Fear not you are inadequate!


Some 20 years ago while on retreat an elderly nun was assigned to me as a director-

Ron Rolheiser OMI.

She proved to be a woman of rare maturity providing the guidance that I needed at the time. Being young and intense I too easily made a cosmic drama and tragedy out of every ordinary desolation or setback She challenged me with a wisdom and earthiness and a sense of humour that continually helped deflate my pompousness. At one stage of the retreat sensing my Hamlet-type propensities she gave me a little proverb: Fear not you are inadequate!

Through the years that little adage has come back to me off and on mostly at times when I have been overwhelmed. There is a certain consolation in it. Whether you are a parent a teacher a minister a priest and advocate of justice or simply a friend to someone in need there are countless times when you come face to face with your own inadequacy. it is healthy humbling and uplifting to accept the fact that we are not God and that we are not asked to try to be.

Fear not you are inadequate! To accept the truth of that proverb is to make a little prayer.

“Daybreaks”