A Prayer of Hope

I carry a few keepsake-kind-of-things in my billfold. Among them are pictures of my family, a note from my mom, and the prayer, “Creating The Church Of Tomorrow.”

I take this prayer out every now and then and pray it to help me put things into perspective, especially when the days seem too long and the progress seems too short.

It is a prayer of hope because the Church, now and in the future, is in God’s hands.

Please pray it with me.

In Christ,

Bishop Gary Wollersheim

Creating the Church of Tomorrow

A prayer by Archbishop Oscar Romero (b. 1917-d. 1980)

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 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 promises.

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.

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.

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