Stewardship of Prayer and Faith

Dear St. Catherine Parish Family,

As you know, this year, again, we are holding our annual parish stewardship campaign. When we think of stewardship, we often begin by thinking about stewardship of our treasure. But stewardship is a really an entire way of life that first acknowledges who God is and recognizes our own deepest identity as God’s children. We are then led to a deeper trust in His providence, recognizing that everything we have is a gift from Him. Consequently, we are moved to a deep sense of gratitude and strive to use God’s gifts well by living a life of courageous and heroic love and generosity.

This past weekend, Fr. Valery and I spoke at Mass specifically about the idea of stewardship of prayer and faith, and we invited you to consider making a commitment to giving back to God a gift of a tithe of your time (10% of a day – 2.4 hours) each week to growing in your spiritual life and your formation in the faith. This may include a commitment to personal prayer, public prayer, personal study, or participation in our religious education and faith formation programs for adults and children (most of which are currently happening virtually).

Attached here, you will find a stewardship of prayer and faith commitment card which lists several of our programs and ministries related to prayer and ongoing faith formation for children and adults. Please prayerfully consider this as a gift you can offer to the Lord. To be sure, however, this is not any sort of binding promise, but it always helps to have a physical record for yourself to serve as a reminder of the commitments you are striving to keep. Even if you’re not sure if you can fulfill the commitment, I would encourage you to check the box even if you would like to try. And even our children who are able to fill out the form can make this commitment.

I will be sending out some updates soon with regard to restarting some of our programs and ministries that had been paused due to the pandemic. In the meantime, please feel free to contact me with any questions. Thank you for your generous stewardship and all your support of me and of St. Catherine’s.