We had numerous responses to the article I wrote about Sister Ignatia and AA, many from AA members. Here is one that I found particularly interesting and informative.

LETTER FROM A FRIEND OF BILL W

Dear George and Anita,

Thanks for the column on Sister Ignatia. My husband and I are both members of AA. Last year we visited the AA archives in Akron for a couple of hours. I highly recommend a visit if you have an afternoon to explore. It was so moving to see the history of a movement there, the letters back and forth between Bob and Bill and many others who worked to help people recover. They really wrought a miracle for many people then and now.

I have heard the serenity prayer attributed to Reinhold Niebuhr, but that has sometimes been disputed. You might be interested to know that AA uses the St Francis prayer as the 11th step prayer. Many consider the 11th step the most important: "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."

So although AA is not a Catholic program, or even a Christian program, it is a spiritual program in which humility, prayer and meditation are the keys to recovery. Doctors, counselors, friends, family and others in recovery all play huge roles in an alcoholic's recovery, but in the end we say that "probably no human power could have relieved our alcoholism, but that God could and would if he were sought." This doesn't contradict the fact that alcoholism is a disease; it leads us to acceptance that in fact our disease is chronic and the only long term solution for us to manage our symptoms is a spiritual one.

With love to you and best wishes for Christmas and the new year,

A friend of Bill W

Comments on this essay? Email us

Copyright©2008