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STEWARDSHIP
Three Key Beliefs
Three Key Beliefs to Great
Giving As A Catholic Disciple of Jesus Christ (by Thomas J. Sonni,
Archdiocese of Baltimore; reprinted with permission)
Believe in
"Whose" You Are
As Christian stewards, we
belong to God, the Creator and Owner of all things created. We enter
this world owning nothing and we leave it in the same way. It has
been said that you'll never see a hearse pulling a U-haul truck.
Yet, our consumer culture drives us to acquire and protect--to hold on
tight to all we can in this world. To enjoy the freedom that God
intended for us, we need to recognize that all we have--every breath,
every moment, and every possession we have been able to acquire is
ultimately a pure gift of God. Even more important is accepting that
God loves, forgives our failures and asks us to walk in the way of Christ,
his disciples, Mary and the saints who have followed in his footsteps.
This way is one of radical self-giving out of love for God and love for
others, especially those less fortunate. It all begins in knowing
whose we are and growing in that understanding and relationship each day.
Believe You Are Blessed
How much are you worth?
You are priceless in the sight of the Lord. How much are your loved
ones worth to you? Would you take a million dollars in exchange for
your child or another family member? In considering how much we
value the people in our lives, we find our greatest wealth. What
price would you put on your freedom, your safety or your health?
These too are great blessings that we often don't count. We tend to
become blind-sighted by what we do not have and what we think we want so
much so that we miss the chance to find the contentment waiting right in
our midst. Reminding ourselves daily of how blessed we are, we can
give so much more freely to those who have less. The Gospels
challenge us to give in proportion to what we have been given. The
widow's mite was worth more than all the rest because of the
sacrifice--the cost to her--and the love with which she gave.
Whatever the level of your material blessings, you can be a great giver in
God's eyes.
Believe In The Big Why
The old Baltimore catechism
began with the question--Why did God make you? Most in their fifties
and older will be able to recite easily that God made us to know Him, to
love Him and to serve Him in this world and the next. How we answer
this question defines our own life. As Catholics, we find our
personal mission in and through the Church. Jesus proclaimed that
his mission was to bring Good News to the poor. We don't need to
look far to find our own poverty, poverty within our friends and family,
and poverty in the world around us. For some, this is material
poverty but for all of us there is spiritual poverty--a hunger to know
God, to love God and to serve God more and more. In the Greek
Scriptural text, the word used for self-giving and for love is the same.
Our world will become what it was meant to be when we learn to love each
other both in and through the Church by our way of self-giving. When
that happens, all that we believe about the building of God's Kingdom here
on earth will be possible.
At the end of our lives what
remains is what we have given.
Stewardship Ministry
The Stewardship Ministry is
comprised of faith-filled parishioners who freely give of their expertise
and energy in areas such as finance, budget, maintenance, development,
fund-raising, and capital projects--overseeing those resources necessary
to fulfill the mission and operation of Our Lady of the Chesapeake parish.
If you feel called to donate your time, talent, or treasure to Our Lady of
the Chesapeake in this area or in any other ministry, please contact the
Pastoral Center by calling 410-255-3677 or use our on-line
Volunteer Form.
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