Seeing that New Day

I had as much comment from my last blog as anything in a long time. I'm in the process of gathering all the responses, from email and facebook, and will post them. The dialogue has been very interesting.

Today someone sent me a copy of this prayer -- I'm told Romero prayed it just moments before he was assassinated. He speaks to the future vision that my last blog accused the President of not having. Nor should I expect this to come from the President -- but I believe the Church must keep demanding it.

Praying with Romero, and all the other prophets among us... alive and dead.

Archbishop Oscar Romero Prayer

It helps, now and then, to step back and take the 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 magnificent 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.
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.
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 a sense of liberation
in realizing that. This enables us to do something,
and to do it very well.
Amen.


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