Sobriety Chronicles

AA Prayers and Readings

 AA Prayers and Readings Commonly Used in AA Meetings

These AA prayers and readings below are commonly used in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings and have accompanied me throughout my years in recovery. I have never found them to be magic words, but rather gentle reminders to seek humility, guidance, courage, gratitude, and the willingness to help others. They have become part of the daily practice that has helped me remain sober one day at a time.  These prayers have given me reason to have faith, trust in the process, and helped me set boundaries when dealing with life on life’s terms.

Prayers and readings that are most commonly used in AA include:

  1. The Serenity Prayer (most commonly used at the beginning or end of meetings)

“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.”

  1. The Lord’s Prayer (Our Father) (used by many groups, though not all)

“Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.”

  1. The Third Step Prayer (from the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous)

“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. May I do Thy will always! “

  1. The Seventh Step Prayer (from the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous)

“My Creator, I am now willing that 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. Amen.”

  1. The Eleventh Step Prayer (the Prayer of St. Francis, printed in the 12 Steps and 12 Traditions)

Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi

Lord, make me an instrument 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 doubt, I may bring faith.
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, than to be understood.
To love, than 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.

—Saint Francis of Assisi—

  1. The Set Aside Prayer (widely used in AA, especially in Big Book and Step study groups, though it is not found in AA conference-approved literature)

“God, please set aside everything I think I know about myself, my disease, the 12 Steps, and You, for an open mind and a new experience of myself, my disease, the 12 Steps, and especially You! Please help me to see the truth.”

  1. The Responsibility Declaration (“I am responsible, when anyone, anywhere reaches out for help, I want the hand of A.A. always to be there. And for that: I am responsible.”), Which is not a prayer but is often recited at the close of meetings.
  2. The AA 9 Step Promises (again, not a prayer, but often read during meetings).  “If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are half way through. We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others. That feeling of uselessness and self pity will disappear. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows. Self-seeking will slip away. Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change. Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us. We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us. 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.”
  3.  The AA 10th Step Promises (again, not a prayer, but often read during meetings).  “And we have ceased fighting anything or anyone—even alcohol. For by this time sanity will have returned. We will seldom be interested in liquor. If tempted, we recoil from it as from a hot flame. We react sanely and normally, and we will find that this has happened automatically. We will see that our new attitude toward liquor has been given us without any thought or effort on our part. It just comes! That is the miracle of it. We are not fighting it, neither are we avoiding temptation. We feel as though we had been placed in a position of neutrality—safe and protected. We have not even sworn off. Instead, the problem has been removed. It does not exist for us. We are neither cocky nor are we afraid. That is our experience. That is how we react so long as we keep in fit spiritual condition.”

I think these prayers helped me tremendously in my own sobriety and life trials. I share them personally as an excellent resource for all in sobriety.  In early sobriety, it was the Serenity Prayer that helped me set boundaries.  It is never about religion; it is about your own belief in a Higher Power.  In my opinion, it’s more about faith, trust, courage, and hope when all seems lost and to no avail.  In all those times, I can attest that prayer works.