2013 Big Texas Rally for Recovery Invocation

A good friend of The Last Resort, Father Bill, was asked to bring the Invocation for the 3nd Annual Big Texas Rally for Recovery on the steps of the Texas Capitol Building this weekend. If you were unable to make it to the rally this weekend, please read Father Bill’s full invocation below.Hi Everybody! My name is Bill – and I’ve been in long-term recovery from alcoholism since Dec. 27th 1972. For that I’m grateful – and it’s for that I’m here today. It’s an honor to be asked to do the invocation – But before we pray – I’d like us to pause for just a moment and remember where we’re standing….Cause we’re standing, I believe, on sacred some very ground. And it’s not sacred because this is where the Texas legislature comes to meet – It’s sacred because this is the place people have come for a hundred years crying out “injustice” in the hope that Texans would wake up and listen.

African Americans came here asking to be set free.

Latinos, and farmworkers, and veterans came here asking for simple fairness – for what was rightly theirs.

And women – and the disabled – and gays & lesbians – and all of the unheard came here to say what they knew in their hearts needed to be said.

If they didn’t come say it, who would?

It’s been a long and noble line of people that have come before us – And today is our turn to come and to speak our Truth on the people’s steps. We’ve come to let Texas see the faces and hear the voices of men and women recovered from the illness of alcoholism and drug addictions. We’ve come for Texas to look at us and to see! To see that we’re not so different!To see that we’re really just your neighbors and your friends!We work – and we pay our taxes – and too many have us, after recovery, have disappeared. But now we need to speak out like the others who’ve come to these steps before us – Because our sons and daughters – our brothers and our sisters are paying the price for our silence.

They’re paying it by the hundreds of thousands locked up in Texas prisons – because we’ve allowed an illness to be criminalized.
They’re paying for it in lost housing – and in lost jobs – and in lost voting and education rights – Why? Because we’re an easy target – We don’t speak up!
So now some lawmakers are even demanding mandatory drug testing for any low-income mother seeking help.

The discrimination needs to stop! – The myths and the misunderstanding that surround this illness need to be overcome – and it is up to us to see that this happens – So now, let us – who have experienced powerlessness, bow our heads in prayer to the One who has All Power.“God of Love …… God of Healing ….. God of Recovery,We know you have a special place in your heart for all of the Sick and all of the Broken in this world. And it’s in your name that we gather here today and so we ask your blessing on what we have come to do.

We come to bring addiction out of the shadows and into Your Light. —- Help us to stand up tall.

Guide us to tell our stories to our friends and to our neighbors – So the people of Texas awaken to the truth:

that we suffer from an illness – an illness recognized by science and an illness that responds to treatment.

Heavenly Father, bless all who worked so hard and did so much to make this event happen today.

Bless our speakers and our musicians and all who’ve traveled far to come and share their Truth.

Bless the cause that brings us together today:

Guide, protect, and strengthen us through your grace and keep us clean and sober through love and service.

Amen.