"…….Ladies and gentlemen, who would dare attempt to analyze a phenomenon, diagram a wonder, or parse a miracle? The answer is: only a fool. And I trust that tonight I have not been such a fool. All I have tried to do is tell you where I have been these past 16 years and some things I have come to believe because of my journeyings.

This coming Sunday, in the churches of many of us, there will be read that portion of the Gospel of Matthew which recounts the time when John the Baptist was languishing in the prison of Herod, and, hearing of the works of his cousin Jesus, he sent two of his disciples to say to Him, “Art thou He who is to come, or shall we look for another?” And Christ did as He so often did. He did not answer them directly, but wanted John to decide for himself. And so He said to the disciples: “Go and report to John what you have heard and what you have seen: the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead rise, the poor have the gospel preached to them.”

Back in my childhood catechism days, I was taught that the “poor” in this instance did not mean only the poor in a material sense, but also meant the “poor in spirit,” those who burned with an inner hunger and an inner thirst; and that the word “gospel” meant quite literally “the good news. “

More than 16 years ago, four men — my boss, my physician, my pastor, and the one friend I had left — working singly and together, maneuvered me into A.A. Tonight, if they were to ask me, “Tell us, what did you find?” I would say to them what I now say to you: “I can tell you only what I have heard and seen: It seems the blind do see, the lame do walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead rise, and over and over again, in the middle of the longest day or the darkest night, the poor in spirit have the good news told to them.”

God grant that it may always be so."

— Excerpt from the pamphlet: “A Member’s Eye View of AA”