We are now getting into more theology during our class room time. We have had wonderful speakers that are trying to impart a semester's worth of information in just a matter of hours. At times, it is difficult to absorb everything. Initially we started with the history of the Sisters of Charity, self analysis, living in community, staying healthy and progressed to socio-economics. Whenever you look at governments, it can be very discouraging especially if you go in thinking you will change the world. Melissa, a fellow missionary, used the prayer below the other morning that helps to put this common frustration into perspective. Below is the prayer she used that is often attributed to Archbishop Romero who was assasinated in El Salvador saying mass in 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.
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.
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 to do it very well.

Amen.


(reading to my nephew)