Bishop Shawn McKnight has chosen to use the concept of stewardship to guide the Church in mid-Missouri in engaging our Catholic faith to live the Gospel more completely. While the paradigm of stewardship represents specific pastoral practices developed through the years, especially in the Diocese of Wichita, Kansas, stewardship itself is rooted in the parables of Christ. At its core, stewardship describes the fundamental vocation of the Christian. Each of us has been given gifts by God. The parables use the analogy of a talent, a unit of Roman money in the time of Christ. The talents represent spiritual, pastoral, and temporal gifts that have been given to us for our own good, the good of others, and the glory of God. The parable is clear, quite relevant now that tax season is upon us:  God is going to ask an accounting of us. What have we done with our talents?

Stewardship is this:  receiving God’s gifts of time, talent and treasure with gratitude, accounting for them as precious signs of God’s care for us, and sharing them generously, sacrificially and proportionately in justice and love with others, that these gifts of grace may be returned with increase to the Lord. This definition of stewardship summarizes all the parables of the Kingdom. Our trust in God is tested by perceived scarcity of time, of health, of material possessions, of social status. Our fear makes us withdraw and close our minds, hearts, and hands to the needs of others. In the parables of the Kingdom, Christ challenges us to turn that fear into trust. If we live as Jesus lived, in generous service to others, God will surprise us with blessings beyond measure. 

Saint Francis recognized that this is the core teaching of the parables and in the prayer for peace commonly attributed to him:  in forgiving, we are forgiven; in giving we receive; in dying, we are born to eternal life.

Our parish will offer a Lenten program called Grateful Living:  the Joy of Stewardship. In small groups, we will reflect on the Scriptures, discerning the call of stewardship in our daily life, and share our own stories of how we have lived, and want to continue to live, our Christian discipleship. On the weekend of February 19-20, the parish will have a sign-up drive for those who wish to participate in groups. I have already had a few people commit to leading groups and am inviting others to consider leading a small group. The program consists of six weekly sessions lasting an hour and a half, reading the Scriptures through the lens of stewardship and discovering the role of the steward in our daily lives.

The sessions will be faith sharing, primarily the telling of our own personal stories, how our lives are God-centered, how the Scripture and our Tradition calls us personally to a deeper awareness of God within us and all around us.  In small groups bound together by a common faith, our stories become the parables by which Christ is made present among us, challenges us to greater engagement in the Gospel, opens our eyes to the presence of God all around us, and heals us of our infirmities.

If you would like to lead a small group, please contact me at monsignor.mak@miparish.org, or call the parish office. Before the sessions begin the week of March 6, we will have some training sessions for the group leaders to allow them to be more familiar with the materials and better facilitate small group interaction. In the coming weeks I will be publishing more information about the content of the programs. In the meanwhile, I pray that every parishioner can participate in a group. We have a great opportunity to re-engage as a parish through this special process. Thank you for prayerfully reflecting on your participation.
 
My Stewardship Prayer
Dear Heavenly Father,
My parish is composed of people like me;
I help make it what it is.
It will be friendly, if I am.
Its pews will be filled, if I help fill them.
It will do great work, if I work.
It will make generous gifts to many causes,
if I am a generous giver.
It will bring other people into its worship and fellowship,
if I invite and bring them.
It will be a parish of loyalty and love,
of fearlessness and faith,
and a parish with a noble spirit,
if I, who make it what it is, am filled with these same things.
Therefore, with Your help, O God,
I shall dedicate myself to growing our faith by being all things
that I want my parish to be.