Stewardship Today

CATHOLIC SAINTS ON STEWARDSHIP

From St. Bernard of Clairvaux:

“Jesus. No voice can sing, nor heart can frame, nor can the memory find a sweeter sound than Thy blest name, O Savior of mankind.”

Please Sponsor a Family By DECEMBER 5th!

sponsor family

Please sponsor a family through the Catholic Charities 2018 “Community Comes Together for Christmas” program, and make their season as joyous as yours! Many of those we serve rely on the generosity of our donors at Christmas to make the holidays bright. Many are single mothers, grandparents raising grandchildren, and the elderly struggling to make ends meet on meager budgets. This year, please give the gift of Christmas to those in need. Simply log in to the “Christmas Comes Together” web link to choose the family, or families, you would like to sponsor. Help bring a special Christmas to others: http://christmas.ccdiobr.org

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

THE STEWARD'S BOOKSHELF

Recommended Resources
for Reflection and Study

A Minute of Margin: Restoring Balance to Busy Lives - 180 Daily Reflections (Pilgrimage Growth Guide) by [M.D., Richard A. Swenson,]

Please visit “The Steward’s Bookshelf”
for additional recommendations.

Click Here

NATIONAL CATHOLIC NEWS

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Increase the Valuable

From the Stewardship Today Archives, December 2015

In a recent magazine article, one author wrote of her children and their fondness for electronic gifts. Over the years, she’s found them inevitably expensive and soon obsolete. Last year’s gadgets fill drawers and boxes, replaced by this year’s preferences. To a degree, it’s equally true for adults, and discovering a gift of lasting value can be a rare find. The writer made such a discovery, however....read more

LOCAL DIOCESAN NEWS

Televised Mass

Catholic Life Television broadcasts the Tuesday Midday Mass, live from St. Joseph Cathedral at 12 Noon, and rebroadcasts the service at 6 PM and 10:30 PM. Visit www.catholiclifetv.org for a variety of daily Catholic programming.

Diocesan News Page

Support St. Vincent de Paul
This Holiday Season

st vicentdepaul

For many years, The Society of St. Vincent de Paul of Baton Rouge has offered a clear mission of ministry and service to our hungry, homeless and needy neighbors. “Our mission, through person-to-person contact, mass feeding, sheltering and other channels, encompasses every form of aid which alleviates suffering and promotes dignity and integrity.”

“All races, creeds, colors, origins, castes, opinions and genders are served.” Please consider doing your part this holiday season. The gift of a single dollar provides a hot meal, $10 will provide a night of shelter, and $28 will fill a life-sustaining prescription. Gifts that are even more generous will clearly meet substantial needs. Please pray for the poor, the work of St. Vincent de Paul, and support their life-saving ministry this Christmas. Give online by visiting www.svdpbr.org

STEWARDSHIP IN SCRIPTURE

“Truly, the Lord is waiting to be gracious to you. Truly, he shall rise to show you mercy. For the Lord is a God of justice. Happy are all who wait for him!”

(Isaiah 30:18; New American Bible, Revised Edition)

Download Stewardship Today Free

For the convenience of our readers, a four-page, abridged set of monthly Stewardship Today articles is available as a downloadable PDF file.

Download the PDF Version

Planned Giving

Your Estate Plan’s Quarterback

Your estate plan is the combination of documents that determine how your assets will be managed and distributed. When you create this plan, one of the most helpful things you can do for your family and beneficiaries is to spell out in detail how you want your estate to be handled. A critical part of that process is naming an executor.

DECEMBER 2018

Stewardship: A Louisiana Legacy

Please Support the BAA

steward oct2018

For decades, contributors to the Bishop’s Annual Appeal have extended the love of God to our neighbors, fellow parishioners and friends. A timeless call directs us to all those who long for our care and compassion throughout the Diocese of Baton Rouge. Investing the blessings God has granted, we honor the Lord as we serve and as we give. It is Christ’s example, and we Follow the Shepherd’s Lead.

Because we desire to be good stewards of God’s blessing, we purposefully support efforts like the BAA, aware that the collective gifts of many faithful parishioners can accomplish much. Through your generous contributions, you address others’ needs, and you point them to Jesus Christ, the shepherd of us all. Please give to support the work of the Bishop’s Annual Appeal.

Follow the Shepherd’s Lead Appeal Brochure

Follow the Shepherd’s Lead Donor Mailer

The Stewardship of Prayer

The Encouraging Promise of His Return

How would you like it, if your spiritual mentors wrote the following about you? “We give thanks to God always for all of you, remembering you in our prayers, unceasingly calling to mind your work of faith and labor of love and endurance in hope of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The Apostle Paul, serving alongside missionary associates Silvanus and Timothy, opened his initial letter to the Thessalonians using exactly those words. St. Paul could be quite the encourager. ....read more

The Shoulders of the Shepherd ... read more

The Stewardship of Ministry

Rejoice in the Lord. Always.

One revered devotional writer thought many parishioners live with too little joy. “Joy is the enjoyment of God and the good things that come from the hand of God,” he wrote. “If our new freedom in Christ is a piece of angel food cake, joy is the frosting. If the Bible gives us the wonderful words of life, joy supplies the music. If the way in heaven turns out to be an arduous steep climb, joy sets up the chair lift. Joy is more than a sense of the comic, more than earthly pleasure, and much more than what we call happiness.”. . .read more

Stand and Speak ... read more

The Stewardship of Finance

The Ritual of Remembrance

We love Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. What’s more, if we’re visiting family and friends for the holidays, we know we can attend services in each of their communities, just as our adult children—living in other cities across the country—have the opportunity to participate in services at their parish churches, too. A measure of local flavor identifies each location, of course, but the familiar order, pattern and pace of the Mass is comfortably similar, one of the more appealing aspects of our faith. Christmas Eve Mass: Every year, wherever we celebrate the coming of Christ, we’re reminded of years gone by, a lifetime of worship.. . .read more

Only in Loss Do We Experience Restoration ... read more

“In this day in which the Rich became poor for our sakes, let the rich man make the poor man share with him at his table. On this day came forth to us the Gift, even though we had not asked for it! Let us therefore bestow alms on those who cry and beg from us.”

St. Ephraem the Syrian

“Be merry, really merry. The life of a true Christian should be a perpetual jubilee, a prelude to the festivals of eternity.”

St. Theophane Venard

“I do not lend. I give. Hasn’t the good God been the first to give to me?”

St. Jean Vianney

“Having prepared for us bountifully before we were born, God—who fashioned us and created us—brought us into his world. Since, then, we owe all this to him, we ought to give him thanks for everything.”

St. Clement I