Brentwood Daily Readings

Brentwood Daily Readings This page features the daily readings from As If I Were in Your Office by Father Paul Charbonneau and Mr. Don Russell. Curated especially for Brentwood alumni.

These reflections are taken directly from the graduation book received upon completing program.

06/19/2026

Daily reading for June 19 from “As If I Was In Your Office…”
Respect “Disrespecting somebody is abusing them. It is abusive and disrespect.” Don Russell – Sept. 7, 2007.
We all know what it feels like to be disrespected. There was the time when we asked for something and was ignored. Maybe we were put down or shot down, ridiculed, shamed or made to feel guilty, put aside or left out. We felt disrespected as a human being and our opinion did not count. Our ideas did not mean anything and we had nothing to contribute or offer to the situation. We had no self-esteem or self-worth if we were dismissed and disrespected. If we are disrespected long enough we start disrespecting in retaliation.
In recovery, when we start helping others, we stop disrespecting the rules, the program, and other people. When we are open we are spiritual and respectful of others. When we are closed we are disrespectful and not spiritual anymore.
My commitment today is to not disrespect anyone including myself!

06/18/2026

Daily reading for June 18 from “As If I Was In Your Office…”
Love “It made all the difference in the world from being in the disease where there’s no love or being out of the disease where we’re allowing love to happen in our lives and in their lives!” Fr. Paul – Sept. 4, 2009.
Love is supposed to be the most important thing in the world; God’s love for us and the love for ne another. Life was supposed to be that way. The people that God puts in our lives are supposed to be special and important and feel full of energy and joy and have vitality for living and fulfillment. The disease made it impossible for that to happen to us or them.
When we come into recovery, we have to look at the people that we hurt and the people that love us but, because of the disease, we could not accept that love. We could not give it or receive it. We need to realize how cruel we were and how much damage we did to others. We have to see the sorrow and the hurt that we caused other people. We rejected their love because we were in our disease.
My commitment today is to live in love not disease.

06/17/2026

Daily reading for June 17 from “As If I Was In Your Office…”
Joy and Happiness “We lived so long in that sort of misery that we failed to see some joys.” Don Russell – Sept. 18, 2009.
When we come into recovery and remove some of the negative things, something has to replace that. We lived with our negative feelings for so long that we had forgotten what joy and happiness felt like. As we work our program we can rid ourselves of a lot of negative words. When somebody gives us a positive, we can return that and make them feel good! As alcoholics we would cut the person down verbally. That is not the life we deserve. We are supposed to be strong enough so that when someone at home needs us they can lean on us. We can lean on each other. We need to get out of the negative and see the positive feelings that live within us. What we nurture grows. When we open our hearts then hope, joy and happiness will flood our very being. People can bring us joy. We can feel joy and we can give it to others.
My commitment today is to acknowledge the joys in my life!

06/16/2026

Daily reading for June 16 from “As If I Was In Your Office…”
Freedom “I have all the freedom to do whatever I want to do today and nobody can stop me!” Fr. Paul – Aug. 12, 2009.
In our disease we are blind to the true meaning of freedom. We are full of resentment, self-pity, and still blaming other people and believing that it is their fault and not mine. Alcoholism is the worst disease we can have because we think we are alright and others are sick, weak and stupid but not us. Even though we had lost our jobs, our family and our money, it was not us. It is them. The alcoholic thinks that freedom is to drink and drug as much as we wanted, make all our decisions, and spend all our money. We got more selfish, blind, hard-hearted, and our disease took the freedom away from everybody else one hundred per cent.
Can you help me attack the disease of alcoholism which chased out God, family, and all the people that God put in our lives? We can finally let people in as part of our lives.
My commitment today is to give God and people the freedom to be part of my life.

06/15/2026

Daily reading for June 15 from “As If I Was In Your Office…”
Forgiveness “Forgiveness is the key to our pride, our anger, our guilt, and our resentments.” Fr. Paul – Oct. 31, 2007.
In recovery we talk about pain, guilt and suffering which are side-effects of our alcoholism but always, after we deal with the pain, guilt, depression, and trying to justify our guilt or the pain of loneliness, the next spiritual step is always forgiveness. It is the key. We listen to someone and that person feels our forgiveness, our respect, and our encouragement. So, day by day, we owe one another this kind of honesty, respect and encouragement, and then that person knows that we have forgiven him or her. Our bottom line is that we all need forgiveness. That is what binds us together, keeps us strong and keeps us coming back. We owe one another forgiveness. God has forgiven us. When we feel the forgiveness of others that is why we are still here. Forgiveness opens up the heart so we can feel people’s love and we can have love to give to others.
My commitment today is to forgive everyone for everything!

06/14/2026

Daily reading for June 14 from “As If I Was In Your Office…”
Meaning and Purpose “Nothing really had that much meaning! It had lost its meaning and purpose!” Don Russell – May 29, 2009.
When we come to a point that we have lost the meaning and the purpose of our lives - that is where the disease is. We are unable to be present with people. We are not content at home. We are not at home in our minds or our bodies or our hearts. We have nothing to give to anyone.
When we come into recovery God puts people back into our lives. We need that. In time we can contribute to their lives and they will contribute to our lives. This will make us feel better and we will be able to appreciate all that these people can give to our life and we can freely return it to them. We can all feel love through the other alcoholic in recovery. We are all spiritual beings who need to be nurtured and the way we do that is through people and all we have to be is honest.
My commitment today is to regain the meaning and purpose in my life through people and working the program.

06/13/2026

Daily reading for June 13 from “As If I Was In Your Office…”
Clean Up After The War “Who else got swallowed up, devastated, hurt by this disease?” Don Russell – November 13, 2009.
When we look at our lives there were many people affected by our disease but the closest ones to us were our children and family. Look through the picture albums and look into their eyes. If we really love them we need to let them have their say and not minimize anything, or apologize for anything or try to cover things up. We need to be quiet and listen. We need to be told how much damage we created in their lives. We need to see that there are many issues in life that we did not address and finally can in recovery.
We need to take an honest look at our lives and see the wreckage of the past and look at our part in it. Only then can we feel the pain we caused others and how we devastated and sometimes crushed them with our actions and our words.
My commitment today is to look at who got hurt by my disease.

06/12/2026

Daily reading for June 12 from “As If I Was In Your Office…”
Character Defects “We have to accept that our thinking and our feelings were defective!” Don Russell – April 6, 2009.
There is all kinds of evidence that in many cases the decisions we made were sick. We have many defects which we become aware of when we try to reach our hearts. We become aware of defects and shortcomings when we write inventories and share on one-on-ones. We start to see how sick we really were and still can be. Some of our defects were dishonesty, self-pity, judging people, and blaming people. We got our anger mixed up with fear. Pride is a defect that will destroy us. We had defective thinking. We could not make honest responsible decisions. God did not create us that way. We became defective so we need the people that God puts in our lives to help us see our defects allowing us to make changes and work on them.
My commitment today is to accept that I have defects and to continue to work on them.

06/11/2026

Daily reading for June 11 from “As If I Was In Your Office…”
The War Within “The disease of alcoholism hates, wants to always destroy, fight, hurt the people who love us, including the people that God put in our lives, and even God!” Fr. Paul – Nov. 11, 2009.
Being alcoholic we are at war with everyone, including God. Anyone who wants to help us or love us they become the enemy. We have this chaos, anger, and self-pity. Either we want to ignore people, fight with them, run away from them, or hurt them. Our disease with our will, intentions, self-determination, sentiments, needs and wants are primary with us and the heck with everybody else. They are the enemy in our minds.
When we come into recovery, we hope the war is over. We cannot fight any longer. We are powerless over this disease. There is nothing left but depression, confusion, anger, resentment, self-pity, and the disease of alcoholism. When people come to Brentwood we just need their willingness to let us help them to have what we have and to put an end to the war.
My commitment today is to ask for help to stop the war within myself.

06/10/2026

Daily reading for June 10 from “As If I Was In Your Office…”
Conforming “We had our own alcoholic problems of self, self-pity, selfishness, and getting even, and we began to be molded by our alcoholism!” Fr. Paul – May 20, 2009.
Who did we allow to influence us and mold us? We allowed some of our heroes to mold us as well as family and friends. That became a double problem for us with our alcoholism of self, self-pity, selfishness, getting even, hatred, bitterness, and resentment. We conformed to our disease and followed it wherever it led us. We would mistreat people or mislead them.
In recovery, God puts people in our life daily who have the gift of sobriety to influence us so that we can have victory over this disease and conform to the spiritual principles of recovery. We do not have to continue on that diseased path.
My commitment today is to not conform to my disease any longer and follow the spiritual path of recovery and sobriety.

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