Throughout the past century, whenever women came to-gether, they recited a prayer written in 1904 by Mary Stewart, a high school teacher in Colorado.
“I called it a Collect for Club Women because I felt that women working together, with wide interest in large ends, which was a new thing under the sun, perhaps needed a special petition and meditation for their own,” Stewart wrote.
The prayer was carried around the world by English-speaking women who found strength and purpose in meeting together.
Sometimes called Our Creed, sometimes A Woman’s Prayer, the words were recited at meetings of the Women’s Institute, the Business and Professional Women’s Association and church ladies’ groups.
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Shared in a group of middle-aged women today, it brings back fond memories of when, as children, they attended such meetings with their mothers.
“Keep us, O God, from pettiness; let us be large in thought, in word, in deed. Let us be done with fault-finding and leave off self-seeking.
“May we put away all pretense and meet each other face to face, without self-pity and without prejudice. May we never be hasty in judgment and always generous.
“Let us take time for all things; make us to grow calm, serene, gentle. Teach us to put into action our better impulses, straightforward and unafraid. Grant that we may realize it is the little things that create differences, that in the big things of life we are at one.
“And may we strive to touch and to know the great, common human heart of us all, and O Lord God, let us forget not to be kind. Amen.”
We are reminded that we are a sisterhood. We share common values with each other, with our mothers and grandmothers and our daughters. With pride and dignity we offer our visions and prayers for those we cannot yet name.
