Keeping Meetings Focused on Mission

Web Posted: September 8, 2003

The beginning of the semester is a time for launching new classes, gearing up for projects and, of course, attending many meetings: staff meetings, student meetings, university committee meetings and the hundreds of similar venues through which we at Marquette gather to discuss our work. It can seem, in fact, that we spend a good deal of our week in meetings with others, setting a course for the year and making decisions that will be of service to our community and the wider world.

How do we keep our meetings focused on the larger mission of Marquette, despite the many necessary details to which we must attend? Is there a spiritual dimension and openness to our meetings that encourages each participant to contribute fully and freely? This week's Mission Reflection is a Prayer for a Meeting to help all of us stay connected with the mission and our part in it. May God bless our many meetings with wisdom and peace.

Prayer for a Meeting

We dare to believe, O God, that there is purpose in our being together.
For each comment and question offered, for the risks taken, for the efforts made to search for truth, and for the grace extended when another viewpoint might conflict with our own - for every insight that calls us to reconsider our motives and intentions, we give you thanks.

Forgive us, we pray, for any unwillingness or lack of discipline that undercut what we might do together in your name.

Thank you dear God for bringing us together this day.
Thank you for the gifts we as individuals bring to our community of concern
And the power we have when we join together to seek your way of peace with justice.

Please accept our meager offerings of time, talent, and treasure as our prayer for a more just and peaceful world.

Take what little we offer and make it grow until it brings forth the fruit of justice and peace in our lives, in our community and in our world. Amen.

Written by Doris Donnelly and Tom Cordaro. Adapted with permission from The Fire of Peace: a Prayer Book Mary Lou Kownacki, OSB, (Ed.). Published in 1992 by Pax Christi USA, Erie, PA, pp. 60-61. For additional information, contact Pax Christi via e-mail.