We Can All See Light in Our Brokenness

STEP FIVE IN A.A.: “We . . . admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.”
Keith Miller writes about his own experience with how hard this step can be. Keith, a Protestant, called a Catholic priest who lived 500 miles away and asked, “Would you hear my confession?” He made a long list of his character flaws and defects and the many people he had wronged. Then he traveled to the priest’s home city, sat before him, and read aloud the entire list without even looking up. At the end, Miller held his head in his hands, waiting for a response. There was none. There was nothing but silence. Miller kept expecting the blow to fall. Nothing. When he finally forced himself to raise his head, he saw that the priest was crying, “My God, Keith,” he said, “that’s my list too.”
To this day, Keith attributes his healing to the honesty of that encounter. He later developed a ritual each night of creating a mini-inventory of his short comings, confessing those and jotting a note to make amends, if appropriate. Then, breathing a prayer of gratitude, he goes to sleep.
….and when, in my earlier life I hit bottom, Jesus offered his hand, assuring me that the bottom was firm.
Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. James 5:16
I love you, St Markians, Dcn Ash