Stewardship

Apr 28

Letter from the Pastor
4/30/23

Stewardship

Please let me first thank you for your prayers for me and the pilgrims from Roger Bacon High School, Cincinnati, while we were visiting Rome and Assisi. It was an incredible pilgrimage. Although the weather was predicted to rain for most of our time in Italy, I am happy to say that God was watching out over us. It did rain and we even had a violent thunderstorm roll through Assisi one night, but it never rained when we were scheduled to be outside. As you know, while on pilgrimage, we spend a lot of time outside walking from one place to another. God took care of us! I’m so glad I sent Him the schedule! I do love being in Italy but it is good to be home. The warm welcome I received from so many of you made it even nicer to return. Thank you.

One of the problems of going away is the “To Do” list gets even longer. At the Masses last Sunday morning, after a night of heavy rains, I was quickly reminder that there is no easing back into reality. I stopped counting the number of leaks different people were telling me about in the St. Francis Church. So here we go…

Last fall, in the 2022 Annual State of the Parish Report, I mentioned that we would be starting a stewardship program in the Spring of 2023. In the next few weeks, you will be hearing more about stewardship as we lead into our introduction to the program on the weekends of May 21st and May 28th. Stewardship is about getting more parishioners involved in the everyday life and activities of our parish. It is about growing as a community as well as ensuring the future of our parish for generations to come.

In adopting a stewardship model, we acknowledge that all of our gifts – our time, our talents, and our treasures – come from God and like the early disciples, we share them with others for the good of the community. The title of our program is, “The Joy of Sharing the Gospel.” Again, I ask for your prayers for the success of this program and for our wonderful parish here on Long Beach Island.

May God continue to watch over you and your families.

Peace and All Good.