Prayers after Pentecost: Seeding the Future

God created seeds, too, in all colors, shapes, and sizes

       We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work.  Nothing we do is complete...No prayer fully expresses our faith...No confession brings perfection.  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. 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 the workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.  ~Oscar Romero* [1917-1980]      [emphasis added]

Lord of All, our Master Builder, 

       We westerners pride ourselves on accomplishment, our completion of tasks - even in our ministries. We proclaim ourselves "doers" and point to all the external activities in which we count ourselves competent, even expert. The checklists, the programs, the agendas, the plans....and then real life interrupts and some "important" projects never get finished. 

       Help us all, especially me, to remember that we can plant the seeds of Your love by a simple handshake, a smile, a kind word; and, that is often more ministry than building a church, fussing over liturgical details, or writing a check. While we can continuously renew our commitment to You within a community of like-minded people, when we live our love for You on the inside, we will wear it on the outside. In that way, You will be known to all through our love first and then through the simplicity of our actions, whether or not we are around to harvest the fruit.  amen.   
       
   

*Archbishop Oscar Romero of San Salvador, ordained in Rome and worked towards a doctorate in theology with a specialty in ascetical theology. When he returned home, he moved over time from a conservative stance to a radical supporter of Liberation Theology and supported the poor and the "disappeared".  More than 70,000 El Salvadorans were disappeared by the military leaders in 10 years and Dr Romero spoke out vociferously, even preaching to the United States to stop supporting the government because it was "killing my people."  He was murdered, shot to death while behind the altar presiding at Mass in 1980.  He has been given the title, "Servant of God" by the Vatican as a prelude to the process of canonization to sainthood.  


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