The Spirituality of the 12 Steps

Somehow, without intending this, I've become an intermittent blogger. This means that when I do get here to write, I have so much to say that it should probably be broken up into several posts. Here is the first one: an excerpt from Fr. Rohr's book about the spirituality of the 12 Steps. The daily devotionals from CAC have recently been excerpted from this book; they are stirring and encouraging.    We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood [God], praying only for knowledge of [God’s] will for us and the power to carry that out. ~ Step Eleven of the Twelve Steps "The word “prayer,” which Bill Wilson rightly juxtaposes with the word “meditation,” is a code word for an entirely different way of processing life. When you “pray,” you are supposed to take off one “thinking cap” and put on another “thinking cap” that will move you from an egocentric perspective—from your own private needs, hurts, angers and memories—to a soul-centric perspective, what Malcolm Gladwell calls “thinking without thinking.” Prayer is not about changing God, but being willing to let God change us, or as Step Eleven says, “praying only for the knowledge of God’s will.” If you are able to switch minds to the mind of Christ, your prayer has already been answered! That new mind knows, understands, accepts, and sees correctly, widely, and wisely. Its prayers are always answered because they are, in fact, the prayers of God too."            Richard Rohr, Breathing Underwater: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps, pp. 93, 94, 95