A nod to Amy Woodland Elementary
July 12th, 2024
Mary Stewart's Collect
As Women’s Institutes formed across the country in the early 1900s, one such member, Mary Stewart, wrote a prayer called the Collect Club for Women in 1904 to inspire a new generation of women to aspire to greatness as a collective whole.
Stewart felt that the new movement of women working together for a collective purpose was a fresh idea and decided that the group deserved a meditation of its own.
It is the official creed for the organization. Women’s Institutes use the Collect throughout the world.
Mary’s Stewart’s Collect:
Keep us O Lord from pettiness; let us be large in thought, in word and 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
Teach us to put into action our better impulses straight forward and unafraid
Let us take time for all things: make us grow calm, serene, gentle
Grant that we may realize that it is the little things that create differences; that in the big things of life, we are one
And may we strive to touch and know the great human heart familiar to us all, and O Lord God, let us not forget to be kind
