Morning Hope 8am Meeting on Zoom
/Join us every morning, 365 days a year, at 8 a.m. EST!
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/8312001369
Meeting ID: 831 200 1369
The only requirement is a desire to stop drinking
Morning Hope Group AA Meeting
PLEASE READ BOTH PAGES AND FOLLOW FORMAT
For first time Chairs:
Chairing meetings is a learned skill, here are some suggestions to aid in that process. It is a good idea to get people lined up to do the readings before the meeting starts. (demonstrates preparedness) The chair's comments on the readings should maybe be 5 minutes if there are less people you can talk longer. It is your discretion given how many attendants are at the meeting. It is generally frowned upon to comment after people have shared. (crosstalk) Bear in mind that the chairs' behavior sets the model for the rest of the group, and can demonstrate to a new person the proper behavior in a meeting.(responsibility)
Start
1. Good Morning welcome to the Morning Hope group of Alcoholics Anonymous. My name is___________and I am an alcoholic.
2. Let us open the meeting with a minute (60 seconds) of silence followed by the Serenity Prayer: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, and Wisdom to know the difference.”
3. Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. There are no dues or fees for AA membership; we are self-supporting through our own contributions. AA is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organization or institution; does not wish to engage in any controversy; neither endorses nor opposes any causes. Our primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety.
4. I have asked a group member to read: How it Works from Chapter 5 of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous each person read a paragraph or line then pass.
5. Read the short form of the Twelfth Tradition or Promise of the month of Alcoholics Anonymous.
6. Is anyone new to the meeting today that would like to introduce themselves?
7. WHEN ASKING THESE QUESTIONS PLEASE DO NOT CALL ANYONE THAT DOES NOT VOLUNTEER!!!
Is anyone counting days? Is anyone just coming back? Are there any Anniversaries this month?
8. Home group members please raise your hands? If you don’t have a home group why not join ours?
9. Format:
Monday: Daily Reflection https://www.aa.org/pages/en_US/daily-reflection
Tuesday: Daily Reflection https://www.aa.org/pages/en_US/daily-reflection
Wednesday As Bill Sees It- https://www.aa.org/assets/en_US/aa-literature/b-5-as-bill-sees-it Chairperson will read the literature and Reflect on the Reading
Thursday: Daily Reflection https://www.aa.org/pages/en_US/daily-reflection
Friday- Speaker Experience, strength and hope, Chairperson will introduce the Speaker and Speaker will tell their story till 8:30 am
Saturday Big Book read the big the Big Book for 10 minutes and then open the meeting for sharing
Sunday Open Discussion Topic (AA APPROVED)
Please keep your share to the subject to alcoholism and please do not cross talk.
Cross Talk definition: “Feedback and crosstalk are discouraged here. Crosstalk is giving advice to others who have already shared, speaking directly to another person rather than to the group and questioning or interrupting the person speaking at the time. If cross-talk occurs, the chair will remind you of this policy.”
10. Before we OPEN the meeting is anyone sitting on something that they would like to share? If not, please keep your share to 2-3 minutes and if you could keep your shares to topic the alcoholism that would be great. The meeting is now open, the chair will call on people in a round robin fashion so that everyone has a chance to share. Please remember the opinions expressed here are based on an individuals experience and are not necessarily the opinions of AA.
At 8:55 ask:
11. If you would like a phone list or would like to chair a meeting please email morninghopeinthecloud@gmail.com. If you’re willing to be a temporary sponsor, please put your information in the chat. If you need a temporary sponsor, please see one of these people after the meeting or reach out to them directly.
Are there any A.A. announcements?
12. We have a 7th tradition that states that we are self-supporting declining outside contributions, please drop an extra dollar when you go to an in person meeting.
13. Please ask someone to read Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow.
14. In the spirit of anonymity, please remember that who you see here, what you hear here, let it stay here. Please ask someone to close the meeting or close the meeting yourself.
HOW IT WORKS
Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. Those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program, usually men and women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves. There are such unfortunates. They are not at fault; they seem to have been born that way. They are naturally incapable of grasping and developing a manner of living which demands rigorous honesty. Their chances are less than average. There are those, too, who suffer from grave emotional and mental disorders, but many of them do recover if they have the capacity to be honest.
Our stories disclose in a general way what we used to be like, what happened, and what we are like now. If you have decided you want what we have and are willing to go to any length to get it — then you are ready to take certain steps.
At some of these we balked. We thought we could find an easier, softer way. But we could not. With all the earnestness at our command, we beg of you to be fearless and thorough from the very start. Some of us have tried to hold on to our old ideas and the result was nil until we let go absolutely.
Remember that we deal with alcohol — cunning, baffling, powerful! Without help it is too much for us. But there is One who has all power — that One is God. May you find Him now!
Half measures availed us nothing. We stood at the turning point. We asked His protection and care with complete abandon.
Here are the steps we took, which are suggested as a program of recovery:
1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol — that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
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.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
Many of us exclaimed, “What an order! I can’t go through with it.’’ Do not be discouraged. No one among us has been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence to these principles. We are not saints. The point is, that we are willing to grow along spiritual lines. The principles we have set down are guides to progress. We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection.
Our description of the alcoholic, the chapter to the agnostic, and our personal adventures before and after make clear three pertinent ideas:
(a) That we were alcoholic and could not manage our own lives.
(b) That probably no human power could have relieved our alcoholism.
(c) That God could and would if He were sought.
Reprinted from pages 58-60 in the book Alcoholics Anonymous. Copyright © by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. 1939, 1955, 1976, 2001.
The AA Promises
1. If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are half way through.
2.We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness.
3. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.
4. We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace.
5. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others.
6. That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear.
7. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows.
8. Self-seeking will slip away.
9. Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change.
10. Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us.
11. We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us.
12. We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves
Are these extravagant promises? We think not. They are being fulfilled among us - sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will always materialize if we work for them.
The Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous
1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon A.A. unity.
2. For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority—a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants, they do not govern.
3. The only requirement for A.A. membership is a desire to stop drinking.
4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or A.A. as a whole.
5. Each group has but one primary purpose—to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
6. An A.A. group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the A.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
7. Every A.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
8. Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
9. A.A., as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
10. Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the A.A. name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
11. Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio and films.
12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.
Copyright © 2017 by AA Grapevine, Inc., and Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. First printing 1952. Revised 1981.
All rights reserved. www.aa.org
YESTERDAY...TODAY AND TOMORROW
THERE are two days in every week about which we should not worry, two days which should be kept free from fear and apprehension.
One of these days is YESTERDAY with its mistakes and cares, its faults and blunders, its aches and pains. YESTERDAY has passed forever beyond our control.
All the money in the world cannot bring back YESTERDAY. We cannot undo a single act we performed; we cannot erase a single word we said. YESTERDAY is gone.
The other day we should not worry about is TOMORROW with its possible adversaries, its burdens, its large promise and poor performance. TOMORROW is also beyond our immediate control.
TOMORROW'S sun will rise, either in splendor or behind a mask of clouds--but it will rise. Until it does, we have no stake in TOMORROW for it is as yet unborn.
This leaves only one day--TODAY--. Any man can fight the battles of just one day. It is only when you and I add the burdens of those two awful eternities--YESTERDAY and TOMORROW that we break down.
It is not the Experience of TODAY that drives men mad--it is remorse or bitterness for something which happened YESTERDAY and the dread of what TOMORROW may bring.
LET US, THEREFORE, LIVE BUT ONE DAY AT A TIME.