Federation Collect
The Collect was written by Mary Stewart in 1904 while she was Principal at Longmont High School in Colorado. It was written as a prayer for the day, not for any particular person or group. Miss Stewart had it published as a Collect for club women. “It was written as a prayer for the day. I called it a ‘Collect For Club Women,’ because I felt that women working together with wide interests for large ends was a new thing under the sun and that, perhaps they had need for special petition and meditation of their own. This must have been true for the Collect has found its way about the world, especially wherever English speaking women get together."
The Collect was officially adopted by National Federation of Business and Professional Women’s Clubs meeting at their second convention on 1920, at St. Paul. It was read into the printed records of the Congress of the United States by Senator Tobey of New Hampshire, at the closing session in 1949.
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 judgement 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!
-- Mary Stewart, April 1904
Mary Stewart held a number of special teaching posts in Colorado and Montana. In 1921 she became a junior guidance and placement officer in the pioneer period of U.S. employment services. She continued to write for American newspapers and magazines. Her Alma Mater, the University of Colorado, in 1927 conferred upon her an honorary degree in recognition of her distinguished work in education, social and civic service.