Meditation On Ministry

On March 24th, 1980, Archbishop Oscar Romero of San Salvador was shot and killed while saying Mass.A prayer frequently used at conferences and prayer services is refered to as the “Romero Prayer.”

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 fractionof 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 effects 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.

Romero experts have been unable to find this in any of his writings. That’s because they are actually the words of John Cardinal Dearden of Detroit, written by then Fr. (bishop) Kenneth Untener – it is part of a homily that he gave in 1979 at the annual Mass for deceased priests of the Archdiocese of Detroit.