A Pile of Random

The most radical part of Francis' papacy is his embrace of the liberalizing principles of Vatican II-from poverty and sexual ethics to church governance.

2015-04-04T10:34:00.001-07:00

Pope Francis and the New Rome

The most radical part of Francis' papacy is his embrace of the liberalizing principles of Vatican II—from poverty and sexual ethics to church governance.

By Francis X. Rocca

Wall Street Journal

April 3, 2015 11:31 a.m. ET

One Saturday last month, Pope Francis celebrated Mass at Ognissanti (All Saints') Church in one of Rome's working-class neighborhoods. Little known to tourists or art historians, Ognissanti was the site of a momentous event in the modern history of the Catholic Church: Exactly 50 years earlier, Pope Paul VI had gone there to celebrate the first papal mass in Italian rather than in the traditional Latin.

In marking that anniversary, Pope Francis made plain his view of the vernacular Mass, one of the most visible changes ushered in by the Second Vatican Council (1962-65). The practice still pains Catholic traditionalists who mourn the loss of churchwide unity that came with a common language.

Allowing Catholics to pray in their local languages "was truly a courageous act by the church to draw closer to the people of God," Pope Francis told a crowd gathered outside. "This is important for us, to follow the Mass this way. And there is no going back…Whoever goes back is mistaken."

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In his two years in office, the pontiff has drawn attention for his unconventional gestures—such as personally welcoming homeless people to the Sistine Chapel last month—but those gestures matter most as signs of the radical new direction in which he seeks to lead the Catholic Church: toward his vision of the promise of Vatican II. Both the acclaim and the alarm that Francis has generated as pope have been responses to his role in the long struggle over the council's legacy.

For a half century, ordinary Catholics and their leaders have debated, often passionately, whether the changes that followed the council went too far or not far enough. Pope Francis' immediate predecessors, John Paul II and Benedict XVI, devoted much of their pontificates to correcting what they deemed unjustified deviations from tradition in the name of Vatican II.

Now Pope Francis has effectively reversed course. In word and deed, he has argued that the church's troubles reflect not recklessness but timidity in interpreting and applying the principles of Vatican II, especially the council's call for the church to open itself to the modern world. "It usually takes half a century for a council to begin to sink in," says Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York. "Now we have a pope who says, 'Look, we just had five decades of internal debates and controversy about the meaning of Vatican II, and now it's time to do it.' And that's what he's doing."

The pope's vision of Vatican II has translated into a dramatic shift in priorities, with an emphasis on social justice over controversial moral teachings and a friendlier approach to secular culture. This has alarmed those who fear an erosion of the church's role as the foremost bulwark of traditional morality in the West, particularly amid heated battles over same-sex marriage, bioethics, abortion and religious freedom.

Pope John XXIII convened the Second Vatican Council with the avowed intention of bringing "fresh air" into the church. In his opening speech, he called on the church to "make use of the medicine of mercy rather than that of severity" or "condemnations." More than 2,500 bishops from around the world attended the four sessions, which produced 16 official documents bringing up to date the church's teachings on, among other things, scripture, worship, religious freedom and relations with non-Catholics.

ENLARGE

The first session of Second Vatican Council in Rome on Oct. 11, 1962. Vatican II, gathered together by Pope John XXIII and finished by Pope Paul VI, took place in Rome from October 1962 to December 1965. Photo: Gamma-Keystone/Getty Images

The changes were dramatic. Rome absolved the Jewish people of collective guilt for the death of Jesus Christ and declared that God's covenant with them had never been abrogated. Catholics began to hear Orthodox and Protestants described as "separated brethren," while church leaders spoke of a "fellowship" with non-Christians.

The years following the council brought cultural change to the church, blurring many aspects of Catholic identity. Women ceased to wear veils in church, and Catholics started eating meat on Fridays. Nuns moved from convents to apartments. Interfaith marriage ceased to be taboo. Priests moved from hearing confessions in darkened booths to more conversational settings.

At the same time, the church in Europe and the U.S. saw a steep decline in attendance at Mass and in adherence to traditional morality, with the sexual revolution and the spread of contraception and legalized abortion. A half-century after the council, the population of nuns in the U.S. has declined by more than 70% and the annual number of priestly ordinations by 50%.

Popes John Paul and Benedict, who had played key roles at Vatican II, concluded that the church had gone too fast and too far in innovations ranging from the abandonment of religious garb to the acceptance of liberal ideas on sexual morality. In response, they issued the first universal catechism since the 16th century, systematically laying out the church's fundamental teachings; they censured dissent among theologians and within religious orders; and they reversed moves to expand the role of bishops in the development of church teaching and practice.

They also emphasized the differences between Catholicism and other religions and made it easier to celebrate the traditional Latin Mass. Their efforts were intended to reaffirm the church's distinctive identity amid what Benedict later called the "spiritual desertification" of secularism.

Pope Francis, the first pontiff to have received holy orders after Vatican II, is very much a son of the council. It took place during his years of study in the Jesuit order in Argentina—he was ordained just four years after it ended—and he enthusiastically followed the proceedings in Rome. On the eve of the 2013 conclave that elected him pope, then-Cardinal Bergoglio identified the main threat to the church: not the encroachment of secular culture but a tendency among Catholics themselves, especially within church institutions, to retreat into ghettos of their own making. The risk, he said, was of "theological narcissism."

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As Good Friday and Passover coincide, two religious leaders discuss the common beliefs and struggles among religions. Photo: Getty

As pontiff, Francis has used the moral authority of his office to push a sharply different agenda, demanding a "poor church for the poor" and excoriating free-market ideologies. He has said that the church should show "mercy" toward divorced and remarried Catholics (whom church law forbids from receiving Communion), flouted liturgical rules to wash the feet of Muslims and women, and received a transsexual at the Vatican.

"This pope is very much a man of [Vatican II]," says Archbishop Blaise J. Cupich of Chicago. "He has an understanding of how the church ought to be positioned at the service of the world, in which we don't impose but we propose."

From the moment he was elected, Pope Francis' folksy manner and disregard for protocol in matters of dress and decorum have reflected his vision of a papacy closer to the people. His public persona has excited curiosity and goodwill, but some believe that his shift in priorities has removed pressure on secular society and political leaders over contentious issues of sexual and medical ethics.

Pope Francis' understanding of Vatican II was deeply shaped by his background as a Jesuit and an Argentine, according to Austen Ivereigh, author of a recent papal biography, "The Great Reformer." The Jesuits viewed themselves as occupying the front lines in the application of the council's teachings, with a particular emphasis on social justice and peace. A 1968 assembly of Latin American bishops adopted a program based on Vatican II that declared a "preferential option for the poor."

This emphasis has been clear in the pontiff's public statements. "How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points?" Pope Francis wrote in 2013. Days later, President Barack Obama cited the passage in a speech on income inequality.

According to Father H. Miguel Yañez, a Jesuit confrere of the pope and a fellow Argentine, Pope Francis takes Vatican II "for granted." "Instead of arguing about the past…he proposes a new kind of evangelization that is so radical that we forget about different interpretations and move on," the Rev. Yañez says. "Francis is more concerned with having a dialogue with the contemporary world…than he is concerned with certain points of tradition that mattered to Benedict."

The pope's relative silence on certain widely contested moral teachings has left some worried that these questions are now of secondary importance. The pope roused concerns in summer 2013, for instance, when he told the editor of a Jesuit journal that "we cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods."

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Six months into his papacy, Pope Francis had not yet made a major statement on abortion, not even during his homily at a special Vatican Mass with antiabortion activists. "I'm a little bit disappointed in Pope Francis that he hasn't…said much about unborn children, about abortion," said Rhode Island Bishop Thomas J. Tobin in September 2013. "Many people have noticed that."

Church leaders have privately complained that the pope's oft-quoted comment about gay priests—"Who am I to judge?"—has made their job more difficult in upholding church teachings. In November 2013, Catholic legislators in Illinois cited those words to explain their support for a same-sex marriage bill.

Another source of tension is the pope's approach to church governance, particularly the balance of power between the pope and the world's bishops. In the late 19th century, the First Vatican Council affirmed the primacy of papal authority, even declaring the pope infallible on select issues. Vatican II aimed to strike a new balance by teaching that the pope shares authority with the bishops under a principle of "collegiality."

Popes John Paul and Benedict were wary of collective action by bishops, especially on key church teachings. Pope Francis, by contrast, has called for the devolution of more power. "Excessive centralization," he has written, "rather than proving helpful, complicates the Church's life and her missionary outreach."

Just weeks into his pontificate, Pope Francis established a new body consisting of eight (later nine) cardinals, including representatives from each continent, to advise him on major issues of church governance, including a sweeping reform of the Vatican bureaucracy. "The pope is effectively telling [the bishops and cardinals], 'I need to hear your voices, not just the voices of the people who live in Rome,' " says Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C.

The most ambitious—and disruptive—way in which Pope Francis has promoted collegiality is through the Synod of Bishops, a representative body established by Pope Paul VI in the immediate aftermath of Vatican II. Pope Francis has called a two-part meeting of the synod—the first session was held last fall, and the second will take place this October—to discuss issues relating to the family, including such controversial topics as homosexuality, contraception and the eligibility of divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to receive Communion.

The synod excited controversy even before its start, when the Vatican sent the world's bishops' conferences a questionnaire and encouraged them to seek the views of ordinary Catholics. The bishops' conference of England and Wales even put the questionnaire on the SurveyMonkey site so that parishioners could fill it out online. Several conferences and individual bishops published summaries of the responses, generating complaints that church teaching should not be fodder for a public-opinion survey.

At the synod's first session, the pope told the nearly 200 members to speak "without fear" and "to say what one feels duty-bound in the Lord to say." The ensuing debate, inside and outside the synod hall, was the fiercest the Vatican had seen since Vatican II itself, with sotto voce accusations of heresy and racism and even warnings of schism.

A document issued at the gathering's midpoint set off a furor because of its conciliatory language toward cohabiting couples, divorced and remarried Catholics, and those in same-sex unions. Australian Cardinal George Pell, the pope's finance chief, was prompted to denounce the document. "We're not giving in to the secular agenda; we're not collapsing in a heap," he told Catholic News Service.

American Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke went further, telling the Spanish magazine Vida Nueva that the church felt like a "ship without a rudder." He called on Pope Francis to end debate with an unambiguous restatement of traditional moral teachings, but the pope did not oblige.

"The public image that came across was confusion," said Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia after the synod. "I think confusion is of the devil." Though he added, "I don't think that was the real thing there."

Such tension was very much in the spirit of Vatican II, which aimed to update the pastoral practice of church doctrine, says Cardinal Wuerl, who helped to draft a final document for the synod's first session that left the most disputed questions unresolved.

"If your starting point is 'We already have the answers,' this process becomes difficult to deal with," says Cardinal Wuerl. But the pope "is saying, 'We have the revelation, but we don't have the application for all times; don't presume that we know everything and that we have every answer.' "

Bishops will come together again in early October to resume debate and produce recommendations. Any changes in the church's approach to family issues will be up to the pope. Yet his word will not be the last.

German Cardinal Walter Kasper is the most prominent advocate of making it easier for the divorced and remarried to receive Communion. He says that most Catholics and their leaders welcome Pope Francis' opening, but as he told an audience last fall (according to the National Catholic Reporter), a significant minority of bishops feels otherwise. They have been "exercising restraint and pulling their punches," he said, "in the hope of sitting out this pontificate."

Happy Birthday!

2009-12-11T06:00:00.001-08:00

On this day, Dec. 11, 1934, Bill Wilson had what turned out to be his last drink and was admitted to Townes Hospital in NYC and the rest is history!

Happy Birthday Bill.

Thought for the Day: I Am Thankful

2009-11-26T06:00:00.001-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving

I AM THANKFUL: FOR THE WIFE

WHO SAYS IT'S HOT DOGS TONIGHT,
BECAUSE SHE IS HOME WITH ME, AND NOT OUT WITH SOMEONE ELSE.

FOR THE HUSBAND
WHO IS ON THE SOFA BEING A COUCH POTATO,
BECAUSE HE IS HOME WITH ME AND NOT OUT AT THE BARS.

FOR THE TEENAGER
WHO IS COMPLAINING ABOUT DOING DISHES
BECAUSE IT MEANS SHE IS AT HOME, NOT ON THE STREETS.

FOR THE TAXES I PAY
BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM EMPLOYED.

FOR THE MESS TO CLEAN AFTER A PARTY
BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE BEEN SURROUNDED BY FRIENDS.

FOR THE CLOTHES THAT FIT A LITTLE TOO SNUG
BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE ENOUGH TO EAT.

FOR MY SHADOW THAT WATCHES ME WORK
BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM OUT IN THE SUNSHINE

FOR A LAWN THAT NEEDS MOWING,
WINDOWS THAT NEED CLEANING,
AND GUTTERS THAT NEED FIXING
BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE A HOME

FOR ALL THE COMPLAINING I HEAR ABOUT THE GOVERNMENT
BECAUSE IT MEANS WE HAVE FREEDOM OF SPEECH. ...

FOR THE PARKING SPOT I FIND AT THE FAR END OF THE PARKING LOT
BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM CAPABLE OF WALKING AND I HAVE BEEN BLESSED WITH TRANSPORTATION.

FOR MY HUGE HEATING BILL
BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM WARM.

FOR THE PILE OF LAUNDRY AND IRONING
BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE CLOTHES TO WEAR.

FOR WEARINESS AND ACHING MUSCLES AT THE END OF THE DAY
BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE BEEN CAPABLE OF WORKING HARD.

FOR THE ALARM THAT GOES OFF IN THE EARLY MORNING HOURS
BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM ALIVE.

AND I AM THANKFUL FOR THE crazy people I work with
BECAUSE they make work interesting and fun!

AND FINALLY, FOR TOO MUCH E-MAIL
BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE FRIENDS WHO ARE THINKING OF ME.

SEND THIS TO SOMEONE YOU CARE ABOUT.
I JUST DID.

Live well, Laugh often, and Love with all of your heart!

Jokes: Top 10 things you can only say at Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T06:00:00.000-08:00

10. Talk about a huge breast!

9. Tying the legs together keeps the inside moist.

8. If I don't undo my pants, I'll burst!

7. That's one terrific spread!

6. It's a little dry, do you still want to eat it?

5. Just wait your turn, you'll get some!

4. Don't play with your meat.

3. I didn't expect everyone to come at once!

2. How long will it take after you stick it in?

and the Number #1 thing you can only say on Thanksgiving....

1. I'm in the mood for a little dark meat

Thought for the Day: From one Pumpkin to Another

2009-11-19T06:00:00.000-08:00

A woman was asked by a co-worker, 'What is it like to be a member of Alcoholics Anonymous?' The co-worker replied, 'It is like being a pumpkin.'God picks you from the patch, brings you in, and washes all the dirt off of you. Then He cuts off the top and scoops out all the yucky stuff. He removes the seeds of doubt, hate, and greed. Then He carves you a new smiling face and puts His light inside of you to shine for all the world to see.'

2009-11-01T10:55:00.001-08:00

FINALLY GOOGLE MAPS NAVIGATION!!!!!! http://ping.fm/FbtIs

2009-11-01T10:32:00.001-08:00

WOW! Price to PepsiCo for Not Being in Court: $1.26 Billion..... http://ping.fm/HKv1o

Thought for the Day: Thank You

2009-08-20T06:00:00.000-07:00

People come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime.

When you know which one it is, you will know what to do for that person..

When someone is in your life for a REASON, it is usually to meet a need you have expressed.

They have come to assist you through a difficulty, to provide you with guidance and support,

to aid you physically, emotionally or spiritually.

They may seem like a godsend and they are.

They are there for the reason you need them to be.

Then, without any wrongdoing on your part or at an inconvenient time,

this person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end.

Sometimes they die. Sometimes they walk away.

Sometimes they act up and force you to take a stand.

What we must realize is that our need has been met, our desire fulfilled, their work is done.

The prayer you sent up has been answered and now it is time to move on.

Some people come into your life for a SEASON, because your turn has come to share, grow or learn.

They bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh.

They may teach you something you have never done.

They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy.

Believe it, it is real. But only for a season.

LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons,

things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation.

Your job is to accept the lesson,

love the person and put what you have learned to use in all other relationships and areas of your life.

It is said that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant..

Thank you for being a part of my life,
whether you were a reason, a season or a lifetime.

Two Little Old Ladies

2009-06-29T14:38:00.001-07:00

Two little old ladies were sitting on a park bench outside the local town hall where a flower show was in progress.

The thin one leaned over and said, 'Life is so boring. We never have any fun anymore. For $10 I'd take my clothes off and streak through that stupid flower show!'

'You're on!' said the other old lady, holding up a $10 bill. The first little old lady slowly fumbled her way out of her clothes and, completely naked, streaked (as fast as an old lady can) through the front door of the flower show.

Waiting outside, her friend soon heard a huge commotion inside the hall, followed by loud applause and shrill whistling. The smiling and naked old lady came through the exit door surrounded by a cheering crowd.

'What happened?' asked her waiting friend.

'I won 1st prize as Best Dried Arrangement.

Blonde Joke

2009-06-24T06:00:00.000-07:00

A blonde walks into a bank in New York City and asks for the Loan Officer. She says she's going to Europe on business for two weeks and needs to borrow $5,000. The bank officer says the bank will need some kind of security for the loan, so the blonde hands over the keys to a new Mercedes Benz SL 500. The car is parked on the street in front of the bank.

She has the title, and everything checks out. The bank agrees to accept the car collateral for the loan. The bank's president and its officers all enjoy a good laugh at the blonde for using a $110,000 Benz as collateral against a $5,000 loan. An employee of the bank then proceeds to drive the Benz into the bank's underground garage and parks it there.

Two weeks later, the blonde returns. She repays the $5,000 and the interest, which comes to $15.41.

The loan officer says, 'Miss, we are very happy to have had your business, and this transaction has worked out very nicely, but we are a little puzzled. While you were away, we checked you out and found that you are a multimillionaire. What puzzles us is, why would you bother to borrow $5,000?’

The blonde replies, 'Where else in New York City can I park my car for two weeks for only $15.41 and expect it to be there when I return?'

AT LAST, a smart blonde joke!

Quote for the Day: A Child's Love

2009-06-17T06:00:00.001-07:00

When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but really loves you, then you become real.
--Margery Wilson

Thought for the Day: Intimacy

2009-06-17T06:00:00.000-07:00

Intimacy with another is a necessary risk if we're to know love. This means loving enough to let someone in on our most hidden parts, daring to share the awful truths about ourselves. When we hold a dreaded memory within, or fail to disclose our darkest secret, we're haunted by the fear that another's love is both conditional and long gone if the truth about us is revealed.

Though seldom remembered, one of the greatest tributes we can give one another is full expression of who we were, who we are, and who we hope to become. During any single moment, we are a composite of feelings, memories, and projections. Our reality is many faceted, and being intimate requires that we enrich each other's lives with the full expression of ourselves.

My Prayer for You

2009-06-13T06:00:00.000-07:00

I thoguht of you so much today

I went to God in prayer,

To ask Him to watch over you

And show you that we care.

My prayer for you was not for rewards

That you could touch or feel,

But true rewards for happiness

That are so very real.

Like love and understanding

In all the things you do,

And guidance when you need it most

To see your troubles through.

I asked Him for good health for you

So your future could be bright,

And faith to accept life's challenges

And the courage to do what's right.

I gave thanks to Him

For granting my prayer

To bring you peace and love.

May you feel the warmth in your life

With God's blessing from above

The 12 Step Prayer Book

Prayer for the Day: Love is

2009-06-12T06:00:00.001-07:00

"Love is friendship that has caught fire. It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing, and forgiving. It is loyalty through good times and bad. It settles for less than perfection and makes allowances for human weaknesses.

Love is content with the present, it hopes for the future, and it doesn't brood over the past. It's the day-in-and-day-out chronicle of irritations, problems, comprimises, small disappointments, big victories, and common goals.

If you have love in your life, it can make up for a great many things you lack. If you don't have it, no matter what else there is it's not enough."

--The 12 Step Prayer Book

Quote for the Day: Taking a shot

2009-06-12T06:00:00.000-07:00

"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take!"
--Wayne Gretzky

Yet another year, yet another lesson

2009-06-11T15:56:00.000-07:00

Some say that you shouldn’t get into a relationship in your first year of sobriety. Others say that you should because you’ll learn more from screwing that up than from anything else. Most all agree that oldtimers should not get into relationships with newcomers not for the sake of the newcomer but for the sake of the oldtimer because they feel deeper and stronger than most. I guess I can now consider myself an oldtimer because I feel so strongly and deeply and I screwed up a relationship and learned more from it than from anything else in my life.

What I do know is that I have been closer to a drink in the past two days than I have been in all of my sobriety. I have never been more ‘thirsty.’ I truly have never felt so much pain at one time. I sit in meeting after meeting hearing accolades from my fellows on how proud they are of me for another year of sobriety, or how much of an inspiration I am to them. I am surrounded by people who love and care about me but I feel totally alone, I feel ashamed. I don’t want to feel anything any longer. I want it all to go away. Yet no number of meetings, no amount of prayer and meditation, no amount of reading books, no amount of talking with therapists and friends, no amount of journaling, no amount of anything can take it away. Especially a drink. All I can do is to feel thorough it all. Knowing that the mistakes made will not be repeated because I will have the memory of the pain I am currently in.

They say that pain is the touchstone of spiritual growth. If that truly is the case I have grown more in the past 3 months, specifically the past 2 than I have in my entire sobriety. The loss of the person whom I loved the most and wished to and planed to spend the rest of my life with was not the reason this growth has occurred but the catalyst. The loss was the final push that caused me to deal with me and what has been going on.

It is ironic how one must sometimes lose that which is most important to them in order to learn how to treat those most important to them. For the past year I have done nothing but kill the pain over the loss of a parent, the denial from the college I’ve wanted to attend for 3+ years, a changed mother, and more. And by doing so I isolated myself from those around me, those who I cared about, and cared about me. I did retail therapy, I stayed super busy, I took on more hours at work, I distracted myself with useless things to kill the time. By doing so I neglected those who I loved, and by doing so I lost them, probably for good. Yet through it all I have learned more about me and my actions than any other time in my life. I realized how controlling my parents were/are. I realized and turned down the opportunity for them to buy me a house because it would only give them more power over my life. I realized that although they can help me as much as they wish they can not and I will not allow them to control my life and push their values upon me.

I realized how important it is for me to get on my own two feet as fast as possible so that I can begin to truly create my own existence and my own life without the possibility of outside/family influence.

I realized that although my Mother claims she “Wants the best for me” she really wants “What SHE thinks is best for me.” And I will not partake in that any longer.
I realized that only I know what is best for me. That I can not and must not listen to those around me but must listen to my heart and my gut because it will never lead me the wrong way.

I realized that love is an action that evokes an emotion. That love is a garden that must be watered and maintained if it is to thrive and that takes time. Time I did not spend.

I realized first hand how my actions and emotions can affect the emotions and actions of those around me.

Most painfully I realized that although I would do ANYTHING to get her back I can’t. That I must truly love her from a distance and let her figure it all out, and whatever that will be will be the best thing for her, and that she will make the best decision for herself and her life.

Love that runs that deep hurts the most because sometimes the only way to show true love is to let someone go. The death of my Father was easier to deal with than this. With his death I played no part. With this situation I did. Unfortunately I realized it and took the action to change it after it was too late, and by doing so lost the most important thing to me.

I would love nothing more than to be with her and to help her and to spend time with her and to share with her all that is going on in each of our lives, but I can’t. I would love nothing more than to influence her with my ‘epiphanies’ on life, the lessons I’ve learned, the changes I’m making, but I can’t. I must love her from a distance. Give her the time she needs to figure things out. I know that at times I may falter and wander off the path of progress I am on, I know have a map so that I can return onto the right path.

I am able to do all of this because I am sober. I am able to do all of this because I ask for help and am honest with those around me. I am able to do this because I love and I feel today. I am able to do all of this because I was given the opportunity to truly focus on myself and not allow myself to be distracted by those I love.

Even with 6 years sober life can still be difficult and painful, yet I always remember that although there are many excuses to drink, there is not one good reason. There is not one good reason to sacrifice all I’ve gained and all I’ve learned, just so I can stop the pain. Even though I am alone, God is carrying me.

Anniversary Prayer

2009-06-11T06:00:00.000-07:00

Dear God, I had another anniversary today, one more year in recovery. It has been difficult at times, but it has allowed many blessings. I am a human being again. I feel new strength in my body, spirit, and mind. The world has never looked so good. I have the respect of my friends and family. I am productive in my work. I do not miss the slippery people and places. When I have been tempted, You, my Higher Power, have sustained me. I have found a home in the Fellowship and friends support me. Stay close by me, God. I thank You. This is the life I love.

Quote for the Day: Juggling

2009-06-10T06:00:00.000-07:00

Juggling is sometimes called the art of controlling patterns, controlling patterns in time and space.
-- Ronald Graham

Thought for the Day: Fly By

2009-06-09T06:00:00.001-07:00

Luke AFB is west of Phoenix and is rapidly being surrounded by civilization that complains about the noise from the base and its planes, forgetting that it was there long before they were. A certain lieutenant colonel at Luke AFB deserves a big pat on the back. Apparently, an individual who lives somewhere near Luke AFB wrote the local paper complaining about a group of F-16s that disturbed his/her day at the mall.

When that individual read the response from a Luke AFB officer, it must have stung quite a bit.

The complaint:

'Question of the day for Luke Air Force Base:

Whom do we thank for the morning air show? Last Wednesday, at precisely 9:11 A.M, a tight formation of four F-16 jets made a low pass over Arrowhead Mall, continuing west over Bell Road at approximately 500 feet. Imagine our good fortune! Do the Tom Cruise-wannabes feel we need this wake-up call, or were they trying to impress the cashiers at Mervyns early bird special?

Any response would be appreciated.

The response:

Regarding 'A wake-up call from Luke's jets'

On June 15, at precisely 9:12 a.m . , a perfectly timed four- ship fly by of F-16s from the 63rd Fighter Squadron at Luke Air Force Base flew over the grave of Capt. Jeremy Fresques. Capt Fresques was an Air Force officer who was previously stationed at Luke Air Force Base and was killed in Iraqon May 30, Memorial Day.

At 9 a.m. on June 15, his family and friends gathered at Sunland Memorial Park in Sun City to mourn the loss of a husband, son and friend. Based on the letter writer's recount of the fly by, and because of the jet noise, I'm sure you didn't hear the 21-gun salute, the playing of taps, or my words to the widow and parents of Capt. Fresques as I gave them their son's flag on behalf of the President of the United States and all those veterans and servicemen and women who understand the sacrifices they have endured.

A four-ship fly by is a display of respect the Air Force gives to those who give their lives in defense of freedom. We are professional aviators and take our jobs seriously, and on June 15 what the letter writer witnessed was four officers lining up to pay their ultimate respects.

The letter writer asks, 'Whom do we thank for the morning airshow? The 56th Fighter Wing will make the call for you, and forward your thanks to the widow and parents of Capt Fresques, and thank them for you, for it was in their honor that my pilots flew the most honorable formation of their lives.

Only 2 defining forces have ever offered to die for you....Jesus Christ and the American Soldier.

One died for your soul, the other for your freedom.

Lt. Col. Grant L. Rosensteel, Jr.

USAF

Quote for the Day: System to Use

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"Build a system that even a fool can use, and only a fool will want to use."
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Quote for the Day: Balance

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"Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving"
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Quote for the Day: Becoming

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"For all the sadness of closure, there is a new and joyful unfolding in the process of becoming."
--Mary Casey

Origins of AA - Henrietta Seiberling

2009-06-06T22:15:00.000-07:00

Transcript of Henrietta's remarks presented at Founder's Day, June 10, 1971
Henrietta Seiberling is the lady who introduced Bill Wilson to Dr. Bob Smith.

Henrietta Buckler Seiberling
May, 1972
In the spring of 1971, the newspapers reported the passing of Bill Wilson of New York City, who was one of the two co-founders of Alcoholics Anonymous. The other co-founder, Dr Robert Smith of Akron, Ohio, had passed on some years earlier. Shortly after Bill's death, the Akron Alcoholics groups asked my mother Henrietta Seiberling, to speak at the annual "Founders Day" meeting in Akron, which is attended by members of Alcoholics Anonymous from all over the world. She lives in New York and did not feel up to traveling, so they asked me to speak in her place. I agreed to speak but felt that it would mean most to them to hear some of her own words, so I called her on the telephone and asked her to tell me about the origins of Alcoholics Anonymous so that I could make sure my remarks were accurate. I made a tape recording of the conversation and played part of it at the 1971 Founders Day meeting, which was held in the gymnasium at the University of Akron with a couple of thousand people present. So many people have asked for a transcript of the recording that I have finally had one typed. Attached is a copy of the transcript, which follows the tape recording as closely as possible, with only my own remarks and some of the conversational asides and redundancies edited out. The first meeting of Bob and Bill, described in the attached transcript, took place in the summer of 1935 in Henrietta's house in Akron, which was the Gatehouse of Stan Hywet Hall, then my family's estate, now the property of Stan Hywet Hall Foundation. Henrietta was not an alcoholic. She was a Vasser college graduate and a housewife with three teenage children. She, like Bob and Bill, would be deeply disturbed by any inference that she or they possessed any extraordinary virtues or talents. On the contrary, they would all emphasize the power of ordinary people to change their lives and the lives of others through the kind of spiritual discipline so successfully exemplified in Alcoholics Anonymous. I am happy to make this transcript available to persons who are sincerely interested in learning more about Alcoholics Anonymous and its message. It is a way of sharing some of the insight's which made and still make Alcoholics Anonymous a vital force in people's lives. I ask only that the transcript be held in the spirit in which it is offered and not used for publicity or in an effort to magnify any individual.
--John F. Seiberling

Henrietta's Home, The Gate Lodge

Where Bill W. and Dr. Bob Met,

5:00 P.M., Mother's Day, May 12, 1935

Transcript Of Remarks by Henrietta B. Seiberling

I would like to tell about Bob in the beginning. Bob and Ann came into the Oxford Group, which, as you know, was the movement which tried to recapture the power of first Century Christianity in the modern world, and a quality of life which we must always exercise. Someone spoke to me about Bob Smith's drinking. He didn't think that people knew it. And I decided that the people who shared in the Oxford group had never shared very costly things to make Bob lose his pride and share what he thought would cost him a great deal. So I decided to gather together some Oxford Group people for a meeting, and that was in T. Henry Williams' house. We met afterwards there for five or six years every Wednesday night.

I warned Ann that I was going to have this meeting. I didn't tell her it was for Bob, but I said, "Come prepared to mean business. There is going to be no pussyfooting around. And we all shared very deeply our shortcomings, and what we had victory over, and then there was silence, and I waited and thought, "Will Bob say something?" Sure enough, in that deep, serious tone of his, he said, "Well, you good people have all shared things that I am sure were very costly to you, and I am going to tell you something which may cost me my profession. I am a silent drinker, and I can't stop." This was weeks before Bill came to Akron. So we said, "Do you want to go down on your knees and pray?" And he said, "Yes." So we did.

And the next morning, I, who knew nothing about alcoholism (I thought a person should drink like a gentleman, and that's all), was saying a prayer for Bob. I said, "God, I don't know anything about drinking, but I told Bob That I was sure that if he lived this way of life, he could quit drinking. Now you have to help me." Something said To me - I call it "guidance" - it was like a voice in the top of my head - "Bob must not touch one drop of Alcohol." I knew that wasn't my thought. So I called Bob, and said I had guidance for him - and this is very important.

He came over at 10 in the morning, and I told him that my guidance was that he mustn't touch one drop of alcohol. He was very disappointed, because he thought guidance would mean seeing somebody or going someplace. And then - this is something very relevant - he said, "Henrietta, I don't understand it. Nobody understands it." Now that was the state of the world when we were beginning. He said, "Some doctor had written a book about it, but he doesn't understand it. I don't like the stuff. I don't want to drink." I said, "Well, Bob, that is what I have been guided about." And that was the beginning of our meetings, long before Bill ever came.

Now let me recall some of Bill's very words about his experience. Bill, when he was in a hotel in Akron and down to a few dollars and owed his bill after his business venture fell through, looked at the cocktail room and was tempted and thought, "Well, I'll just go in there and get drunk and forget it all, and that will be the end of it." Instead, having been sober five months in the Oxford Group, he said a prayer. He got the guidance to look in a ministers directory, and a strange thing happened.

He just looked in there, and he put his finger on one name: Tunks. And that was no coincidence, because Dr. Tunks was Mr. Harvey Firestone's minister, and Mr. Firestone had brought 60 of the Oxford Group people down there for 10 days out of gratitude for helping his son, who drank too much. His son had quit for a year and a half or so. Out of the act of gratitude of this one father, this whole chain started.

So Bill called Dr. Tunks, and Dr. Tunks gave him a list of names. One of them was Norman Sheppard, who was a close friend of mine and knew what I was trying to do for Bob. Norman said, "I have to go to New York tonight but you can call Henrietta Seiberling, "When he told the story, Bill shortened it by just saying that he called Dr. Tunks, but I did not know Dr. Tunks. Bill said that he had his last nickel, and he thought, "Well, I'll call her."

So I, who was desperate to help Bob in something I didn't know much about, was ready. Bill called, and I will never forget what he said: "I'm from the Oxford Group and I'm a Rum Hound." Those were his words. I thought, "This is really manna from Heaven." And I said, "You come right out here." And my thought was to put those two men together. Bill, looking back, thought he was out to help someone else. Actually, he was out to get help for himself, no thought of helping anyone else, because he was desperate. But that is the way that God helps us if we let God direct our lives. And so he came out to my house, and he stayed for dinner. And I told him to come to church with me next morning and I would get Bob, which I did.

Bill stayed in Akron. He didn't have any money. There was a neighbor of mine, John Gammeter, who had seen the change in my life brought by the Oxford Group, and I called him and asked him to put Bill up at the country club for two weeks or so, just to keep him in town. After that, Bill went to stay with Bob and Ann for three months, and we started working on Bill Dotson and Ernie Galbraith.

The need was there, and all of the necessary elements were furnished by God. Bill the promoter, and I, not being an alcoholic, for perspective. Every Wednesday night I would speak on some new experience or spiritual idea I had read. That's the way we all grew. Eventually the meetings moved to King School. Some man from Hollywood came, an actor, and he said that he had been all over the country and that there was something in the King School group that wasn't in any other group. I think it was our great stress and reliance on guidance and quiet times.
Bill did a grand job. We can all see in his life what the Oxford Group people had told us in their message: That if we turn our lives to God and let him run it, he will take our shortcomings and make them valuable in His way and give us our hearts desire. And when I got the word that Bill had gone on, I sat there, and it was just as if someone had spoken to me again on top of my head. Something said to me, "Verily, verily, he has received his reward." So I went to the Bible, and there it was, in Matthew VI. Then I looked at Bill's story in Alcoholics Anonymous where Bill had said that all his failures were because he always wanted people to think he was somebody. In the first edition of the book, he said he always wanted to make his mark among people. And by letting God run his life, God took his ego and gave him his hearts desire in God's way. And when he was gone, he was on the front page of the New York Times, famous all over the world. So it does verify what the Oxford Group people had told him.

Father Dowling, a Jesuit Priest, had first met our group in the early days in Chicago, and he came to Akron to see us. And then he went on to New York to see the others. And he said to one of the four men, "This is one of the most beautiful things that has come into the world. But I want to warn you that the devil will try to destroy it." Of course, it's true, and one of the first things that the devil could have used was having money, and having sanatoriums as the men were planning. Much to Bob's and Bill's and Ann's surprise, I said, "No, we'll never take any money."
Another way where I saw that the devil could try to destroy us was having prominent names. The other night I heard on TV special about alcoholics, a man explaining why they are anonymous. And he showed that he didn't really know why. He just said that it wouldn't do to let people know that you were an alcoholic. That's not the reason. In fact, the surest way to stay sober is to let people know that you are an alcoholic because then you have lost something of yourself. I would say that the second way that I saw that the devil would be trying to destroy us was to have any names. Those you think that they are prominent or that they have become leaders, all fail people because no one is on top spiritually all the time. So I said, "We'll never have any names."

I feel that the whole wonderful experience of Alcoholics Anonymous came in answer to a growing great need in the world, and this was met by the combination of Bill, who was a catalyst and promoter, and Bob, with his great humility (if you spoke to him about his contribution, he'd say, "Oh, I just work here.) and Ann, who supplied a homeyness for our men in the beginning.
And I tried to give to the people something of my experience and faith. What I was most concerned with is that we always go back to faith. This brings me to the third thing that would be destructive to the early days, Bob and Bill said to me. "Henrietta, I don't think we should talk too much about religion or God." I said to them, "Well, we're not out to please the alcoholics. They have been pleasing themselves all these years. We are out to please God. And if you don't talk about what God does, and your faith, and your guidance, then you might as well be the Rotary Club or something like that. Because God is your only source of power." And finally they agreed. And they weren't afraid any more. It is my great hope that they will never be afraid to acknowledge God and what he has done for them.

The last AA dinner that I went to, over 3,000 people were there. And it was the first meeting that I went to which I was disappointed in. There were two witnesses there, a man and a woman, and you would have thought they were giving you a description of a psychiatrist's work on them. Their progress was always on the level of psychology. And I spoke to Bill afterwards and I said that there was no spirituality there or talk of what God had done in their lives. They were giving views, not news of what God had done. And Bill said, "I know, but they think there were so many people that need this and they don't want to send them away." So there again has come up this same old bugaboo - without the realization that they have lost their source of power.

This makes me think of the story of the little Scotch minister who was about to preach his first sermon, and his mother hugged him and said, "Now, Bobbie, don't forgot to say a word for Jesus. Your mother always wants a word for God."

And then there is one other thought I'd always like to stress, and that is the real fact of God's guidance. People can always count on guidance, although it seems elusive at times.

Congress of the United States

House of Representatives, September 11, 1973

At the request of my mother, Henrietta Seibeling,

I am sending to you the attached transcript of remarks on Alcoholics Anonymous.

Sincerely,

John F. Seiberling

Member of Congress