What is the "daily reprieve," and what is it "contingent on"?
In short:
- It's on page 85 of Chapter 6, "Into Action," in the pages on Step Ten. "We are not cured of alcoholism." (p. 85) "What we really have is a daily reprieve contingent on the maintenance of our spiritual condition." (p. 85)
- So the book's answer is in the sentence itself: the reprieve depends on keeping up our spiritual condition. The pages around it say how that's done: Step Ten's daily watch (p. 84), carrying "the vision of God's will into all of our activities" every day (p. 85), the prayer and meditation of Step Eleven (pp. 85–88), and "action and more action" (p. 88), which leads into Step Twelve.
- The reprieve isn't won by fighting drink each day. The paragraph before says "we have ceased fighting anything or anyone—even alcohol" (p. 84), and "We are not fighting it, neither are we avoiding temptation." (p. 85)
- Context sharpens the common reading. "Daily" is in the text, but what has to be renewed each day is the spiritual condition, not a daily struggle against drink.
The passage in order (pp. 84–85)
- Step Ten. Keep taking personal inventory. Watch for selfishness, dishonesty, resentment and fear, ask God to remove them, talk them over, and make amends quickly (p. 84). "Then we resolutely turn our thoughts to someone we can help." (p. 84) "Love and tolerance of others is our code." (p. 84)
- The problem removed. "And we have ceased fighting anything or anyone—even alcohol." (p. 84) Sanity will have returned, and if tempted we recoil "as from a hot flame" (p. 84). "We are not fighting it, neither are we avoiding temptation." (p. 85) "Instead, the problem has been removed." (p. 85)
- The condition. "That is how we react so long as we keep in fit spiritual condition." (p. 85)
- The warning. "It is easy to let up on the spiritual program of action and rest on our laurels." (p. 85) "We are headed for trouble if we do, for alcohol is a subtle foe." (p. 85)
- The line. "We are not cured of alcoholism." (p. 85) "What we really have is a daily reprieve contingent on the maintenance of our spiritual condition." (p. 85)
- What each day asks. "Every day is a day when we must carry the vision of God's will into all of our activities." (p. 85) The thought to carry: "How can I best serve Thee—Thy will (not mine) be done." (p. 85) "It is the proper use of the will." (p. 85)
- More action. "But we must go further and that means more action." (p. 85) Step Eleven follows: a review each night, and each morning thinking "about the twenty-four hours ahead" (p. 86).
- End of the chapter. "There is action and more action." (p. 88) "The next chapter is entirely devoted to Step Twelve." (p. 88)
What "maintenance of our spiritual condition" involves
The book doesn't define the phrase in one place, but the run of pages around it gives the content: the daily inventory and amends of Step Ten, turning to someone we can help, love and tolerance, the vision of God's will in every activity, and prayer and meditation. The chapter then hands off to Step Twelve.
Bill's story says the same about work for others. An alcoholic who failed "to perfect and enlarge his spiritual life through work and self-sacrifice for others" could not survive the trials ahead (pp. 14–15). Chapter 7 opens by saying "nothing will so much insure immunity from drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics" (p. 89), and later it uses the same picture of fitness: "Assuming we are spiritually fit, we can do all sorts of things alcoholics are not supposed to do." (p. 100)
"Not cured"
"Reprieve" is set against "cured." The book has said the same since Chapter 3: "We know that no real alcoholic ever recovers control." (p. 30) "Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic" (p. 33). The reprieve doesn't change that. The problem is "removed" (p. 85), but only so long as the condition is kept.
Does context change the common reading?
It sharpens it. Read alone, "daily reprieve" can sound like getting through today without a drink. In the book it's a reprieve from an illness that isn't cured, and it isn't kept by fighting alcohol. It depends on a spiritual condition kept up by action every day: the inventory, prayer, God's will in all our activities, and helping others.
Read it yourself
- Chapter 6, "Into Action" (pp. 72–88), free from A.A.: https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt6.pdf
- Chapter 7, "Working With Others" (pp. 89–103): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt7.pdf
- Related: What do Steps 10 and 11 ask, day to day? · Where are "the Promises," and what do they promise? · Where is "God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves," and what is it about? · What does Step 12 really say?
- The full book, Alcoholics Anonymous, is sold by A.A. World Services at https://onlineliterature.aa.org.
Sources
| Source | Pages | First published |
|---|---|---|
| Alcoholics Anonymous, Chapter 6, "Into Action" | 84–88 | 1939 |
| Alcoholics Anonymous, Chapter 7, "Working With Others" | 89, 100 | 1939 |
| Alcoholics Anonymous, Chapter 1, "Bill's Story" | 14–15 | 1939 |
| Alcoholics Anonymous, Chapter 3, "More About Alcoholism" | 30, 33 | 1939 |
Big Book page numbers are from the fourth edition (2001). The Preface says the program text "has been left largely untouched" since 1939 (p. xi); our sources have no first edition to compare page numbers against.
Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited; the Big Book is © A.A. World Services, Inc.
These pages answer questions about A.A. from A.A.'s own published literature, read in full, with every quote checked word for word against the page it cites. Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. What we read, and when each source was written.