Breathing Under Water, Week One: Weekly Summary
Sunday
Let me sum up the foundational ways that I believe Jesus and the Twelve Steps of AA are saying the same thing but with different vocabulary: We suffer to get well. We surrender to win. We die to live. We give it away to keep it.
—Richard Rohr
Monday
Radical powerlessness is radical freedom, liberating you from the need to control the ocean of life and freeing you to learn how best to navigate it.
—Rami Shapiro
Tuesday
To finally surrender ourselves to healing, we need to have three spaces opened within us—and all at the same time: our opinionated head, our closed-down heart, and our defensive and defended body. That is the work of spirituality.
—Richard Rohr
Wednesday
Acceptance becomes the strangest and strongest kind of power. Surrender is not giving up, as we often think; it’s a giving to the moment, the event, the person, the situation, and even God.
—Richard Rohr
Thursday
Jesus does not just praise good moral behavior or criticize immoral behavior, as we might expect. Instead, he talks about something caught in the eye. He knows that if we see rightly, the actions and behavior will eventually take care of themselves.
—Richard Rohr
Friday
We must all do our work. Be accountable and go heal, simultaneously, continuously. It’s never too late. Each of us is precious. We, together, must break every cycle that makes us forget this.
— adrienne maree brown
Week Twenty-Nine Practice
Releasing Our Resistance
The only thing that counts is not what humans want or try to do, but the mercy of God. —Romans 9:16, Jerusalem Bible
Were entirely ready to have God remove all of these defects of character.
—Step 6 of the Twelve Steps
Father Richard invites us to struggle with the paradoxical nature of God’s grace and our efforts:
Step 6 struggles with—and resolves—the old paradox of the chicken and the egg. It first recognizes that we have to work to see our many resistances, excuses, and blockages, but then we have to fully acknowledge that God alone can do the removing! But which should come first, grace or responsibility? The answer is that both come first.
All we can do is get out of the way and then the soul takes its natural course. Grace is inherent to creation from the beginning (Genesis 1:2), just like springtime; but it is a lot of work to get out of the way and allow that grace to fully operate and liberate.
It seems we must both surrender and take responsibility. Or, to reverse an old aphorism, we must pray as if it all depends on us, and work as if it all depends on God (yes, you read that correctly!). [1]
In the Breathing Under Water Companion Journal, Father Richard prompts readers to go deeper with Step 6:
- What prevents you from owning your defects of character? What keeps you from being entirely ready to let God take over?
- Are you more comfortable with acting or waiting? What happens if you approach a problem from a stance that is the opposite to the one you normally prefer?
- What would it look like for you to “work as if it all depends on God?” how would your prayer change if you embraced the understanding that you “pray as if it all depends on” you? [2]
References:
[1] Adapted from Richard Rohr, Breathing under Water: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps, 10th anniv. ed. (Cincinnati, OH: Franciscan Media, 2011, 2021), 49, 52.
[2] Richard Rohr, Breathing under Water Companion Journal: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps (Cincinnati, OH: Franciscan Media, 2015, 2021), 53, 55, 57.
Image credit and inspiration: Jenna Keiper, drop (detail), 2020, photo, Albuquerque. Click here to enlarge image. Water’s shapes and currents can be confusing. Where is the beauty in being underwater?
