I mentioned a prayer on Sunday which is often referred to as The Romero Prayer.
It has a great deal in common with the teaching and the life of Oscar Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador, El Salvador, who was assassinated on 24 March 1980, as he conducted mass, for speaking out against social injustice and violence in his country, but it was not written by him.
It was, in fact, written the year before Romero was killed by Catholic Father Ken Untener (later Bishop of Saginaw, Michigan, USA) for a Mass for Deceased Priests, October 25, 1979, conducted by Cardinal John Dearden.
The words are both inspiring and encouraging.
It helps now and then to step back and take a long view.
The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,
it is beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a fraction
of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work.
Nothing we do is complete, which is another 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 include everything.
This is what we are about. We plant the seeds that one
day will grow. We water the seeds already planted
knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces effects
far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of
liberation in realizing this.
This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.
It may be incomplete, but it is 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.
May you find that one thing you are able to do this day (or this week) and may you do it, knowing it will be incomplete, but that God’s grace can enter and do the rest.
Grace and peace be with you!
Belinda