Our Lady of Lourdes Church and School

Last weekend I began a conversation with our parish community concerning the importance of Stewardship as a constitutive element of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. I spoke (at length, some of you reminded me afterwards) of the importance of our participation in the life of our parish community, both spiritually and practically.

Some of my words shared with those present focused on some of the wonderful ways in which I see God’s blessings unfolding in the life of our parish community. I see that happens, over and over again, when God reaches into our lives, moving us to reach beyond ourselves and to share our gifts and to receive the gifts of others, all for the good of our parish community as a whole. So much happens here at Lourdes that we are often unaware of, because of the sharing of gifts that takes place among those who roll up their sleeves and choose to invest themselves in making a difference beyond their own immediate concerns. I am in awe of the hours which some people give in service of their brothers and sisters in faith. That is no exaggeration.

I am also amazed and greatly touched by the faith of those who reach out and generously contribute to support the mission and ministries of our community. Like everything in our lives, all the good that takes place at Church and in our ministries has some real, practical costs. It is only the generosity of contributing members of our parish that allows some incredible work to be undertaken. Some who give, choose to do so for a particular purpose or project, and that is always gratefully appreciated. But the real “bread-and-butter” of our ministries is made possible by the ongoing, sustained and consistent giving of our members who contribute to our regular offertory program, either by using envelopes, or by participating in our eGiving program through Faith Direct® (www.faithdirect.com / Church ID: CA756). More than 85% of our expenditures are financed by our Sunday Offertory.

Another theme of my remarks last weekend related to our sustained growth as a parish, at a time when this is not the experience of many faith communities. Here at Lourdes, we find ourselves growing - by God’s grace - and that growth has strained our resources. We are growing in numbers attending our church. We are growing in numbers of those who reach out to us in need. We are growing our support of outreach programs. We continue to grow new and exciting ministries such as Stephen Ministry & our St. Vincent DePaul Chapter. We are investing in training and ongoing spiritual and ministerial development of our ministry leaders. All this growth has brought us to a place where we have a very happy challenge, now. The challenge, of course, is growing the resources to make the growth possible, allowing us to grow the blessings God has lavished upon us. That is a choice and a commitment to we are each called upon for personal reflection.

 As I said last Sunday at all the masses, “Our stewardship is our commitment to cooperating with God’s work for the growth  of our parish community.”

This weekend we have the opportunity to hear some testimony and witness from parishioners who share something of their Lourdes story with the rest of us. I encourage you to reach out to them and to thank them for their courage in standing to speak in front of all of us and for their witness. I also encourage you to consider if perhaps something of their story might inspire our deepening personal commitment to the life and growth of our parish community.

Next weekend I will be inviting everyone to step up and be counted - figuratively… I hope I can count on you to agree to be counted upon for the continued growth of our parish.