<p>By Lewis Speaks-Tanner DignityUSA President</p> <p>We are into another Advent season. Let it be an opportunity to reflect and recharge ourselves.</p> <p>After such a long election season the electoral outcome does not bode well for LGBTQI people. I along with many LGBTQI leaders hope we are wrong. In 2017 we will need continued collaboration with many different organizations to prevent our hard-won rights from being chipped away or reversed nationally and by individual states. As we continue to share our stories more people get to know our struggles and lives.</p> <p>Over the last 47 years DignityUSA members have continued to work for justice.&nbsp; We have had many advancements as well as disappointments over the years.&nbsp; The work continues.&nbsp;&nbsp; I am reminded of a prayer written by Bishop Ken Untener of Saginaw who had the following prayer included in a reflection for the anniversary of the martyrdom of Romero.&nbsp; It is titled The mystery of the Romero Prayer.&nbsp; The mystery is that the prayer is attributed to Oscar Romero but never spoken by him.</p> <blockquote> <p><u>A Future Not Our Own</u></p> <p>It helps now and then to step back and take a long view.</p> <p>The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts</p> <p>it is beyond our vision.</p> <p>We accomplish in our lifetime only a fraction</p> <p>of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work.</p> <p>Nothing we do is complete which is another way of</p> <p>saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us.</p> <p>No statement says all that could be said.</p> <p>No prayer fully expresses our faith. No confession</p> <p>brings perfection no pastoral visit brings wholeness.</p> <p>No program accomplishes the Church's mission.</p> <p>No set of goals and objectives include everything.</p> <p>This is what we are about. We plant the seeds that one</p> <p>day will grow. We water the seeds already planted</p> <p>knowing that they hold future promise.</p> <p>We lay foundations that will need further development.</p> <p>We provide yeast that produces effects</p> <p>far beyond our capabilities.</p> <p>We cannot do everything and there is a sense of</p> <p>liberation in realizing this.</p> <p>This enables us to do something and to do it very well.</p> <p>It may be incomplete but it is a beginning</p> <p>a step along the way an opportunity for the Lord's</p> <p>grace to enter and do the rest.</p> <p>We may never see the end results but that is the</p> <p>difference between the master builder and the worker.</p> <p>We are workers not master builders ministers not</p> <p>messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own.</p> </blockquote> <p>My prayer for Advent is that we have a prayerful reenergizing and stress-less Advent!&nbsp; May our Christmas be blessed as we continue to proclaim Gods peace through justice! Merry Christmas to one and all!</p>