Wise Words

It helps, now and then, to step back and take the long view. The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is beyond our vision.

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 what we are about: We plant seeds that one day will grow. We water seed already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations what will need further development. We provide yeast that produces effect beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything and this 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 God's grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end result, but that is the difference between the master builder and the workers. We are workers, not master builders, ministers, not messiahs.

We are prophets of a future not our own.

Archbishop Oscar Romero