Compline and Step 11

I've been using Joan Chittester's book, The Rule of Benedict, for my daily devotions (i.e., Coffee with God) for the past few months. On February 24th I read her thoughts about Compline, and was struck by them.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the term, "Compline" is the final church service (or office) of the day in the Christian tradition of canonical hours. It tends to be a contemplative Office that emphasizes spiritual peace.

In many monasteries it is the custom to begin the "Great Silence" after Compline, during which the whole community, including guests, observes silence throughout the night until the morning service the next day.

Anyway, here is what Joan had to say: "Compline...was designed to do what we all need to do at night: recognize that what we did that day was not perfect, hope that the next day will be better, praise the God whose love and grace brought us through another day, and go to bed trusting the God who sees our every action and is more concerned with our motives than our failures."

This sounds an awful lot like the part of Step 11 in AA's "Big Book" that addresses what we should do when we go to bed.

"Step Eleven suggests prayer and meditation... When we retire at night, we constructively review our day. Were we resentful, selfish, dishonest or afraid? Do we owe an apology? Have we kept something to ourselves which should be discussed with another person at once? Were we kind and loving toward all? What could we have done better? Were we thinking of ourselves most of the time? Or were we thinking of what we could do for others, of what we could pack into the stream of life? But we must be careful not to drift into worry, remorse or morbid reflection, for that would diminish our usefulness to others. After making our review we ask God's forgiveness and inquire what corrective measures should be taken."

It never ceases to amaze me when I find echoes of the 12 Step Program in all kinds of places.