Seeds of Grace: A Nun's Reflections on the Spirituality of Alcoholics Anonymous [Hardcover]

Molly Monahan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 15, 2001

A surprising and enlightening assessment of AA-its basic tenets and how it works on the spirit-by a nun and recovering alcoholic.

When Sister Molly Monahan joined Alcoholics Anonymous she was looking for the help and support she needed to stop drinking. But what she found was something more, something that surprised her: a deeper spirituality than she had ever experienced in her religious community.

How could a nonreligious group espousing the most basic of spiritual beliefs have anything to teach a nun who had already spent three decades steeped in the values, rituals, and traditions of the contemplative life? The mystery of the effectiveness of AA has yet to be explained. This book looks at that question in new, interesting, and important ways. In Seeds of Grace, Sister Molly Monahan traces her progress through the Twelve Steps and identifies the lessons that Alcoholics Anonymous has to instruct all of us about grace, forgiveness, community, and, in AA parlance, "the God of our understanding." Along the way, through a series of meditations, she shares her insights on why AA works, how it works, and how it has changed her life and the lives of millions of people.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

When Sister Molly Monahan, a Roman Catholic nun, came to Alcoholics Anonymous she expected to find sobriety. What she hadn't counted on was finding a more meaningful relationship with God than she had ever experienced in her religious order. "What could AA teach me about spirituality?" she asks. "Going to meetings did not feel like going to church, or going on a retreat, or sitting at the feet of some guru in pursuit of lofty spiritual goals. It felt like to defeat to me, as it does to most."

So of course Monahan was surprised to discover that alcoholism is indeed a "physical, mental, and spiritual disease," as the program states. Using the 12- step program as the basic structure, Monahan tells her own story of recovery alongside panhandlers, VPs, and soccer moms. Much more than a memoir, this is an elegant meditation on the power of the 12-step program, how it penetrates and guides the way that sober alcoholics live. What readers come to see, whether they are alcoholics or not, is that the AA program is indeed a significant spiritual contribution to the American landscape for all families, faiths, and walks of life. --Gail Hudson

From Publishers Weekly

Much attention has been paid in recent years to the spiritual underpinnings of that quiet fellowship known as Alcoholics Anonymous and its famous "12-step" recovery program. Monahan, a Catholic nun and self-described alcoholic who knows the program from the inside out, writes about AA's spirituality from a refreshing, insightful perspective. In doing so, she has remained true to AA's revered 11th and 12th traditions of maintaining anonymity by using a pen name. Weaving knowledge gleaned from more than 40 years as a religious woman into her personal experience of AA, which spans 17 years, she manages to mine the depths of the program without making its members, and especially herself, appear saintly or overly pious. At AA meetings, she writes, "I heard the truth of my own feelings, faults, and sneaky motivations played back for me with uncommon honesty." The narrative draws heavily from AA's "Big Book" and the 12 traditions and 12 steps that form the program's foundation. Monahan overlays AA's principles with the purgative, illuminative and unitive stages of growth in the spiritual life, explaining how she recovered not only her sobriety through AA, but her spirituality as well. This bookDpart candid memoir, part spiritual meditationDis sure to attract readers who are familiar with AA, as well as those who will be interested purely in its message of spiritual renewal. (Mar.) Forecast: This book has great crossover potential into several markets: 12-step recovery, spirituality, women's issues and health. Riverhead plans to protect the author's anonymity with online, print and radio interviews.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover; 1 edition (March 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1573221759
• ISBN-13: 978-1573221757
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,127,368 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simple, Straightforward Story of Sobriety & Faith, April 26, 2001

By 

Peter Fennessy (Bloomfield Hills, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Seeds of Grace: A Nun's Reflections on the Spirituality of Alcoholics Anonymous (Hardcover)

Sister Molly Monahan is a member of AA who honors its traditions and so writes under a pen name. She does not write as an spokesperson for AA, but what she hands on is its essential and impolrtant message along with some sense of what is it like to follow its program and take part in its fellowship and meetings. In passing she explains also a lot of its slogans that are called clichés but are in reality informal shorthand for big chunks of wisdom that are foundations for recovery and sobriety. People expecting an unusual story because she is a nun might be disappointed; alcoholism afflicts nuns and priests pretty much like every other kind of person, and their decline and recovery are remarkably like anyone else's. But she hands on what got and keeps her sober and it is a message worth repeating. Only at the end of the book does she touch on her Christan beliefs in any depth to show how AA has helped her come to a deeper appreciation of different elements of her faith. She has found, she says, in AA the link between the experience of being saved from her alcoholism by faith in a loving God and the truths and practices of the Catholic religious tradition. That is something she does not push on other AA's, but Christians in the program might be especially interested in that section. A good message plainly and clearly put.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read for Everyone, April 7, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Seeds of Grace: A Nun's Reflections on the Spirituality of Alcoholics Anonymous (Hardcover)

I am neither a Nun nor an alcoholic, but I read this fascinating, profound, and even humorous book in a single sitting. "Molly Monahan" is a wonderful writer, whose description of her own experience of alcoholism and recovery gave me some insight I never had before - "It's not about will power" - and a new understanding and appreciation for the power of the 12 Steps, not only for AA but for me, as well. And she does all this with great wit and humor, as well as compassion. I laughed and cried as I read this book and I want to give copies to everyone I know. Way to go, Molly!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More than meets the eye, June 1, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Seeds of Grace: A Nun's Reflections on the Spirituality of Alcoholics Anonymous (Hardcover)

This book presents a cogent and insightful analysis of the spirituality of AA. However, it does far more. There is something valuable and helpful in the book for anyone interested in spirituality-- insights about forgiveness, thanksgiving, gratitude, humility, peace of mind and freedom. Monahan's breadth of vision is not surprising, since she believes that all of us, at some time in our lives, are powerless over something, that alcholism stands for our human condition in its sad, lost and sorry state, and that AA can show us what God has in mind for everyone in community, love, and service. In particular, Monahan uncovers within the Twelve Steps the ancient threefold way of the spiritual life-- purgative, illuminative and unitive. While providing the reader with a better understanding of alcoholism as a threefold disease -- physical, mental and spiritual -- Monahan offers deep insights into the relationship between the 12 step program and one's search for God.