A.A. Monterey Newsletter

Published on 09/25/2023

Step 9 – “Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.” Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions – Page 83 ‘Many a razor-edged question can arise in other departments of life where this same principle is involved. Suppose, for instance, that we have drunk up a […]

Published on 08/22/2023

Step 8 – “Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all .” “Right here we need to fetch ourselves up sharply. It doesn’t make much sense when a real tosspot calls a kettle black. Let’s remember that alcoholics are not the only ones bedeviled by […]

Published on 07/25/2023

Step 7 – “Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.” “In all our strivings, so many of them well-intentioned, our crippling handicap had been our lack of humility, We had lacked the perspective to see that character-building and spiritual values had to come first, and that material satisfactions were not the purpose of living. Quite […]

Published on 06/28/2023

Step 6 – “Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.” “This is the Step that separates the men from the boys.”  So declares a well-loved clergyman who happens to be one of A.A.’s greatest friends.  He goes on to explain that any person capable of enough willingness and honesty to […]

Published on 05/26/2023

Step 5 – “Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.” “Few muddled attitudes have caused us more trouble than holding back on Step Five. Some people are unable to stay sober at all; others will relapse periodically until they really clean house. Even A.A. old-timers, sober […]

Published on 04/26/2023

Step 4 – “Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.” “Alcoholics especially should be able to see that instinct run wild in themselves is the underlying cause of their destructive drinking.  We have drunk to drown feelings of fear, frustration, and depression.  We have drunk to escape the guilt of passions and then […]

Published on 03/24/2023

Step 3 – “Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.” “Every man and woman who has joined A.A. and intends to stick has, without realizing it, made a beginning on Step Three. Isn’t it true that in all matters touching upon alcohol, […]

Published on 01/27/2023

Step 1 – “We admitted we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had become unmanageable.” “We know that little good can come to any alcoholic who joins AA unless he has first accepted his devastating weakness and all its consequences. Until he so humbles himself, his sobriety – if any – will be […]

Published on 12/15/2022

Step 12 – “Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.” “As I continued to go to meetings and work the Steps, something happened to me.  I felt confused because I wasn’t sure what it […]

Published on 11/28/2022

Step 11 – “Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.” “Those of us who have come to make regular use of prayer would no more do without it than we […]