Giving birth to stewardship
Involving the whole community in stewardship can be as easy as resting in God’s arms. Here’s how.
Photo from Photos.comOne Sunday morning I sat in Mass trying to find inspiration in the homily. A couple of seats away was a woman who kept looking at her infant daughter in her carrier, finally picking her up and cradling her until communion time. With a mixture of serenity and delight, she would often gaze into the baby’s peaceful face and occasionally bend down to kiss her forehead. Although not even close to the Scripture for the day, a line from Psalm 131 came to mind and captured my focus for the rest of the liturgy: “As a child rests in its mother’s arms, so shall I rest in you.”
Stewardship in action
I wasn’t the only witness to this tenderness. A young girl clutching a doll left her parents and walked down the row to stand near the woman. The girl soon began to cradle her doll in the same gentle manner. Walking back to my seat from communion, I paused and thanked the mother for teaching me more about God’s love.
But what does that have to do with stewardship? The best way to learn about stewardship is by witnessing it in action, experiencing examples that are both simple and extraordinary. So, the more opportunities we can offer our parishioners to share their wisdom and faith with each other, the more they will recognize and regard their fellow parishioners as the Body of Christ. That’s a huge step toward the ownership of a parish that people need to feel in order to freely offer themselves fully: time, talent, and treasure.
Effective resources
You can focus on different methods for different age groups. For school-aged youth, the stewardship office of the Archdiocese of Louisville has a stewardship education series with curriculum guides for teaching stewardship in elementary, middle, and high schools, as well as in religious education sessions. For more information, contact them at stewards@archlou.org or (502) 585-3291, ext. 119. You can also see a longer description of the program at wholecommunity.blogspot.com. Search on “stewardship.”
Many adults struggle with prayer, whether making time for it or wondering if they’re “doing it right.” Here’s a resource for adults to explore different ways of praying, to help them find the right “fit.” We know people have different learning style preferences. Caroljean Willie, SC, PhD, takes a multiple intelligences approach in her resource book, Praying All Ways (Harcourt Religion Publishers). She presents eight chapters that focus on different ways to pray (finding God through words, math, art, music, movement, nature, etc.) that could be easily adapted for your community.
But if you really want to bring the whole community together for catechesis on stewardship, I suggest what Holy Infant Parish in Durham, North Carolina, did in preparation for Pentecost, 2005. This whole community gathering began with communal prayer. Then people of all ages rotated through multiple “gift stations” to work on crafts or share faith stories or participate in role-playing skits. The evening helped participants understand Pentecost at a deeper level. As a follow-up they also gave out the Little Burgundy Book from the Diocese of Saginaw (www.saginaw.org) in preparation for a stewardship fair on Pentecost weekend.
I’m grateful for that mother in Mass who unknowingly taught love. Our churches are filled with these lessons. Let’s help everyone in the parish become a catechist of stewardship. TP
*This article appeared in the January 2007 issue of Today’s Parish.
Cathy Rusin is the Stewardship and Development Associate for the Diocese of Raleigh, North Carolina. She holds a Master of Theological Studies degree from Duke Divinity School and is certified as a master catechist for the Diocese of Raleigh.
