Stewardship Today

Baton Rouge Youth Coalition

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One of the six recipients of this year’s Works of Mercy Trust grants is the Baton Rouge Youth Coalition (BRYC), an organization founded by high school teacher Daniel Kahn in 2009 to help “high-achieving but under-resourced high school students enter, excel in, and graduate from college so they can become full participants in society.” Staff members and volunteer supporters achieve this goal through activities as diverse as educational and recreational camps and retreats, service programs, partnerships with related organizations, instructional coursework, life skill preparation, and opportunities to work with professional mentors who serve in a great variety of business and government disciplines. More than two hundred young people are involved in various programs this year alone. Visit the informative website for additional information: https://thebyrc.org

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NATIONAL CATHOLIC NEWS

FROM THE ARCHIVES

For Someone You Know

From the Stewardship Today Archives, July 2012

You’ve heard it before. Among many others, Mark Twain noted our odd preference for work on behalf of those we don’t really know. Tom Sawyer found how easy it was to enlist kids to paint a fence that didn’t belong to them while they avoided painting their own. ...read more

CATHOLIC SAINTS ON STEWARDSHIP

From St. Paul of the Cross:

“Do as gardeners whenever a storm threatens. They run to a shelter and stay there in peace until the storm passes. That’s what I want you to do with the grace of God. Always remain quiet and calm in the shelter of God’s will, under the almighty protection of the Most High.”

LOCAL DIOCESAN NEWS

Blessings Mission

St. Thomas More Church in Baton Rouge will host a Blessings Mission, empowering diocesan youth to assist with rebuilding efforts on behalf of those impacted by the flood of 2016. For information, visit www.blessingsmission.org, or call 225-610-0557, concerning this important ministry scheduled for June 13-17.

Diocesan News Page

Works of Mercy Trust

MercyTrust

In 1991, the year just prior to his passing, Bishop Stanley J. Ott initiated the Diocese of Baton Rouge’s Works of Mercy Trust to help fund area ministries through annual awards secured by the Works of Mercy endowment. Well over half a million dollars have been given to date, and six worthy beneficiaries received grant awards this spring. The following six organizations epitomize the kind of ministry and service for which Bishop Ott was so well known, and each is a welcome addition to the list of past recipients: the Baton Rouge Youth Coalition (BYRC), Life of a Single Mom, the St. Joseph Hospice Foundation, Evergreen Presbyterian Ministries, the Urban Restoration Enhancement Corporation (UREC), and the Women’s Community Rehabilitation Center. Congratulations to each organization, and thanks for your commitment!

STEWARDSHIP IN SCRIPTURE

“Give thanks to the Lord, invoke his name; make known among the people his deeds! Sing praise to him, play music; proclaim all his wondrous deeds! Glory in his holy name; let hearts that seek the Lord rejoice! Seek out the Lord and his might; constantly seek his face. Recall the wondrous deeds he has done, his wonders and words of judgment.”

(Psalm 105:1-5; New American Bible, Revised Edition)

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Planned Giving

Your Will: It’s More Than Legalese

It’s one of the most important legal documents you’ll ever create; a will dictates how you want your assets distributed after you’re gone. But beyond legalities, a will is a reflection of your life. It reveals who and what mattered most to you, and it’s the final gesture by which you’ll be remembered.

JUNE 2018

Stewardship: A Louisiana Legacy

Please Support

The Bishop’s Annual Appeal

steward2 oct2017

Join with fellow parishioners to actively support the Bishop’s Annual Appeal. It takes so little to mean so much. As Jesus said, God’s kingdom is “like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade” (Mk 4:31-32). We realize the greatest impact when generous parishioners join together and give. Moved by Faith, please take part in this great work of God. ...read more

A Letter from Bishop Robert W. Muench...Read more

The Stewardship of Prayer

Just a Few Heads of Grain?

In most municipalities, selling cars and trucks is prohibited on Sunday. In others, retail establishments may not open; in still others, whether open or not, stores may not sell alcohol. Called “blue laws,” prohibitions against Sunday operations extend to hunting and fishing, unique limits on forms of entertainment, labor and business. However, as we near the third decade of the twenty-first century, the once well-established practice has little effect on most people. The origin of the term may be ambiguous, and legislative debates may continue, but...read more

Tune Yourself to God ... read more

The Stewardship of Ministry

For the Sake of Jesus

“A bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench,” offered the prophet Isaiah. Peter knew the nature of suffering and the blessing of bearing up. “Whenever anyone bears the pain of unjust suffering because of consciousness of God, that is a grace,” we find in First Peter. Serving Christ almost cost Paul his life, more than occasionally. “Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I pass a night and day on the deep; on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own race, dangers from Gentiles, dangers in the city,. . . .read more

The Flesh and the Spirit ... read more

The Stewardship of Finance

The Potential Within a Seed

“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” So begins Tolstoy’s novel Anna Karenina. All great novels begin with a single sentence, of course. Some are quite memorable. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” “Call me Ishmael.” “In my younger and more vulnerable years, my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.” “I am an invisible man.”. . .read more

The Perfect Sacrifice ... read more

“We cannot be sure whether we are loving God, although we may have good reasons for believing that we are. But we can know quite well whether we are loving our neighbor.”

St. Teresa of Avila

“In all our thoughts and actions we ought to remember the presence of God, and to count as lost any time in which we don’t think of him.”

St. Bernard of Clairvaux

“God did not tell us to follow him because he needed our help, but because he knew that loving him would make us whole.”

St. Irenaeus of Lyons

“Whoever bids other folks to do right, but gives an evil example by acting the opposite way, is like a foolish weaver who weaves quickly with one hand and unravels the cloth just as quickly with the other.”

St. Thomas More