The tradition of "quiet time" in the Oxford Group, from which AA and all our 12-Step programs came, was established very early. Indeed, a case could be made for saying that the Oxford Group was built on the practice of daily quiet time for the purposes of "listening" and gaining "guidance." This was a habit that Frank Buchman, the founder of the Oxford Group, acquired early in his life. It is still practiced by the members of Initiatives of Change, the direct descendant of the Oxford Group.

By the time Bill Wilson came to write about Step 11, AA was already distancing itself from the Oxford Group; and this must have led to a dilemma. Anyone writing about "quiet time," "listening" or "guidance" in the 1930's would instantly have been recognized as an Oxford Group adherent. And so Bill was compelled to write about the most fundamental practice of the early AAs ("quiet time" was listed as the first of the Akron members' daily commitments) without using those terms.

Describing Step 11 in terms of "prayer and meditation," therefore, may have lost us something. In a sense, the practice underlying Step 11 was neither of these, but was simply "listening" for guidance -- for anything up to an hour.

When we are quiet for an hour, or even for ten minutes, and we listen, we do indeed discover that something or someone seems to be talking to us. We may be guided in a particular direction (although practitioners were always urged to check any particular "guidance" with someone else). One thing is certain, though -- if we don't listen, we won't hear anything. An Englishman once remarked that God is a gentleman. If we are talking, he never interrupts.