Today is the Feast Day of Bishop Oscar Romero. This prayer has been attributed to him. What is little known is that it was really composed by another person: Bishop Ken Untener of Saginaw, Michigan for a homily by Cardinal John Dearden in Nov. 1979 for a celebration of departed priests.
It is a beautiful prayer, because it puts us in our rightful place, with the right perspective and the right frame of mind to engage our world. We have grand plans and we can oftentimes feel invincible. We remember our plans today and we ask God to bless our plans by praying this humbling prayer.
End your time of prayer by saying this as a mantra:
“We are workers, not master builders;
ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own.”
A Step Along the Way: Archbishop Romero’s Prayer
by Bishop Ken Untener of Saginaw
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 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 workers, not master builders;
ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own. Amen.
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