AN END OF THE CHURCH YEAR PRAYER MEDITATION.........

"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 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 include 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 a sense of liberation in realizing that.
This enables us to do something, and 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". AMEN.

PRAYER ATTRIBUTED TO ARCHBISHOP OSCAR ROMERO, 1917-1980
the martyred Arcbbishop of San Salvador, El Salvador, who was assassinated March 24, 1980.
+Oscar Romero, was a prophetic voice to his people, who preached a gospel of social justice for his country men and women, and who urged the development of popular, mass organizations, to oppose the repression of the El Salvadoran government.

As a Faithful Witness to being the priestly, prophetic, People of God in today's Church and World, I offer it to you as an end of the Liturgical Year prayer meditation. It is the same passage we prayed last week at the St. Joseph's Parish Redding, Staff Retreat in McCloud. I gratefully acknowledge Fr. Ben DeLeon, for providing it.........tdp