As with all things pertaining to the Gospel, Stewardship is fundamentally the work of the Spirit in our lives. When we accept our lives as sheer gifts, the Spirit can use us as apt instruments for spreading the Gospel.

 

Some highlights from the pastoral letter follow:

 

The Call

 

God calls us individually and intends for each one of us to play a unique role in carrying out the divine plan. The challenge, then, is to understand our role—our vocation—and to respond generously to this call from God.

 

Stewardship is a vocation to discipleship. The Mature disciple makes a firm decision to be a follower of Christ and to imitate His way of life no matter what the cost. Disciples practice Stewardship as a way of life.

 

To Follow Faithfully

 

This is a call to be faithful and loyal to the teachings of the Church - to practice our faith consistently and sacramentally. Following faithfully defines itself in our lives as Catholics. It is evident in our prayer lives, family lives, attendance at and participation in the life of the parish Church.

 

Jesus’ Way

 

Jesus is the supreme teacher of Christian Stewardship, as He is of every other aspect of Christian life; and in Jesus’ teaching and life, self-emptying is fundamental.

 

Jesus sometimes describes a disciple’s life in terms of Stewardship (cf. Matthew 25:14-30; Luke 12:42-48), not because being a steward is the whole of it, but because this role sheds a certain light on it. A steward is one to whom the owner of a household turns over responsibility for caring for the property, managing affairs, making resources yield as much as possible and sharing the resources with others.

 

Good stewards live with joy and gratitude for the blessings they have received and strive to return all gifts to the Father "with an increase." One day God will require an accounting of the use each person has made of the particular portion of these goods entrusted to him or her. The right use of things includes and requires that they be used to serve others.

 

Living as a Steward

 

Christian people must grasp the fact that they are no less than "God’s co-workers" (1 Corinthians 3:9), with their own particular share in His creative, redemptive and sanctifying work.

 

Stewards of the Church

 

We all are stewards of the Church. As to each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit? (1 Corinthians 12:7), so Stewardship in an ecclesial setting means cherishing and fostering the gifts of all, while using one’s own gifts to serve the community of faith. The mission of the Church — proclaiming and teaching, serving and sanctifying—is also our task.

 

The Christian Steward

 

The steward asks, "What do I own, and what owns me?" Christian stewards are generous out of love as well as duty. A steward’s goal for giving should be planned, proportionate and sacrificial. Goals should be centered around time, talent and treasure:

 

Time

 

Stewardship of time means carefully planning a schedule to include time for work, rest, play and prayer, which are vital in the Stewardship of our physical, emotional, spiritual and intellectual lives.

 

Talent

 

Stewardship of talent means nurturing, developing and using the God-given abilities and characteristics that help to define “who we are” as individual human persons.

 

Treasure

Money and all the things we possess are gifts from God that we are asked to care for and generously share for our own benefit and the good of others. It is important for us to share our money and all of our material possessions for two reasons: first, because all the good things that God has made are meant to be shared, and second, because each of us has a need to give. Giving money is good for the soul, and we need to return thanks to a loving God for all of the many blessings each of us has received.

 

Stewardship is not minimum giving. It is maximum giving. That means giving as much as we can, as often as we can, from the heart as a faith response because we are generous stewards who want to share our time, talent and treasure with others. We should be good stewards not only in how much we give away, but in what we do with all our resources.