a hope of happiness.
Into their darkness, Christ's presence provoked a cry of hope.
Their eyes were opened.
Theirs was not the sob of nihilism, but the cry of hope.
Only one boy in the class said, "Christ."
He alone had hope.

-- Father David Barnes

Loving Father, let me never doubt the happiness that you
make real in my life through the gift of your Son.

Hope

Hope is the deep orientation of the human soul
that can be held at the darkest times.
-- Vaclav Havel