While our parish church was undergoing a months-long renovation project years ago, we celebrated Sunday Mass in the social hall. It happened that during that period I officiated at the wedding of some friends. Though they were members of another parish, I was happy to accommodate them, and they did not mind our temporary arrangement.
It was a simple, joyful celebration with close friends and family. Back in the makeshift sacristy after the wedding, I thought I detected the roar of a vacuum cleaner coming from the hall. I peeked out the door, and sure enough, there was the father of the bride, a Colombian immigrant, vacuuming the floor.
“What are you doing, Jaime?” I asked.
“Vacuuming the floor,” came the response.
“How did you find our vacuum cleaner?”
“This one is mine. I brought it from home.”
That simple encounter taught me a great deal about Jaime and about stewardship. He was so respectful of the property of others and grateful for being allowed to use it that he went beyond the call of duty to care for it as if it were his own. His gesture was also an expression of respect for the thousands of others who used the facility.
Yes, parish facilities are built with parishioners’ money; but in a more profound sense they are built with what belongs to God, the tithe of good stewards. They are gifts to be treated with respect and care, as one would care for his or her own home — or better yet, as one would care for someone else’s home.
The vast majority of Catholics enjoy worship and parish life in facilities they did not pay for. Even if at present they happen to be members of a new or expanding parish and have contributed to a building campaign, they were probably reared in a parish where the facilities were handed down from past generations. We all enjoy the fruit of the blood, sweat, tears and money of past generations; we have a responsibility to hand on to future generations the fruit of our generosity. In doing so we are only acknowledging that everything comes from the hand of God and belongs to him. An ancient Hebrew insight teaches that almsgiving restores God’s right order in the world, for through it we redistribute his gifts according to his plan.
The foregoing is equally true of our stewardship of creation and the way we care for the environment. God’s goodness made manifest is to be shared by all. The care I give my surroundings — my room, my office, my neighborhood, my parish, the park I enjoy and the roads I travel — is a sign both of praise and gratitude to God and respect for neighbors.
A proper understanding of stewardship reminds me that even those things I “own” are ultimately not truly mine but gifts from God to be shared. Parishes that undertake fund-raising campaigns for construction purposes have to be careful not to tightly clutch those facilities as if they were the personal property of those who contributed to the campaign. A tithe — a “gift” to one’s church — is merely a response to God’s generosity, a recognition that the standard for giving is set by him who holds back nothing from us. As St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “What do you possess that you have not received? But if you have received it, why are you boasting as if you did not receive it?” (1 Cor 4:7) We humbly admit that even our “hard-earned money” is a gift from God.
We would do well to take a gauge of our stewardship — the way we treat personal property and the property of others; the gratitude we show for the privilege of having parish facilities at our disposal; the open-handedness with which we make those facilities available for worthwhile causes; the strings — the control — we sometimes attach to our financial stewardship, as if we have bought something rather than made a gift; the initiative we take in maintaining parish facilities, whether or not we were the ones who dirtied them; the humility with which we acknowledge God as the giver of everything.
“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and try me in this, says the Lord of hosts: Shall I not open for you the floodgates of heaven, to pour down blessing upon you without measure?” (Malachi 3:10) Learning to be good stewards stretches us to care for creation and appreciate with greater and greater thanksgiving just how good God is to us.
Do you have an intention for Bishop Sartain’s prayer? If so, send it to him at Bishop Sartain’s Prayer List, Diocese of Little Rock, 2500 North Tyler St., P.O. Box 7239, Little Rock, AR 72217.

While our parish church was undergoing a months-long renovation project years ago, we celebrated Sunday Mass in the social hall. It happened that during that period I officiated at the wedding of some friends. Though they were members of another parish, I was happy to accommodate them, and they did not mind our temporary arrangement.
It was a simple, joyful celebration with close friends and family. Back in the makeshift sacristy after the wedding, I thought I detected the roar of a vacuum cleaner coming from the hall. I peeked out the door, and sure enough, there was the father of the bride, a Colombian immigrant, vacuuming the floor.
“What are you doing, Jaime?” I asked.
“Vacuuming the floor,” came the response.
“How did you find our vacuum cleaner?”
“This one is mine. I brought it from home.”
That simple encounter taught me a great deal about Jaime and about stewardship. He was so respectful of the property of others and grateful for being allowed to use it that he went beyond the call of duty to care for it as if it were his own. His gesture was also an expression of respect for the thousands of others who used the facility.
Yes, parish facilities are built with parishioners’ money; but in a more profound sense they are built with what belongs to God, the tithe of good stewards. They are gifts to be treated with respect and care, as one would care for his or her own home — or better yet, as one would care for someone else’s home.
The vast majority of Catholics enjoy worship and parish life in facilities they did not pay for. Even if at present they happen to be members of a new or expanding parish and have contributed to a building campaign, they were probably reared in a parish where the facilities were handed down from past generations. We all enjoy the fruit of the blood, sweat, tears and money of past generations; we have a responsibility to hand on to future generations the fruit of our generosity. In doing so we are only acknowledging that everything comes from the hand of God and belongs to him. An ancient Hebrew insight teaches that almsgiving restores God’s right order in the world, for through it we redistribute his gifts according to his plan.
The foregoing is equally true of our stewardship of creation and the way we care for the environment. God’s goodness made manifest is to be shared by all. The care I give my surroundings — my room, my office, my neighborhood, my parish, the park I enjoy and the roads I travel — is a sign both of praise and gratitude to God and respect for neighbors.
A proper understanding of stewardship reminds me that even those things I “own” are ultimately not truly mine but gifts from God to be shared. Parishes that undertake fund-raising campaigns for construction purposes have to be careful not to tightly clutch those facilities as if they were the personal property of those who contributed to the campaign. A tithe — a “gift” to one’s church — is merely a response to God’s generosity, a recognition that the standard for giving is set by him who holds back nothing from us. As St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “What do you possess that you have not received? But if you have received it, why are you boasting as if you did not receive it?” (1 Cor 4:7) We humbly admit that even our “hard-earned money” is a gift from God.
We would do well to take a gauge of our stewardship — the way we treat personal property and the property of others; the gratitude we show for the privilege of having parish facilities at our disposal; the open-handedness with which we make those facilities available for worthwhile causes; the strings — the control — we sometimes attach to our financial stewardship, as if we have bought something rather than made a gift; the initiative we take in maintaining parish facilities, whether or not we were the ones who dirtied them; the humility with which we acknowledge God as the giver of everything.
“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and try me in this, says the Lord of hosts: Shall I not open for you the floodgates of heaven, to pour down blessing upon you without measure?” (Malachi 3:10) Learning to be good stewards stretches us to care for creation and appreciate with greater and greater thanksgiving just how good God is to us.
Do you have an intention for Bishop Sartain’s prayer? If so, send it to him at Bishop Sartain’s Prayer List, Diocese of Little Rock, 2500 North Tyler St., P.O. Box 7239, Little Rock, AR 72217.

While our parish church was undergoing a months-long renovation project years ago, we celebrated Sunday Mass in the social hall. It happened that during that period I officiated at the wedding of some friends. Though they were members of another parish, I was happy to accommodate them, and they did not mind our temporary arrangement.
It was a simple, joyful celebration with close friends and family. Back in the makeshift sacristy after the wedding, I thought I detected the roar of a vacuum cleaner coming from the hall. I peeked out the door, and sure enough, there was the father of the bride, a Colombian immigrant, vacuuming the floor.
“What are you doing, Jaime?” I asked.
“Vacuuming the floor,” came the response.
“How did you find our vacuum cleaner?”
“This one is mine. I brought it from home.”
That simple encounter taught me a great deal about Jaime and about stewardship. He was so respectful of the property of others and grateful for being allowed to use it that he went beyond the call of duty to care for it as if it were his own. His gesture was also an expression of respect for the thousands of others who used the facility.
Yes, parish facilities are built with parishioners’ money; but in a more profound sense they are built with what belongs to God, the tithe of good stewards. They are gifts to be treated with respect and care, as one would care for his or her own home — or better yet, as one would care for someone else’s home.
The vast majority of Catholics enjoy worship and parish life in facilities they did not pay for. Even if at present they happen to be members of a new or expanding parish and have contributed to a building campaign, they were probably reared in a parish where the facilities were handed down from past generations. We all enjoy the fruit of the blood, sweat, tears and money of past generations; we have a responsibility to hand on to future generations the fruit of our generosity. In doing so we are only acknowledging that everything comes from the hand of God and belongs to him. An ancient Hebrew insight teaches that almsgiving restores God’s right order in the world, for through it we redistribute his gifts according to his plan.
The foregoing is equally true of our stewardship of creation and the way we care for the environment. God’s goodness made manifest is to be shared by all. The care I give my surroundings — my room, my office, my neighborhood, my parish, the park I enjoy and the roads I travel — is a sign both of praise and gratitude to God and respect for neighbors.
A proper understanding of stewardship reminds me that even those things I “own” are ultimately not truly mine but gifts from God to be shared. Parishes that undertake fund-raising campaigns for construction purposes have to be careful not to tightly clutch those facilities as if they were the personal property of those who contributed to the campaign. A tithe — a “gift” to one’s church — is merely a response to God’s generosity, a recognition that the standard for giving is set by him who holds back nothing from us. As St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “What do you possess that you have not received? But if you have received it, why are you boasting as if you did not receive it?” (1 Cor 4:7) We humbly admit that even our “hard-earned money” is a gift from God.
We would do well to take a gauge of our stewardship — the way we treat personal property and the property of others; the gratitude we show for the privilege of having parish facilities at our disposal; the open-handedness with which we make those facilities available for worthwhile causes; the strings — the control — we sometimes attach to our financial stewardship, as if we have bought something rather than made a gift; the initiative we take in maintaining parish facilities, whether or not we were the ones who dirtied them; the humility with which we acknowledge God as the giver of everything.
“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and try me in this, says the Lord of hosts: Shall I not open for you the floodgates of heaven, to pour down blessing upon you without measure?” (Malachi 3:10) Learning to be good stewards stretches us to care for creation and appreciate with greater and greater thanksgiving just how good God is to us.
Do you have an intention for Bishop Sartain’s prayer? If so, send it to him at Bishop Sartain’s Prayer List, Diocese of Little Rock, 2500 North Tyler St., P.O. Box 7239, Little Rock, AR 72217.