Christ has no Body now but yours
This week one of Danielle’s co-workers were ego-googling Dan. While doing so she came across this link at the BBC site which has an article from our old blog signposts linked up.
It reminded me that we had some good resources on signposts that are in line with the aim of this new blog. I will from time to time republish some of our older posts here.
In terms of the BBC article, I would like to point out that the words of the meditation are not our own. But rather someone else did the work of merging the words of Oscar Romero and Theresa of Avila. As much as I would like to take credit for the beautiful words, I unfortunately cannot.
They are indeed powerful words. It has become my habit to use the words at the forge leadership workshops that I run. Our annual leadership retreats at Northern also use the words to reflect deeply on our own work and ministry.
Here are the words again:
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 programme 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
Lords 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.
