Yesterday at our Noon Mass at St. Rose, I gave the following talk regarding stewardship.

Hi, my name is Bryan Koen and I have been asked to speak with you about stewardship.

About ten years ago, I converted to Catholicism. This was in part because of the woman who was to become my wife, Cara. We had been dating for many years and many in her family had given great witness of a strong faith in God and the Church. In fact my in-laws, Deacon Bill and Sharon Johnson were great examples to me for how to live a life based on service to the Church. After we were married, my job kept me out of town during most of the week and didn’t leave much time to spend developing my faith, or so I thought. Shortly after the birth of my second son, Spencer, our three parishes were consolidated in to one parish. This event, combined with a change of jobs, allowed me to begin my journey of service to St. Rose Parish.

Through our Men’s Club, Athletics, and the CHRP retreats, I have formed many long-lasting relationships with many of you. All I needed to do was, say “Yes!” So what, if I missed a TV show. What could be more entertaining than watching Kindergarten boys play herd soccer. So what, if I didn’t surf the Internet for a couple of hours. I wouldn’t get to share in the collective pride of stripping and wax our gym floor. So what, if I didn’t get to read all of that book, because I had a true encounter with the Holy Spirit.

I have come to realize that stewardship is really a way of life. It involves a basic shift in our own thought processes and accepting that our lives are gifts from God. Once we have made this transition, we can see everything in terms of gifts to be given and gifts received. Everything that makes up our fundamental being –  our lives, experiences, creativity, intelligence, and abilities – are gifts from God. Because of this we must be a grateful people.

How we live our lives directly affects our relationship with God. If we think about stewardship, in terms of time, talents, and treasure, we can apply the concept of stewardship to our individual lives. We can spend time with others, whether its just getting together with friends, delivering food to those in need, offering an hour per week in prayer, or serving as an usher, extraordinary minister, or lector during the Masses. We can “spend” our talents by helping your neighbor with some repairs around the house, coaching one our kid’s teams, helping out with Scouts, or sprucing up our Parish properties. And then there is treasure…we are called as Catholic Christians to give back to the Church and our communities some of the fruits of our labors. This can be as simple as putting a few extra dollars in the weekly collection, or donating clothes at our clothing drives, or even bringing up some canned goods for the St. Vincent de Paul Society.

I am sure you will all agree that we all have time, talents, and treasures to share.  While its not always easy to give up that hour or two on the couch, I have found that the rewards always exceed the sacrifice.

Next weekend, St. Rose will have its annual Festival of Ministries.  I am not asking you to run over and sign up for every ministry or organization that we have, but please give some thought and talk with the representatives and see if there might be a way for you to share your time, talents, or treasure.

I hope to see you there, Thanks.