Listen, Share, and Pray

 Today’s reading reminds me that when I work with another alcoholic, we are on equal footing. It doesn’t make any difference how much time I have in sobriety; what matters is that I listen to them, share what I did (if I have that experience), and ask their Higher Power to open their minds to what It would say to them. I’m no expert—I only have what I have personally gleaned from working the program for myself. When I find myself thinking that I know what they ‘should’ do, I need to go very gently. What I might really be doing is going into a judgement of them or their situation. I’m in no position to do that.

I have my own experiences. I have questions about the situations I find myself facing. I would rebel and shut down if someone started telling me just exactly what to do. Those answers, for all of us, need to come from the deep listening to our own Higher Powers, and from that instinctual knowing which has been all but obliterated by societal norms coupled with mind-numbing drinking. My body as well as my mind needed time to heal, with the support of those who had travelled this road. When I reach out to others, the same empathy and compassion is what will best help.

I find that the perfect prayer for this situation is from St. Francis of Assisi: Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace; that where is there is hatred, I may bring love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope. Where there is darkness, light. And where there is sadness, joy. Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love.

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