Stewardship as a Way of Life.
We are all called to be good stewards of our Church and Diocese. Being a good steward means that we need to be more than just "Sunday Christians". We are called to become involved within our church and within our communities. We need to do more than have faith. Faith without action is fruitless. We need to live our faith.
We have many opportunities to be good stewards within our parish. You can check them out on our Parish Ministries Page!
Prayer.
Do we take enough time to pray? Prayer is a very powerful action. It is talking to the Lord. It can take many styles. We have many structured prayers that we can use. Jesus taught us the Lords Prayer. We often pray the Rosary. Sometimes, we may choose to just reflect or ask for guidance. Sometimes, we just want to say "Thank you".
Prayer cannot stop there though. True prayer involves not just us talking, but listening to what is asked of us. It pushes us to be better people and to grow in our faith. It let's us know where we need to improve.
Service.
We all have God given talents. Using those talents the way God intended us to is service. This comes back to WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?) Jesus set an example of service for us to follow in washing the disciples’ feet.
It is worth our time and efforts to help others by providing our services. Helping others not only provides a benefit to those being helped, it benefits us. It gives us a sense of worth, makes us happy and motivates us! It builds our self esteem.
We have a song that we sing in church called They'll Know We Are Christians. The refrain goes: They'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love, Yes they'll know we are Christians by our love.
What better way to live up to that and show our love than by giving our services where they are needed?
Sharing.
Sharing is such an important aspect of our lives as Christians. We are all called to share with each other. I cannot find better words to reflect this than those of Mother Teresa-
" You and I, we are the Church, no? We have to share with our people. Suffering today is because people are hoarding, not giving, not sharing. Jesus made it very clear. Whatever you do to the least of my brethren, you do it to me. Give a glass of water, you give it to me. Receive a little child, you receive me. "
If everyone shared their wealth with others in need, just imagine how much better our world would be?
Commitment/Pledging
We are asked to make our financial commitments to our stewardship campaign. The financial support for our campaign is an important one. It is being used to support evangelization, leadership development, religious education, priestly retirement care, and much more!
A portion of it also goes back to our parish.
Let us reflect on the Advancing the mission prayer now as we continue to make our pledges and reflect on how we can further advance the mission of Jesus...
Generous and loving God, You call us to be disciples of your Son Jesus and good stewards of all your many gifts.
Open our minds and hearts to a greater awareness and deeper appreciation of your countless blessings.
Transform us through the power of your Spirit to nurture a Stewardship way of life marked by faith-filled prayer, service to our neighbor and generous sharing.
Teach us to be faithful servants of your gifts. With Mary's help, may we return tenfold the gifts entrusted to us.
Bless our capital stewardship campaign with a deepening devotion of prayer, a growing commitment for service, and increasing levels of generosity as we work to advance the mission of both our parish and diocese.
We pray through Christ, our Lord. Amen.