A Day at a Time: Daily Reflections for Recovering People (Hazelden Meditations)

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This best-selling app from Hazelden Publishing offers daily thoughts, meditations, and prayers for those in recovery from alcohol and other drugs. 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 Hazelden's classic daily meditations book has guided millions of recovering people toward a deeper and more intimate connection with a Higher Power of their understanding. By the time we reach a step that uses the word "humbly" we have already started to put this principle into practice. The Fourth Step gives us an opportunity to examine who we really are, and the Fifth Step helps us accept that knowledge. When I sit quietly and compare my life today with the way it used to be, the difference is almost beyond belief. But things aren’t always rosy; some days are a lot better than others. I tend to accept the bad days more easily on an intellectual level than I do emotionally, or at gut level. There are no pat answers, but part of the solution surely lies in a constant effort to practice and live all of the Twelve Steps. Do I accept the fact that my Higher Power will never give me more than I can handle—one day at a time? Today I Pray

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 In the beginning, the press could not understand ourrefusal of all personal publicity. They were genuinelybaffled by our insistence upon anonymity. Then they gotthe point. Here was something rare in the world — asociety which said it wished to publicize its principlesand its work, but not its individual members. The presswas delighted with this attitude. Ever since, thesefriends have reported A.A. with an enthusiasm which themost ardent members would find hard to match.

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Humility is a puzzling concept. We know a lot about humiliation, but humility is a new idea. It sounds suspiciously like groveling, bowing, and scraping. But that's not what humility is at all. True humility is, simply, acceptance of who we are. Each daily reading lesson includes a study guide, video, script, assessment and answer key as well as a virtual library of supplemental resources. Let 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 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 That I may receive strength in the knowledge that life never gives us more than we can bear, that I can always, somehow, endure present pain, whereas the trials of a lifetime, condensed into one disastrous moment, would surely overcome me. May I feel gratitude for the tribulations that are always in proportion to my strength, rather than sent to demonstrate my frailty. May I remember that fortitude grows out of suffering. Today I Will Remember

Deacon Fournier holds his Bachelors Degree (BA) in Theology and Philosophy from the Franciscan University of Steubenville. He holds his Juris Doctor in Law (JD) from the University of Pittsburgh Law School. He holds His Masters Degree in Sacred Theology (MTS) from the John Paul II Institute of the Lateran University. He holds His Masters in Philosophy (M.Phil.) in Moral Theology from the Catholic University of America. He is currently working toward completion of a Doctorate in Moral Theology by completing his dissertation. May the words of the Serenity Prayer never become mechanical for me or lose their meaning in the lulling rhythms of repetition. I pray that these words will continue to take on new depths of significance as I fit life’s realities to them. I trust that I may find the solutions I need in this prayer, which, in its simplicity, encompasses all of life’s situations. Today I Will Remember As a result, I lived a fantasy life in which happiness was all but nonexistent. No wonder I rarely smiled and hardly ever laughed aloud. Do I still think in terms of forever? Today I Pray

November 28, 2023

I must never forget who and what I am and where I come from. I have to remember the nature of my illness and what it was like before I came to recovery. I’ll try to keep the memory green, yet not spend my time dwelling morbidly on the past. I won’t be afraid to enjoy what is beautiful and to believe that as I give to others, so others will give to me. Can I ever afford to forget what it used to be like, even for one minute? Today I Pray Just for Today: I will allow knowledge of my true nature to guide my actions. Today, I will face the world as myself.

Objective: The Lord be With You! I'm Deacon Keith Fournier. I am excited to announce our 'DAILY READINGS ' class. A first of a kind, ready-to-use Daily Readings lesson plan. May I know power through powerlessness, victory through surrender, triumph through defeat. May I learn to relinquish any trace of secret pride that I can do it by myself. Let my will be absorbed and steered by my Higher Power. Today I Will Remember 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 BOOKMARK your favorite meditations (press the star in the upper right-hand corner) and easily return to them (press the star in the bottom toolbar).

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As individuals and as a fellowship, Bill W. said, we shall surely suffer if we cast the whole idea of planning for tomorrow into a fatuous idea of providence. God’s real providence has endowed us human beings with a considerable capability for foresight, and He evidently expects us to use it. Of course, we shall often miscalculate the future in whole or in part, but that is better than to refuse to think at all. Have I begun to believe that I am only an actor in a play directed by something greater than myself? 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 May I share my love, my joy, my happiness, my time, my hospitality, my knowledge of things on earth, and my faith in a Higher Power. Even though I may not see the results of my acts of sharing, may I take joy in the acts themselves. May sharing and connecting with others become as natural to me as speaking or breathing. Today I Will Remember