SPIRITUALITY '03

We are composite beings, we are made up of spirit and matter, that is a statement that has been made and regarded as true by most of the philosophers, religious and secular throughout the ages.

But what does it mean? Sting once sang that we are spirits living in a material world…Madonna sang about being a material girl, (gotta love the 80’s). If we go back further to St Augustine the ‘battle’ against Manichaeism warned us against dualism and claimed there could be a marrying of the material and the spiritual. In doing so he provided us with enough evidence to warrant truth to the above statement, humans are made up of two major elements, we are beings that consist of both spirit and matter!

When we try to break these elements down,

we are able to draw many conclusions from the material, for example, matter is limited to space and time, I cannot put my hand through that wall, matter decays…no (material) thing lasts forever. “You cant take it with you”…cant take it where? The spiritual however, holds for us many mysteries. It goes beyond the senses, it is often intangible, some would argue that spirituality is relative to the individual, to their conception, their state of mind, of culture, of background. Relative to their experience. AA  suggests we become honest, open and willing to believe in a spiritual concept in order to solve our common problem. The problem is a mental one the solution is a spiritual one, spirit over mind over matter!

If we can attain enough willingness to believe that the program is indeed primarily a spiritual program and therefore that we need to grow spiritually, it should go hand in hand that we are careful about this development. Hopefully this part of the website will provide us with some thoughts, ideas, resources etc to nurture the spirit within, to grasp the intangible treasure offered by our founders, to understand, experience and grow in an area that many of us have never known, been bamboozled (sp?) by, been defiantly antagonistic towards, and are possibly in need of much assistance to attain a level of maturity. If you are like this alcoholic there has been much immaturity in many areas and a tireless need for growth!!!

As we build this area of the site we will post links to other reputable sites as well as post some home grown reflections that will hopefully illumine the mind, stir the soul and strengthen the spirit, we will address age old questions such as who am I, what am I doing here, where am I going, who is God and what is love? Once again I ask you to begin with an open mind, open to the possibility that there is a God, that He loves you, has a particular purpose for you, that knowledge of His will is attainable, and the experience of deep peace, love and joy can become a reality. We who have known the pain of addiction can through a thorough working of the 12 steps understand how unsatisfied we have been when immersed in this material world and hopefully we will be able to turn to St Augustine in agreement with the statement that, “our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee, O Lord”