From the Pastor's Pen: SHARE THE JOY—IMMERSED IN GOD’S LOVE

The brochure you got in the mail this week had that theme. It showed children playing around a pool, doing cartwheels, or eating ice cream. The best of childhood, anyway, is that we’re free and happy, trusting that we’re taken care of. At our best, then, children naturally share happiness with others. We adults need that sense too. This Sunday begins the actual Stewardship Awareness mini-season. Last Sunday I gave the Annual Financial Report, a practical and necessary rendering of our community stewardship. We’ve made gains, and yet have work to do together on that. (If you missed it, you can listen to a recording posted on the stewardship web page:

https://www.strpdparish.org/stewardship)

But Stewardship, in itself, is not about the numbers, good or bad. It’s about our spirit of gratitude to God, because he’s cared for us. It’s an awareness of our fundamental relationship to God, who has given us far more than we could ever give back to him. It’s a relationship of joyful trust such as a child might have. Our Stewardship Season this year calls us to make a daring, faith-filled response to God’s generosity. Reflect on the brochure and Prayer Card. (call us if you didn’t get it.) Let’s realize that God has taken care of us, and we can be generous to Him and each other. I’ll call us all, like every year, to look at responding in our Offertory Giving, and our service to the parish in Time and Talent. This is all that Stewardship is! One parishioner has already responded. At the Masses last weekend I invited all to join me in increasing my weekly Offertory Gift—in my case, by $5. One of our seniors came to me at the Senior Club Meeting to tell me she’d done that before I did! Next week some of our lay parishioners will tell their story of responding to God’s goodness. We’ll have another fun event outside on the corner of the church, then you’ll receive your Covenant Card in the mail (what used to be called Intention Card), and we ask you to bring it to Mass as a renewed offering of your time, treasure, and talent. We will be stronger the more of these cards that are returned.