FIRST LILACS OF 09

Thank you, Lord, for the smell of new Spring and the flowers that appear each in their own turn. Today I bless the luxurious lilacs which scent my garden - their color and extravagant beauty fill me with hope and reassurance that Spring comes again and again. We are new and the same in the flowers. Thank you for this blessed Lent of self-examination and springing hope for new life in your son our brother, Jesus, as we look beyond the grave with love. Amen.

It helps, now and then, to step backand take the long view.The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,it is beyond our vision. We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction ofthe magnificent enterprise that is God's work.Nothing we do is complete,which is another way of sayingthat 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 programme accomplishes the church's mission.No set of goals and objectives includes everything. This is what we are about:We plant 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 beyond our capabilities. We cannot do everythingand 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.
—A prayer/poem by Archbishop Oscar Romero

The Power of Water

God of Heaven and Sky, Earth and Water - Bless our depths that we have not plumbed and our deeps that are known only to You. Show us the beauties that we might not have imagined and help us to keep the whole world safe and healthy which you have given us as a miracle of love and presence. Comfort the family members and friends of the football players who were lost at sea. Help us all learn to respect the power of water in it's natural state so that we may learn to use all of your resources for the good of all people. Thank you for surrounding us in water at birth, at baptism, and in our living every day. May water remind us that you are everywhere always. Amen.