Tuesday, May 17, 2011

[romero's prayer]

Found this a couple of weeks ago and love it. When I get overwhelmed thinking it's my mission to change the world, this is a great reminder of my place. And there's humility and there's beauty in that.

Romero's Prayer:
It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.
The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,
it is even beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction
of the magnificient enterprise that is God's work.

Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of saying
that the Kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection.
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the church's mission.
No set of goals and objectives includes everything.
This is what we are about.
We plant the seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted,knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything,
and there is sense of liberation in realizing that.
This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.

It may be incomplete, but it's a beginning, a step along the way,
an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the end results, but that is the difference
between the Master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own."

[Archbishop Oscar Romero]

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