This was written by Archbishop Romero, I've found it very helpful and thought I would share it.

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 fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work.

Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying that the Kingdom 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: One person plants a seed in the soil. Another waters it. We plant 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 effects beyond our capabilities. We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing it. This enables us to do something and do it very well. It may be incomplete, but 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 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.

God Bless

Sara

-- Sara (sara@yahoo.com), April 05, 2003

Answers

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-- sara (sara@yahoo.com), April 05, 2003.

Sara - very good post and quote. Makes me think of a premise in the Tao being " We are all just one part of a thousand things depending on each other. "

-- jean bouchard (jeanb@cwk.imag.net), April 06, 2003.