Mary Stewart 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 common to us all,

and, O Lord God, let us not forget to be kind.

The Mary Stewart Collect pronounced “CALL' ect” and defined as “ a short prayer” was written by Mary Stewart in 1904 and is recited at branch, district, provincial, national and world meetings. It is a mantra members endeavor to live up to in daily life.

Mary Stewart was born in 1876 in Ohio, and spent her childhood years at Georgetown, Colorado in the Rocky Mountains.

Mary Stewart was the principal of the high school in Longmont, Colorado, a special teacher in a Denver high school, Dean of Women and teacher of Latin and English at the University of Montana. As Assistant Director of the United States Employment Service, Department of Labor, she was in charge of junior guidance and placement in its pioneer days. Later she was appointed superintendent of Indian Education representing the office of Indian Affairs in California. She contributed to leading American newspapers and magazines and published a book: “Metrical Translations from the Latin Lyrics of the Poet Catullus.”

She spent her life as a student as well as a teacher and instructor of Latin. In 1942  Miss Pearl Brown of Texas, asked for and received permission to set the Collect to music. In England, when the Women's Institutes began in 1915, Mrs. Alfred Watt introduced the Collect. Since then this “prayer for the day” as Mary Stewart thought of it, has been used by English speaking women around the world. Miss Stewart died April 1, 1943 and is buried at Loveland, Colorado, in the shadow of the peaks of the Rockies that she loved so well.

To our members, please remember this woman when  you recite the Mary Stewart Collect and say a silent “thank you” for this gift to our organization.

 Yours For Home and Country, Ruth Fenner, Provincial Historian, British Columbia Women's Institute