Living and Loving: Life Together as Christ's Family I
Christian Spirituality and the Twelve Step Journey
Jean Hite, Summer Intern  St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Marco Island  July 2011
The Twelve Steps
The Twelve Steps adapted from the steps of Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc
1
HONESTY
2
FAITH
3
SURRENDER
4
SOUL
SEARCHING
We admitted we were powerless over our weaknesses - that our lives
had become unmanageable.
Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to
sanity.
Made a decision to turn our will and lives over to the care of God as
we understood God.
Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being, the exact
nature of our wrongs
6 ACCEPTANCE
Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7 HUMILITY
Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings.
Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make
8 WILLINGNESS
amends to them all.
Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to
9 FORGIVENESS
do so would injure them or others.
Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong,
10 MAINTENANCE
promptly admitted it.
Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious
11 DISCERNMENT contact with God as we understood God, praying only for knowledge
of God's will for us and the power to carry that out.
Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried
12 SERVICE
to carry this message to other co-dependents, and to practice these
principles in all our affairs.
5
INTEGRITY
3rd Step Prayer (Co-dependents anonymous)
God, I give all that I am for your healing and direction. Make new this day as I release my
fears and worries, knowing that you are by my side. Help me to open myself to your love
– love allow your love to flow through me and from me to those around me. May your
will be done this day and always. Amen.
7th Step Prayer (Alcoholics anonymous)
My Creator, I am now willing that you should have all of me, good & bad. I pray that you
now remove from me every single defect of character which stands in the way of my
usefulness to you & my fellows. Grant me strength, as I go out from here to do Your
bidding. Amen.
11th Step Prayer (Prayer of St. Francis used in 12-step programs, BCP pg. 833)
Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where
there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where
there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that
we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are
pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.
Living and Loving: Life Together as Christ's Family I
Christian Spirituality and the Twelve Step Journey
Jean Hite, Summer Intern  St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Marco Island  July 2011
Prayers from traditional Christian spiritual “schools”:
Ignatius of Loyola (16th century, Spanish, Founder of the Jesuit Order His Spiritual Exercises
are a series of popular directed retreat meditations.) Note the similarity to the 3rd Step Prayer.
Take Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire
will, all that I have and possess. Thou hast given all to me. To Thee, O lord, I return it.
All is Thine, dispose of it wholly according to Thy will. Give me Thy love and thy
grace, for this is sufficient for me. Amen.
----------------------------John Wesley (18th century, Anglican priest. In establishing small spiritual groups that met to
nurture and support their members, his influence led to the founding of Methodism.) Notes the
similarity of his “Covenant Prayer” to the 3rd and 7th step prayers.
I am no longer my own, but thine. Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou
wilt. Put me to doing, put me to suffering. Let me be employed for thee or laid aside
for thee, exalted for thee or brought low for thee. Let me be full, let me be empty. Let
me have all things, let me have nothing. I freely and heartily yield all things to thy
pleasure and disposal. And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy
Spirit, thou art mine, and I am thine. So be it. And the covenant which I have made on
earth, let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.
----------------------------The Serenity Prayer frequently prayed at twelve step meetings:
God, give me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can
and the wisdom to know the difference.
This prayer was written by American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971). His original
unabridged version reads:
God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, Courage to change the things which should be changed, and the Wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.
Living one day at a time, Enjoying one moment at a time, Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace, Taking, as Jesus did, This sinful world as it is, Not as I would have it, Trusting that You will make all things right, If I surrender to Your will, So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with You forever in the next. Amen.
Living and Loving: Life Together as Christ's Family I
Christian Spirituality and the Twelve Step Journey
Jean Hite, Summer Intern  St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Marco Island  July 2011
12 step “catch phrases”
 KISS - Keep it simple stupid
 One day at a time
 Let go and let God
 hitting bottom
 Seeking the 4 ‘A’s: Approval, Appreciation, Acceptance, Applause
 Live and Let Live
 Let go and let God
 Time takes time
 One day at a time
 Cultivate an attitude of gratitude
 Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less
 You can't think your way into a new way of living...you have to live your way into a new
way of thinking
 HALT = don't get too Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired
 Your worth should never depend on another persons opinion
 It works if you work it
 Many meetings, many chances; few meetings, few chances; no meetings, no chances
 To keep what you have, you have to give it away
 If you do what you always did, you'll get what you always got
 Progress, not perfection
 Recovery is a journey ...not a destination
 To thine own self be true
 Change is a process, not an event
 Take what you can use and leave the rest
 Seven days without a meeting makes one weak
 Is your program powered by Will Power or Higher Power?
 Cultivate an attitude of gratitude
 Misery is optional
 God never made no junk
 Nobody ever found recovery as a result of an intellectual awakening
 Nothing changes if nothing changes
 Serenity is not freedom from the storm but peace amid the storm
 Feelings are not facts
 Turn it over, don't turn it off
Living and Loving: Life Together as Christ's Family I
Christian Spirituality and the Twelve Step Journey
Jean Hite, Summer Intern  St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Marco Island  July 2011
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