TWhen I was nineteen, I had already started drinking and I realize now that my alcoholism had already begun. I craved a drink from the very first one. About the same time, I entered the minor seminary in Rochester, NY, and began my studies for the RC priesthood. I spent a few years there and then went on to the major seminary in the same city. The remarkable thing about that period was that I didn’t crave or rarely even thought about a drink. Not only that, but my life seemed to run along smoothly for that entire period of years. I seemed to be fairly well balanced in my thinking and my emotions were in balance as well.
After I left the seminary and chose to come out and enter the secular life, I began to drink again and everything went to hell in a hand basket. And, it got worse as time went on, until I found this program so many years later.
When I did come in, you told me that the answer was a spiritual way of life. You told me that I had to find a Power greater than myself and come to a spiritual awakening. This was to be done by the steps you offered me and I was to live by these steps the rest of my days. If I did that, you told me that I would be relieved of my obsession to drink and that I would begin to live a manageable life. This I found to be true.
The reason I brought up my early history is this: during that period, when I was in the seminary, I was living the spiritual life back then. The same kind of life being offered as the answer, when I came into the program. It’s obvious that it worked then and it’s working now. It’s remarkable to me to look back and see the connection between those two periods, and the separation by the years of drinking and living the unamanageable life I came to know so well.
This spiritual way of life has increasingly been the answer to all my problems, if I will avail myself of it. This has been my experience for a lot of years now. I hope it is yours and all those who come and struggle to obtain what this program offers, recovery from a fatal illness and happiness and peace of mind and heart. I know for me, if I continue to live this way of life, I will probably never have to go back to where I came from. I won’t drink. I know that it’s but a day at a time, as it is for all of us, but the promise is there. It’s being fulfilled everyday for most of us. I pray it continues.
What I was thinking and struggling to find words for.