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A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Hope Lonergan

Good Morning!

I鈥檝e been attending Narcotics Anonymous meetings for a few years. They usually take place in environments that are emblems of social need: churches, council owned multi-function rooms and Quaker meeting houses. (Which, as a practicing Quaker, is awkward for me. Stillness on the Sunday; NA on the Tuesday.) They鈥檙e rooms with scuffed carpet and fluorescent tube lighting. In the lobby is a cubicle containing the final working payphone in Essex. There鈥檚 a serving hatch where soul-sick people pass through austere biscuits and cups of coffee (which are almost devoured by the attendees who are still raw, active addicts 鈥� cup an鈥� all). These are rooms that writer and music journalist Ian Penman might describe as 鈥淟ittle Englander, stodge-with-everything revivalism鈥�.

I read about rooms like these in 100 Years of NCVO and Voluntary Action, which was started by philanthropist Edward Vivian Dearman Birchall. It鈥檚 the best of democratic localism: community spaces where people can loosen the knots of their existence or establish a mini-symposium to reflect on the bus timetables or acrimony between two warring neighbours. (鈥淚f his dog barks after midnight one more time he鈥檚 gonna鈥� become part of my crazy paving!鈥�) And there鈥檚 something to be said about the healing potential of group confession. At NA there鈥檚 different viewpoints, different coping mechanisms, about a shared, communal malady. You can focus group your pain.

With this in mind. God, thank you for keeping me clean and serene. And thank you for underlining the moral imperative that drives us to help each other, especially the ones disadvantaged by the greed of others.

Now go lightly.

Amen.

Details of organisations offering information and support with addiction are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline, or you can call for free, at any time to hear recorded information on 08000 155 947