Parallel Passages between the Big Book and Twelve and Twelve:

PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE shows that nothing will

so much insure immunity from drinking as

intensive work with other alcoholics. It works when

other activities fail. This is our twelfth suggestion: Carry

this message to other alcoholics! You can help

when no one else can. You can secure their confidence

when others fail. Remember they are very ill.

(BB 89)

 

Just as firmly bound by obligation are the members of

Alcoholics Anonymous, who have demonstrated that they

can help problem drinkers as others seldom can. The

unique ability of each A.A. to identify himself with, and

bring recovery to, the newcomer in no way depends upon

his learning, eloquence, or on any special individual skills.

The only thing that matters is that he is an alcoholic who

has found a key to sobriety.

(T&T 150-151 Tradition Five)

 

Life will take on new meaning. To watch people

recover, to see them help others, to watch loneliness

vanish, to see a fellowship grow up about you, to have

a host of friends-this is an experience you must not

miss. We know you will not want to miss it. Frequent

contact with newcomers and with each other

is the bright spot of our lives.

(BB 89)

 

THE joy of living is the theme of A.A.'s Twelfth Step, and

action is its key word. Here we turn outward toward our

fellow alcoholics who are still in distress. Here we experience the

kind of giving that asks no rewards. Here we begin

to practice all Twelve Steps of the program in our daily

lives so that we and those about us may find emotional sobriety. 

When the Twelfth Step is seen in its full implication,

it is really talking about the kind of love that has no price

tag on it...

 

Practically every A.A. member declares that no satisfaction

has been deeper and no joy greater than in a Twelfth

Step job well done. To watch the eyes of men and women

open with wonder as they move from darkness into light, to

see their lives quickly fill with new purpose and meaning,

to see whole families reassembled, to see the alcoholic out-

cast received back into his community in full citizenship,

and above all to watch these people awaken to the presence

of a loving God in their lives- these things are the sub-

stance of what we receive as we carry A.A.'s message to the

next alcoholic...

(T&T 106, 110 Step Twelve)