Verbatim Prayers are in Green
Prayers given by others are in purple
Prayers derived from the Big Book are in blue.
Prayers given by others are in purple
Prayers derived from the Big Book are in blue.
Step 1 Prayers
“Help!”
“God, please set aside for me everything I think I know about You, me, the 12 steps, a spiritual experience, ______, so that I can have an open mind for a new experience with you, me, the steps, a spiritual experience, ____.” (Set Aside Prayer)
“God, help me to concede to the inner most core of my being that I am a real alcoholic (addict, al-anon, broken human being), that I am a man/woman who has lost his/her legs, I will never grow new ones. Help me to see in the movie of my mind what I would become but for your Grace.” (Richard C., derived from pgs. 30-31)
"God, please keep me sober and clean today and all my days no matter what happens or how I feel." (Richard C.)
“God show me the truth of my powerlessness when sober, whether I am bedeviled by trouble with personal relationships, by lack of control of my emotional nature, being prey to misery and depression, making unable to make a living (in the fullest sense of the word), being full of fear, unhappy, of real help to others,” (pg. 52)
Step 2 Prayers
“Help me to honestly ask myself and uncover what spiritual terms mean to me so that I can use my own conception, no matter how limited it is, to begin with.” (pg. 47)
“God, burn it into my consciousness that I can get well regardless of anyone. The only condition is that I trust you and clean house.” (pg. 98)
“God help me to sweep away prejudice and barriers to You, to search fearlessly, to find the Great Reality deep down within myself. Help me to search diligently within myself and join others on the Broad Highway. Let the consciousness of my belief come to me.” (pg. 55)
“Help me to fearlessly face the choice that either you are everything or you are nothing.” (pg. 53)
"God, through the description of the alcoholic (addict, al-anon, broken person…), the chapter to the agnostic, and the truth of my own experience before and after sobriety, convince me of three ideas:
- That I’m an alcoholic (addict, al-anon, broken person) and my life is unmanageable by me.
- That no human power can relieve me of my alcoholism.
- That You can and will if sought. (pg. 60)
Step 3
“God help me to be convinced that any life run on self-will can hardly be a success.” (pg. 60)
“God, help me to sincerely take the position as Your child, Your agent, Your employee.” (pg. 62)
God, I offer myself to Thee - to build with me and to do with me as Thou wilt. Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will. Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love, and Thy Way of life.” (pg. 63)
Step 4
“God help me to get down to causes and conditions." (pg. 64)
"Write through me your healing and liberating truth. Thy will be done.” (Richard C.)
"God help me to know my problems are of my own making, that bottles (drugs, co-dependency, etc..) were only a symbol. Help me to stop fighting anything or anyone.” (pg. 103)
“God help me to realize the people who wronged me were spiritually sick. Help me to show them the same tolerance, pity (compassion), and patience I would cheerfully grant a sick friend. ‘This is a sick man. How can I be helpful to him? God save me from being angry. They will be done.’ Show me how to take a kindly and tolerant view of each and every one. Help me to put out of my mind the wrongs others have done and resolutely look for my own mistakes.” (pg. 67)
“God, demonstrate, through me, what You can do. Free me of my fear and direct my attention to what you would have me be.” (pg. 68)
“God please mold my sex ideal and help me to live up to it.” (pg. 69)
“God guide me and give me sanity and the strength to do the right thing. What would you have me do in this specific matter.” (pg. 70)
Step 5
“Thank you, God, that I know You better. Help me to know if I have omitted anything since we are building an arch through which I can walk a free man/woman at last.” (pg. 75)
Step 6
“God, I’m still clinging to this defect, _________ and won’t let go. Help me be willing to let you remove it!” (pg. 76)
Step 7
"My Creator, I am now willing you should have all of me, good and bad. I pray that you now remove from me every single defect of character which stands in the way of my usefulness to you and my fellows. Grant me strength, as I go out from here to do your bidding.” (pg. 76)
"Humility is perpetual quietness of heart. It is to have no trouble. It is never to be fretted or vexed, irritable or sore; to wonder at nothing that is done to me, to feel nothing done against me. It is to be at rest when nobody praises me, and when I am blamed or despised, it is to have a blessed home in myself where I can go in and shut the door and kneel to my Father in secret and be at peace, as in a deep sea of calmness, when all around and about is seeming trouble." -(Inscription on desk plaque of Dr. Bob's)
Steps 8 and 9
“God, help me to remember I agreed to go to any lengths for victory over alcohol and to find a spiritual experience. Please give me the willingness to go out to my fellows and repair the damage done in the past. Give me the strength and direction to do the right thing, no matter what the personal consequences may be.” (pg. 76)
“God help me to know what the right decision is in this particular drastic step, this amend, that affects others. Help me to place the outcome in Your hands.” (pg. 80)
“God, this situation involves the most terrible human emotion, jealousy. Please help me to keep _____ happiness uppermost in my mind as I pray for knowledge of what to do in this intimate situation.” (pg. 82)
“My Creator, please show me within my family the way of patience, tolerance, kindliness, and love.” (pg. 83)
Step 10
“God, I’m watching and seeing (selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, fear). Please remove _____ e.g. “the selfishness to not answer this call, the dishonesty about my work hours, my resentment towards my co-worker/friend/sponsor, my fear of what others think of me.” (pg. 84)
“How can I best serve thee? – Thy will (not mine) be done.” (pg. 85)
“God help me to receive strength, inspiration, and direction from You, who has all knowledge and power.” (pg. 85)
"God please heal me of my mental, emotional, and spiritual disorders and let me be obedient to you in al things and let me know you love me and please keep me sober and clean and abstinent to day and all my days no matter what happens or how I feel. Thy will be done, amen" - given to me by Richard C. in 1985 to use after the written tenth step.
Step 11
“God, I ask for Your forgiveness for the resentments, selfishness, dishonesty, and/or fear that I am seeing in reviewing my day. What corrective measures should I take?” (pg. 86)
“God, please direct my thinking and divorce it from self-pity, dishonest, or self-seeking motives as I consider my plans for today.” (pg. 86)
“God, I’m facing indecision and can’t determine what to do. Please give me an inspiration, an intuitive thought, or a decision.” (pg. 86)
“God please show me all through today what my next step is to be, that I be given whatever I need to take care of such problems. Please free me from self-will.” (pg. 87)
“God, I’m agitated and/or doubtful. Please give me the right thought or action.” (pg. 87)
“Thy will be done.” (pg. 88)
“God, I seek knowledge of your will for me and the power to carry it out.”
“Lord, make me a channel of thy peace
– that where there is hatred, I may bring love
– that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness
– that where there is discord, I may bring harmony
– that where there is error, I may bring truth
– that where there is despair, I may bring hope
– that where there are shadows, I may bring light
– that where there is sadness, I may bring joy.
Lord grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted
– to understand, then to be understood
– to love, then to be loved.
For it is by self-forgetting that one finds.
It is by forgiving that one is forgiven.
It is by dying that one awakens to Eternal Life. Amen.” (12&12 pg. 99)
Step 12
“God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change,
Courage to change the things we can,
And wisdom to know the difference.” (12 and 12 pg. 125)
“What can I do today for the man or woman who is still sick?” (pg 164)
I get on my knees before my Creator, Maker, before the Holy One, our Father, our God of many names from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of a vital connection with my Maker, my husband, the Holy One, with the Mystical body of Christ, I may be strengthened with power through God’s Spirit in my inner being, so that the anointed one, the Messiah, the Holy One may dwell in my heart through faith - that I may be rooted and grounded in love and thereby have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that I may be filled with all the fullness of God.
- adapted directly from Ephesians 3:14-19
“In You,
with You,
for You,
Lord, make us a channel of your love and truth:
– that where there is rage, we may bring calm,
– that where there is fear, we may bring courage,
– that where there is hurt, we may bring healing,
– that where there is loneliness, we may bring connection,
– that where there are lies, we may bring freedom.
Lord grant that we may seek rather:
– to understand, than to be understood,,
– to please You, than to be please people,
– to love, than to be loved.
For:
it is by anonymity that we are remembered.
It is by forgiving that we are forgiven.
It is by dying that we are reborn to the Realm of Spirit.
Amen.
(adaptation of the Prayer of St Francis)
with You,
for You,
Lord, make us a channel of your love and truth:
– that where there is rage, we may bring calm,
– that where there is fear, we may bring courage,
– that where there is hurt, we may bring healing,
– that where there is loneliness, we may bring connection,
– that where there are lies, we may bring freedom.
Lord grant that we may seek rather:
– to understand, than to be understood,,
– to please You, than to be please people,
– to love, than to be loved.
For:
it is by anonymity that we are remembered.
It is by forgiving that we are forgiven.
It is by dying that we are reborn to the Realm of Spirit.
Amen.
(adaptation of the Prayer of St Francis)
To close, the following is the text of the original Preamble, from the website called: silkworth.net:
AA Old Preamble – 1940
“We are gathered here because we are faced with the fact that we are powerless over alcohol and unable to do anything about it without the help of a Power greater than ourselves.
We feel that each person’s religious views, if any, are his own affair. The simple purpose of the program of Alcoholics Anonymous is to show what may be done to enlist the aid of a Power greater than ourselves regardless of what our individual conception of that Power may be.
In order to form a habit of depending upon and referring all we do to that Power, we must at first apply ourselves with some diligence. By often repeating these acts, they become habitual and the help rendered becomes natural to us.
We have all come to know that as alcoholics we are suffering from a serious illness for which medicine has no cure.
Our condition may be the result of an allergy which makes us different from other people. It has never been by any treatment with which we are familiar, permanently cured. The only relief we have to offer is absolute abstinence, the second meaning of A.A.
There are no dues or fees. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. Each member squares his debt by helping others to recover.
An Alcoholics Anonymous is an alcoholic who through application and adherence to the A.A. program has forsworn the use of any and all alcoholic beverage in any form.
The moment he takes so much as one drop of beer, wine, spirits or any other alcoholic beverage he automatically loses all status as a member of Alcoholics Anonymous.
A.A. is not interested in sobering up drunks who are not sincere in their desire to remain sober for all time. Not being reformers, we offer our experience only to those who want it.
We have a way out on which we can absolutely agree and on which we can join in harmonious action. Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our program. Those who do not recover are people who will not or simply cannot give themselves to this simple program. Now you may like this program or you may not, but the fact remains, it works. It is our only chance to recover.
There is a vast amount of fun in the A.A. fellowship. Some people might be shocked at our seeming worldliness and levity but just underneath there lies a deadly earnestness and a full realization that we must put first things first and with each of us the first thing is our alcoholic problem. To drink is to die. Faith must work twenty-four hours a day in and through us or we perish.
In order to set our tone for this meeting I ask that we bow our heads in a few moments of silent prayer and meditation. I wish to remind you that whatever is said at this meeting expresses our own individual opinion as of today and as of up to this moment.
We do not speak for A.A. as a whole and you are free to agree or disagree as you see fit, in fact, it is suggested that you pay no attention to anything which might not be reconciled with what is in the A.A. Big Book.
If you don’t have a Big Book, it’s time you bought you one. Read it, study it, live with it, loan it, scatter it, and then learn from it what it means to be an A.A.”
AA Old Preamble – 1940
“We are gathered here because we are faced with the fact that we are powerless over alcohol and unable to do anything about it without the help of a Power greater than ourselves.
We feel that each person’s religious views, if any, are his own affair. The simple purpose of the program of Alcoholics Anonymous is to show what may be done to enlist the aid of a Power greater than ourselves regardless of what our individual conception of that Power may be.
In order to form a habit of depending upon and referring all we do to that Power, we must at first apply ourselves with some diligence. By often repeating these acts, they become habitual and the help rendered becomes natural to us.
We have all come to know that as alcoholics we are suffering from a serious illness for which medicine has no cure.
Our condition may be the result of an allergy which makes us different from other people. It has never been by any treatment with which we are familiar, permanently cured. The only relief we have to offer is absolute abstinence, the second meaning of A.A.
There are no dues or fees. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. Each member squares his debt by helping others to recover.
An Alcoholics Anonymous is an alcoholic who through application and adherence to the A.A. program has forsworn the use of any and all alcoholic beverage in any form.
The moment he takes so much as one drop of beer, wine, spirits or any other alcoholic beverage he automatically loses all status as a member of Alcoholics Anonymous.
A.A. is not interested in sobering up drunks who are not sincere in their desire to remain sober for all time. Not being reformers, we offer our experience only to those who want it.
We have a way out on which we can absolutely agree and on which we can join in harmonious action. Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our program. Those who do not recover are people who will not or simply cannot give themselves to this simple program. Now you may like this program or you may not, but the fact remains, it works. It is our only chance to recover.
There is a vast amount of fun in the A.A. fellowship. Some people might be shocked at our seeming worldliness and levity but just underneath there lies a deadly earnestness and a full realization that we must put first things first and with each of us the first thing is our alcoholic problem. To drink is to die. Faith must work twenty-four hours a day in and through us or we perish.
In order to set our tone for this meeting I ask that we bow our heads in a few moments of silent prayer and meditation. I wish to remind you that whatever is said at this meeting expresses our own individual opinion as of today and as of up to this moment.
We do not speak for A.A. as a whole and you are free to agree or disagree as you see fit, in fact, it is suggested that you pay no attention to anything which might not be reconciled with what is in the A.A. Big Book.
If you don’t have a Big Book, it’s time you bought you one. Read it, study it, live with it, loan it, scatter it, and then learn from it what it means to be an A.A.”