Families in Faith Parish Mission August 27 - 29, 2018 The story of the fool.

Bishop Eugene Gerber Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Wichita “Stewardship helps us to discover our vocation and to live it; identify our personal dignity and respect it; recognize God’s prompting and embrace it.” Bishop Eugene Gerber Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Wichita

Pillars of Stewardship Hospitality Prayer Service Formation Pillars of Stewardship CatholicDioceseOfWichita.org/stewardship

The Pillar of HOSPITALITY “When I was a stranger, you welcomed me.” (Mt 25:35) We cannot form stewards if the pews are empty. Why do Catholics leave a practice of the Faith to go to another denomination?

“You’re Sitting in My Pew!” How do we as a parish family welcome one another? How do we welcome those who are visiting our parish? Do I understand hospitality to be an act of stewardship? Does the 8:00 Mass family know the 9:30 Mass family or the 11:00 Mass family? Pope Francis says: “The parish is not an outdated institution; precisely because it possesses great flexibility, it can assume quite different contours depending on the openness and missionary creativity of the pastor and the community. While certainly not the only institution which evangelizes, if the parish proves capable of self-renewal and constant adaptivity, it continues to be “the Church living in the midst of the homes of her sons and daughters. In all its activities the parish encourages and trains its members to be evangelizers.[28] It is a community of communities, a sanctuary where the thirsty come to drink in the midst of their journey, and a center of constant missionary outreach.” The Joy of the Gospel, n. 28

The Pillar of PRAYER “Thy Will be done.” Eucharist = “Thanksgiving” For majority of parishioners, their one hour at Sunday Mass is their primary connection to the life of the parish family. The Mass is the “school of stewardship spirituality.”

Prayer of a Faithful Steward To be emptied of: PRIDE ENVY JEALOUSY ANGER SELFISHNESS SELF-PITY GREED To be filled with: HUMILITY CHARITY FAITH HOPE PATIENCE PEACE JOY SURRENDER GRATITUDE Mother Theresa of Calcutta: “God does not call me to be successful. God calls me to be faithful.” We should pray not to be successful stewards, but rather, faithful stewards.

Our Need to Thank God Father, all powerful and ever-living God, we do well always and everywhere to give you thanks. You have no need of our praise, yet our desire to thank you is itself your gift. Our prayer of thanksgiving adds nothing to your greatness, but makes us grow in your grace, through Jesus Christ our Lord. God does not need our gratitude. WE need to be grateful. God has given us all that is good. By our gratitude, we respond to the goodness given us by God. Even our awareness and our need to thank God is a gift from God. We grow in grace when we thank God for his love. We have needs to give to that will always exist. But we also have a need to give. There is a difference between giving to a need and a need to give. God created us with a need to give as part of our human nature. To be able to love this way and to give this way, we need the grace of God, which He gives to us if we are open to that gift of grace. When I do not give, I begin to hoard and to grow in selfishness. When this begins to happen, then I begin to lose my capacity to love God and to love others. I begin to close myself off from others and begin to close myself in my own little world. I begin to love only myself, which makes life miserable, empty and incomplete. The pain then causes me to seek ways of avoiding that emptiness. I increase my material possessions rather than strengthening my relationships with God and others.

Grace “As each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God’s varied grace.” (I Peter 4:10) Grace is our participation in the life of God. Grace is a total gift from God, something that we cannot merit or earn. Grace leads us on our journey to the Kingdom of God.

“I Don’t Have Time to Pray” It is not true that so-and-so has more time than I do. It is how I choose to use the gift of time that God gives me. The faithful steward must pray daily, especially with prayers of gratitude in the heart.

Eucharistic People 26 of the 90 parishes in the diocese have Perpetual Adoration. Many others have regular hours of adoration throughout the week. Prayer is at the heart of a faithful steward’s life. 11,600 students in our Catholic Schools throughout the diocese. We do not charge school tuition. Bishop Kemme ordained 10 priests in 2017 and 10 more priests in 2018. Choose 4-6 couples in your parish with whom you can pray, (especially Eucharistic and Marian prayer). Form these couples into an ad hoc committee separate from parish council and finance council. Everything must be done in concert with the Bishop.

Pope Francis “How good it is to stand before a crucifix or on our knees before the Blessed Sacrament and simply to be in his presence!  How much good it does us when he once more touches our lives and impels us to share his new life!” - Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel) Apostolic Exhortation November 24, 2013 n. 264

The Pillar of FORMATION Educating the mind and forming the heart are necessary steps in the steward’s growth. Jesus formed the disciples for three years before sending them out. How to form disciples?

Faith is a Journey: Do We Know the Way? “The average age of the world’s great civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From great courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to complacency; From complacency to apathy; From apathy to dependency; From dependency back again to bondage.” Sir Alex Fraser Tytler We have been reading the last few weeks in our weekday Masses of the story of the Exodus – how Yahweh led the Israelites out of the bondage of the Egyptians, through the guidance of the Yahweh’s servant, Moses. Tytler was a Scottish historian and a Professor of Universal History at Edinburgh University. He wrote this quote in 1801. Tytler goes on to say, “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury. From that time on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the results that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.”

The Pillar of SERVICE “I have come not to be served, but to serve.” Service within the parish, but also to serve outside the parish boundaries. Not only ministry, but apostolate! “The fruit of faith is love and the fruit of love is service.” Mother Teresa

Giving to a Need vs. A Need to Give There will always be needs present in this world. Even if there were no needs however, we still have a need to give. God created us with this need to give. It is in giving that we receive. The sociological changes in our country that began in 1963. The change in the family in 1945. Children used to be seen as an asset. Now, many see children as a liability. At their earliest ages, children have within them an inherent need to give, to help. When this need is not nurtured, the child begins to turn in on oneself. “It is mine!” Give it to me! This move from selfless giving to selfish taking is quite prevalent in our materialistic society.

The Four Ships ____________ship The first requirement of a steward is to be TRUSTWORTHY. Jesus is always trustworthy. The deepening of the relationship with the Lord leads us to trust God more and to trust self less. This is growth in the formation of the Christian steward.

The Four Ships Leadership Relationship Discipleship Stewardship Jesus Christ Relationship Prayer Discipleship Fasting Stewardship Almsgiving

A Potentially Destructive Ship Ownership The destructive “isms” Materialism Relativism Hedonism Individualism Consumerism What do I own and what owns me? It is mine! I am the owner. No!!!! All that is good comes from God. I am simply a steward of gifts. Even my life is not my own! My life is a gift from God. I am a steward of the gift of human life. I do not OWN my life!

The Four Pillars and the Four Marks of the Church Hospitality Prayer Formation Service One Holy Catholic Apostolic

This Family Circus cartoon appeared on Good Friday of this year in newspapers throughout the country. Many of us may be like Dolly, who like to see Jesus in the manger better than seeing Our Lord on the cross. “If you wish to be my disciple, you must deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me.” But when I deny myself, when I carry the cross that the Lord gives me, and I follow the Lord, then the consequence of these actions is not death, but ETERNAL LIFE! This is the JOY of stewardship. This is the LIFE of stewardship. This is the HOPE of stewardship – eternal life in the Kingdom of God!