Personal Responsibility
Plant a Girl Scout (or Cub Scout) Garden. You do it this way: First, plant five rows of peas - Preparedness, Politeness, Promptness, Perseverance, Prayer. Then plant a row of squash – Squash gossip, Squash indifference, Squash criticism. Next plant ten rows of lettuce – Let us be faithful, Let us be unselfish, Let us be loyal, Let us be truthful, Let us be friendly, Let us be courteous, Let us be useful, Let us love one another, Let us be thrifty. No garden would be complete without turnips so plant some: Turn up for meetings, Turn up for training, Turn up for camp, Turn up with a new idea, Turn up with determination, and Turn up with a smile.
Whether the Scouts realized it, this was a skit about personal responsibility. I notice in shops downtown that this concept has dwindled to one phrase on wall hangings: Be the change you wish to see.
Last Sunday while I was on the road, I went to Mass in Murphy, NC. (Their welcome was the subject of last week’s miniblog.) But there was something else in Saint William Church that caught my eye. It was this reminder of personal responsibility. Next to the hymnal and missal, a large laminated prayer card, which is pictured above. It’s a Stewardship Prayer. Stewardship is synonymous with Personal Responsibility.
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Stewardship Prayer
“St. William is composed of people like me. I help make it what it is. It will be friendly, if I am. Its pews will be filled, if I help fill them. It will do great work, if I work. It will make generous gifts to many causes, if I am a generous giver. It will bring other people into its worship and fellowship, if I invite and bring them in. It will be a church of loyalty and love, of fearlessness and faith, and a church with a noble spirit, if I am filled with these same things. Therefore, with the help of God, I shall dedicate myself to the task of being all the things that I want my church to be. Amen.”
They recite this together in the Prayers of the Faithful in the liturgy. It made me smile! Personal responsibility vs. blaming others is a real hot spot with me. I wanted to shout out, “So, get with the program all you gripers!” Wouldn’t it be great if everyone everywhere recited something every day that reminded them that THEY are responsible for what impacts their lives?