A litle while ago, I posted some meaningful words from Oscar Romero.

These are the same words, together with some equally deep words from St Theresa of Avila. They are words that can be used as a responsive reading.

Prayer of St Theresa of Avila

Christ has no Body now but yours
No hands, no feet on earth but yours
Yours are the eyes through which he looks
Compassion on the world
Yours are the feet with which he walks
To do good
Yours are the hands with which he blesses
All the world.

Yours are the hands
Yours are the feet
Yours are the eyes
You are his body
Planning in the Kingdom

It helps, now and then, to step back
And take the long view.
The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts
It is even beyond our vision.

Lord, we know in whom we believe

We accomplish in our lifetime
Only a fraction of the magnificent enterprise
that is God’s work
Nothing we do is complete,
which is another way of saying that the
Kingdom always lies beyond us.

Lord, we know in whom we believe

No Statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith
No confession brings perfection
No pastoral visit being wholeness
No program accomplishes the Church’s mission
No set of goals and objectives includes everything

Lord, we know in whom we believe

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.

Lord we know in whom we believe

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.

Lord we know in whom we believe

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.
(Oscar Romero)

Lord, we trust in you
To eternally renew our belief in you
In ourselves and in each other
In this is our joy. Amen

Yours are the hands
Yours are the feet
Yours are the eyes
You are his body.

Christ has no Body now but yours
No hands, no feet on earth but yours
Yours are the eyes through which he looks
Compassion on this world
Christ has no Body but yours

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 28th, 2003 at 5:31 pm by phil and is filed under spirituality and prayers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.