The goal is to take the word from our ears - and place it into our hearts - our minds - and our daily lives. These lessons can bring the Daily Bible Readings from Mass to life for your students! May my Higher Power remove from me the arrogant pride that keeps our connection from growing ever stronger. May my unhealthy dependence on substances and my clinging dependence on those nearby be transformed into a reliance on my Higher Power. Only through my reliance on a Higher Power will I find personal transformation. Today I Will Remember The program and my friends in the fellowship have provided me with a whole new set of tools for living. Even the slogans that once seemed so trite and corny are now becoming an important part of my daily life: Easy does it; First things first; This too will pass. If I use all of my tools regularly and well, they’ll also help rid me of such negative feelings as guilt, anxiety, rebellion, and pride. When I’m feeling depressed, do I use the tools that have been proven effective? Or do I grit my teeth and suffer in painful silence? Today I Pray For a good part of my life, I saw things mostly in negative terms. Everything was serious, heavy, or just plain awful. Perhaps now I can truly change my attitude, searching out people in recovery who have learned how to live comfortably in the real world—without numbing their brains with mood-altering substances. If things get rough today, can I take a quiet moment and say to myself, as the philosopher Homer once said, Bear patiently, my heart—for you have suffered heavier things? Today I Pray

If we are determined to stop drinking, using, or giving in to our compulsions, there must be no reservations whatsoever, nor any lurking notion that our addiction will someday reverse itself. Our regeneration comes through the splendid paradox of the Twelve Steps: strength arises from complete defeat, and the loss of one’s old life is a condition for finding a new one. Am I convinced that in powerlessness, power comes? Am I certain that by releasing my life and will I am released? 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 Each daily reading lesson includes a study guide, video, script, assessment and answer key as well as a virtual library of supplemental resources. 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 May I set my goals for the New Year not at the yearlong mark, but one day at a time. My traditional New Year’s resolutions have been so grandly stated and so soon broken. Let me not weaken my resolve by stretching it to cover forever—or even one long year. May I reapply it firmly each new day. May I learn not to stamp my past mistakes with that indelible word, forever. Instead, may each single day in each New Year be freshened by my newfound hope. Today I Will Remember

I admitted that I couldn’t win the battle against substance abuse and compulsions on my own. So I finally began to accept the critically important fact that dependence on a Higher Power could help me achieve what had always seemed impossible. I stopped running. I stopped fighting. For the first time, I began accepting. And for the first time, I began to be really free. Do I realize that it doesn’t matter what kind of shoes I’m wearing when I’m running away? Today I Pray Since 1954, the words of Twenty-Four Hours a Day have become a stable force in the recovery of many individuals throughout the world. With more than 6.5 million copies of the text in print, Twenty-Four Hours a Day offers guidance for those living without alcohol or other drugs. Millions rely on these words as a spiritual resource that has practical applications to fit the daily life of those in recovery. May I really believe that the complete surrender of my whole being to a Higher Power is the way to serenity. My Higher Power alone has the power to make me be and feel whole, so I can only be whole through my Higher Power. May I do away with any feelings of wanting to hold out and never admit defeat. May I unlearn the old adage that tells me I must never give up and realize that such pridefulness could keep me from recovery. Today I Will Remember 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 Today is the day for which I asked and for which I have been given strength. That in itself is a miracle. In my old life, I constantly endangered myself as well as countless others. So the very fact that I am alive is the great miracle from which all other miracles will flow, providing I continue to do the things that have brought me this far in my new life. Am I grateful that I have been given this day? Today I Pray

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 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 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. Since I came to recovery, I’ve become increasingly aware of the Serenity Prayer. I see it in recovery literature, on the walls of meeting rooms, and in the homes of newfound friends. God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference. Do I understand the Serenity Prayer? Do I believe in its power and repeat it often? Is it becoming easier for me to accept the things I cannot change? Today I Pray 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.May peace fill the place within me that once harbored my despair. May an appreciation for living—even for life’s trials—cancel out my former negative attitudes. During heart-heavy moments, help me remember that my heart was once much heavier still. 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 This best-selling app from Hazelden Publishing offers daily thoughts, meditations, and prayers for those in recovery from alcohol and other drugs.

In the past, and sometimes even now, I automatically have thought "Why me?" when I’m trying to learn that my first problem is to accept my present circumstances as they are, myself as I am, and the people around me as they are. Just as I finally accepted my powerlessness over my addiction, so must I accept my powerlessness over people, places, and things. Am I learning to accept life on life’s terms? Today I Pray I praise my wonder-working Higher Power for giving me the tools for recovery, once I admitted I was powerless over my addiction and gave myself over to the will of my Higher Power—as I’ve conceived of it. I give thanks for the Twelve Steps and for the fellowship of the group, which can help me see myself honestly. I give thanks for those words and phrases that become, as we understand them more completely, banners in our celebration of sobriety. Today I Will Remember Daily Readings should be the first class of the day, 5 days a week for students in every grade, in every Catholic School and with every Homeschool family." ~Deacon Keith Fournier

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I’m beginning to see just how unnatural my old life actually was, and that it became increasingly unnatural as my disease progressed. The longer I’m in recovery, the more natural this new way of life seems. At first, it was impossible for me to extend my hand to a fellow person in recovery; such an act was wholly unnatural for me. But it is becoming increasingly easier for me to reach out to other people in recovery. Sharing my experience, strength, and hope is becoming a natural part of daily living. Have I learned that I can’t keep what I’ve gotten unless I give it away? Will I take the time to share today? Today I Pray