Thursday, January 01, 2009

Light for the journey

Over at the RevGals this New Year's Day, we've been invited to
"share some advice that we have received or claimed for ourselves, or some new direction we are choosing for ourselves in our ministry."

As it happens, Rhys posted some favourite words of wisdom in the comments on my earlier post...
The other words that I need to remember as regularly as possible have been part of my journey since I was priested, when Maggi included them on a beautiful hand-made card that still sits in my prayer corner. Recently the Church Times suggested that the original author was not, after all, Oscar Romero - but I cannot remember the alternative candidate, and google still attributes the words to Romero anyway. Whoever wrote it, it's wisdom I'm grateful for on a regular basis...

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 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.

That's right, Kathryn. We cannot do everything. Repeat after me. We cannot do everything!


6 comments:

Rev Honey said...

Kathryn,

I really appreciate your sharing this wisdom. It definitely speaks to me as we enter 2009.

A blessed and joyful new year to you and yours!

rev honey

revkjarla said...

oh, I love this. Thank you.
Peace and joy to you and yours.

Auntie Knickers said...

This is great wisdom and not only for clergy! Thanks, and happy New Year!

Rhys said...

It was quoted to me as words from Nelson Mandela's Inaugural Speech 1994

but

a google search
says
"This inspiring quote by Marianne Williamson is from her book, A Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles, Harper Collins, 1992. From Chapter 7, Section 3 (Pg. 190-191)."

as any teenager would say

whatever! Go figure.

Princess of Everything (and then some) said...

LOL..we cannot do everything...so true so true.

Thank you so much for sharing.

John Davies said...

I reckon Rhys wrote it but is too self-effacing to admit it...