Diocese of Toledo, Ohio

Browsing From the Pastor

An Exercise in Stewardship

   Recently, a letter was sent out to the various groups and ministries in our Parish, inviting them to pray, to reflect upon, and to submit items for our upcoming 2018-2019 parish budget. In and  of itself, money is one of the most mundane realities with which we all have to live and deal. How we relate to money is a very spiritual matter.

   Preparing the annual parish budget challenges all of us to be faithful stewards of the financial resources that have been and supposedly will be entrusted to us as a parish community. Sending letters to the various groups and ministries of our Parish invites all of us to see that we are active participants in the development of our parish budget.

   In regard to preparing our personal and parish budgets, hopefully this is done in the context of prayer. Prayer enables us to discern what the Lord wants to accomplish in and through us during the coming year.

   As we undertake the spiritual adventure of developing our parish budget, the virtues of faith (trust) and patience are asked of each of us. Faith comes to expression in the conviction that as we continue to remain open to Him in prayer, the Lord is working through our budget process to give expression to what, as a parish community, we sense are His priorities for us during the coming fiscal year. Obviously, as a corollary of faith, patience is called for. Our own priorities for the development of our parish need to be seen in relation to the priorities expressed by others. It hurts when what we regard to be important seems to be shot down. The Lord offers to each of us the strength to continue to hang in there in a proactive way in the life of our Parish whether what we regard as priorities are being addressed this year or not in the development of our parish budget.

   Let’s continue to be faithful stewards of the financial resources entrusted to us by praying for the budget process as well as by responding with our financial means to the Lord’s generosity towards us as He leads us to do this. In these ways, we will be doing our part to enable the Lord’s work in and through our parish to grow and to blossom in a marvelous manner.

 

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Fr. Nelson Beaver – Pastor

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