Pledge Update
Target: $1,300,000 3,033 families
Pledged: $ 810,069 772
% of Target 62% 25%
updated: January 13, 2012
Thank you to all who have sent in their commitment for Changing Lives Together! For those of you who have not yet made a commitment or let us know you cannot pledge, please pray in support of this initiative. Pledge card have received been mailed to members who have not responded. Cards are also available in Church on the weekends or in the parish office during business hours. Please respond even if it is to let us know you are praying for the initiative. The following excerpt from the book “Catholic Stewardship—Sharing God’s Gifts” will help us to reflect on sharing God’s gifts. Don’t hesitate to give us a call if you have any questions.
Stewardship Defined
To live as a joyful Christian steward, we first must understand the concept; and to understand the concept, we need a definition. Stewardship is the “employment or use of one’s time, talents, and possessions,” the standard dictionary would state. A steward, meanwhile, is “one who is entrusted with the management of property, finances, or other affairs not his or her own.” This clarifies the concept of stewardship for us, suggesting that our time, talents, and possessions are not really ours, but rather on loan to us to manage.
This notion that what we have is not really our own can rub us the wrong way. After all, we’ve worked long and hard to hone our talents and sharpen our skills. We’ve achieved some measure of success, and what we were able to amass over these hardworking years reflects our diligence, our intelligence, our stick-to-itiveness, right? “Entrusted”, “on loan”, and “not really ours” have an almost un-American sound.
In truth, however, your intelligence is a gift from God, as is your personality that drives you toward diligence and perseverance. When we’re honest, we admit that everything comes from God, since He granted to us our very life, breath by blessed breath. And as “one who believes in and lives according to the example and teachings of Jesus Christ,” the classic definition of what it means to be a Christian, our stewardship, then, requires more than giving money.
By applying what we learn in the Gospels, stewardship has more to do with our lifestyle and basic human needs – the need for us to give of ourselves, to share, to be responsible. In direct terms, Christian stewardship comes right from the very heart of what it means to be a Christian. If we aren’t Christian stewards, we’d better take a long, hard look at what we exactly are!
~ Excerpted from the book, Catholic Stewardship – Sharing God’s Gifts, by Colleen Smith (Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Div., 2001).Reprinted with permission.
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You Tube http://youtu.be/Rwod72L5RL8
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A Direct Link to Changing Lives Together Information
