Stewardship -- God's Way of Life

Treasure

Comments by Fr. Bob Kraig

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Approximately one year ago we began our conscious-raising  concept of stewardship and time. Parishioners were sent a tape, made commitments of time to their family and community and we have reminded our community of those commitments periodically throughout the year.

The time now has come to look at the second phase of stewardship, namely the concept of treasure. Similar to last year we will be putting various articles in our bulletin throughout the summer previous to our parish presentation on it this fall. During the coming year you will also see some activities and developments for our 25th anniversary celebration that will enhance the meaning of stewards of God’s treasure.

At the onset of this phase, let me begin with one very important statement. Stewardship of treasure is NOT about getting more money for our church. If I can, I would like to repeat that. Stewardship of treasure is NOT about getting more money for our church. As we know, stewardship is God’s Way of Life. Everything we have is God’s gift to us and as stewards of God’s gifts and creation we are called to share our time and treasure with others. At a homily in Yankee Stadium in New York, Oct. 2, 1979, Pope John Paul II said the following:

“The poor of the United States and of the world are your brothers and sisters in Christ. You must never be content to leave them just the crumbs from the feast. You must take of your substance, and not just of your abundance, in order to help them. And you must treat them like guests at your family table.”

The theme of our stewardship of treasure will be the following: We are Blest! To help us realize this significant truth, we hope to (1) inspire (2) teach and (3) share. Our inspiring part will be easily. We will draw upon some of the many examples of stewardship of treasure we already do at Saint John Neumann. As an example, the final Lenten fish fry for the needy, the life-teen cardboard campout, the gift of the bible school children to the needy, our Feed the Poor envelope, our monthly involvement in feeding the poor at St. Pat’s, contributions made to the St. Vincent de Paul, our Thanksgiving sharing, Christmas giving tree and many other activities that truly show we have been a caring community.

A second element we want to do is to teach how stewardship of treasure is biblically based and a serious call of God’s way of life. We will be doing this through helping us become more aware of the call of God in the scriptures, posters, articles in our bulletin beginning in July, petitions at our weekend liturgies, our website www.sjnohio.com and information regarding the various charities that will be benefiting from the proceeds of our 25th anniversary events. Many principles of sharing our treasure come from our scriptures and we hope to be able to allow parishioners to reflect on these passages.

In addition, our stewardship committee will be planning an information evening and making questions available regarding stewardship of treasure as a part of our question and answer evening. A workshop on budgeting is also on their agenda as well as the possibility of parishioners giving witness on how they experience the joy of the Lord in their personal sharing of treasure. If you as a parishioner have experienced this joy in the stewardship of treasure we ask that you call the rectory and let me know so we can have a member of our stewardship committee make contact with you.

You may recall the thank you notes that we received from St. Michael’s, St. Augustine and Strongsville Food Bank from our donations from the Lenten fish fry for the needy. They truly showed us that giving and sharing our treasure in the spirit that Pope John Paul has encouraged us to do is done out of love and not because it is an obligation. It is my prayer and that of our stewardship committee that the coming year finds us growing in our awareness of how God has blest us and how we can share those blessings out of love for others.

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