Annual Stewardship Renewal Begins
When my youngest daughter Mary turned 7, she had a couple of her friends over to our house. While playing in her room, I over heard the girls bragging about their dads.
The first girl said, “My dad writes a few words a piece of paper, calls it a poem, and they give him $50.
The second girl said, “Well my dad writes a few words on a piece of paper, calls them a song, and they give him $100â??
Finally, my daughter said, “I got you all beat. My dad writes a few words on a piece of paper, calls it a sermon, and it takes 8 people to collect all the money!â??
Each year during this time, we pause as parish community to review and renew our stewardship commitments of time, talent, and treasure to our Parish. It is an important process for every Catholic parishioner – as much for your personal spiritual growth as it is for our many parish needs. Or put another way, we help you satisfy your basic Christian need to give back to God while helping satisfy our need to educated, form and serve the people of God. In other words, with each gift you give twice – to your self and to your church. There is no way possible we would have what we have and do what we do, without your stewardship renewal commitments.
As the administrator of this great parish, my job involves managing the many physical and financial matters of our large parish. But most parishioners just think of me as the “money guyâ?? since I am the guy who asks each year for your “stewardship of treasureâ?? to keep our many services, programs and facilities funded. You may grumble when you see me coming, but at least my daughter thinks I’m pretty cool. It’s too bad they grow up!
I’d like to use a simple, everyday analogy that shows just how important the relationship of stewardship is between you and your church.
Think of Holy Trinity Parish as a car. Not just any car, mind you. No, we’re not some new, fancy hot rod, with an attitude. We more like an older, full sized SUV that can seat a lot of people or haul a lot of cargo. The old adage, “they just don’t build’em like this anymoreâ?? fit’s us well. The chassis and sheet metal are strong and solid. Our engine has 123 years on it and doesn’t burn oil. Our seats are comfortable but not torn up, our tires are tried but true. Our list of standard features would make most newer vehicles envious. Sure, we have few age spots, had a few fender-benders in our day…any car with as many miles would. But we work hard to stay well maintained, even adding needed enhancements along the way. Our vehicle was never met to be the fastest in town, but we take greater pride in our record of reliability over the years. We are equally confident in our ability to “carry to the loadâ?? for many years to come. Indeed, unlike most old vehicles that end up in the salvage yard at our age, Holy Trinity seems to get better with each passing year.
