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. 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 make prudent use of the foresight and power of choice that my Higher Power has given me, to plan wisely, one Step at a time, without becoming a slave to apprehension, regret, or anxiety. I pray that my Higher Power’s will be done through the exercising of my own will. Today I Will Remember May I know power through powerlessness, victory through surrender, triumph through defeat. May I learn to relinquish any trace of secret pride that I can do it by myself. Let my will be absorbed and steered by my Higher Power. Today I Will Remember May I learn to control my urge to control, my compulsion to manage, neaten, organize, and label the lives of others. May I learn to accept situations and people as they are instead of as I would like them to be. Thus, may I do away with the ongoing frustrations that a controlling person, by nature, faces continually. May I be entirely ready to have my Higher Power remove this defect of character. Today I Will Remember

I must never forget who and what I am and where I come from. I have to remember the nature of my illness and what it was like before I came to recovery. I’ll try to keep the memory green, yet not spend my time dwelling morbidly on the past. I won’t be afraid to enjoy what is beautiful and to believe that as I give to others, so others will give to me. Can I ever afford to forget what it used to be like, even for one minute? 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 BOOKMARK your favorite meditations (press the star in the upper right-hand corner) and easily return to them (press the star in the bottom toolbar). Humility is a puzzling concept. We know a lot about humiliation, but humility is a new idea. It sounds suspiciously like groveling, bowing, and scraping. But that's not what humility is at all. True humility is, simply, acceptance of who we are.

November 28, 2023

I pray that the bright colors of this day may not be blurred by muted vagaries of the future or dulled by storm-gray remnants from the past. I pray that my Higher Power will help me to choose my actions and concerns out of the wealth of busyness that each day offers. Today I Will Remember 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

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. 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 As a result, I lived a fantasy life in which happiness was all but nonexistent. No wonder I rarely smiled and hardly ever laughed aloud. Do I still think in terms of forever? Today I Pray 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 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

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 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

Objective: The Lord be With You! I'm Deacon Keith Fournier. I am excited to announce our 'DAILY READINGS ' class. A first of a kind, ready-to-use Daily Readings lesson plan. 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. When I sit quietly and compare my life today with the way it used to be, the difference is almost beyond belief. But things aren’t always rosy; some days are a lot better than others. I tend to accept the bad days more easily on an intellectual level than I do emotionally, or at gut level. There are no pat answers, but part of the solution surely lies in a constant effort to practice and live all of the Twelve Steps. Do I accept the fact that my Higher Power will never give me more than I can handle—one day at a time? Today I Pray To truly desire to do God’s will, therein lies happiness fora human being. We start out wanting our own way. We want ourwills to be satisfied. We take and we do not give. Graduallywe find that we are not happy when we are selfish, so we beginto make allowances for other peoples’ wills. But this againdoes not give us full happiness, and we begin to see that theonly way to be truly happy is to try to do God’s will. In thesetimes of meditation, we seek to get guidance so that we canfind God’s will for us.It is essential for my personal survival and that of theFellowship that I not use A.A. to put myself in thelimelight. Anonymity is a way for me to work on my humility.Since pride is one of my most dangerous shortcomings, practicing In the beginning, the press could not understand ourrefusal of all personal publicity. They were genuinelybaffled by our insistence upon anonymity. Then they gotthe point. Here was something rare in the world — asociety which said it wished to publicize its principlesand its work, but not its individual members. The presswas delighted with this attitude. Ever since, thesefriends have reported A.A. with an enthusiasm which themost ardent members would find hard to match.