Accessing flow frm flow scoped service

[soappatrol]

Hello I am relative new to Grails and struggle using webflow. I created a flow scoped service

class MyService implements Serializable{
    
    static scope = "flow"
    static transactional = false
        
    def counter = 0
    
    def serviceMethod() {
        this.counter++
        log.debug("SERVICE METHOD CALLED ${this.counter} times")
         
    }
...

I call this service from a controller web flow

...
stepTwo {
            on("previous") {
                flow.myVar="HELLO"
                log.debug("JUST HIT previous at STEP TWO")
                myService.serviceMethod()
            }.to("processOne")
            on("cancel").to("finish")
            on("finish"){
                log.debug("JUST HIT finish at STEP TWO")
                myService.serviceMethod()
            }.to("finish")
        }
...

I was under the impression that I would be able to access flow scoped variables in my service using

  println flow.myVar

But I can't seem to access the flow object. I get a "No such property: flow for class: MyService". Does anybody know if this is the correct behavior or a bug? I read "Grails in Action" and the book also shows such an example.