



| _________________________ Our Time is a Gift from God Service to one's Church and community consists of offering one's Time to serve the poor, volunteer at school or religous education, lector, bring Holy Communiion to those less ambulatory, but most importantly the gift of Time is allowance for prayer. Prayer is such an important part of our lives that we must make Time for it in our daily but nevertheless busy lives. Needless to say, we must appropriate the gift of Time for prayer and volunteering our service. How we use our time says much about what we value and where our priorities are. Time for God, family, for others, for ourselves: when all are balanced well, we feel our lives are in order. If one element of our use of time falls out of balance, life seems unmanageable and out of sorts. Are you being a good steward of the minutes, hours, days, months and years that God is giving you? |
| __________________________ Our Talents are Gifts from God Again, we have all been blessed by God with unique, individual talents that can serve our Church and community. Through an offering of our unique God given talents we can serve God through service to the parish and one another. A talent is an innate way of interacting with the people and situations in our lives. Each of us has skills that come easy, gifts that we recognize or that others see in us. In using our talents, we find ourselves filled with energy and joy. In fact, some of our greatest talents may be so much a part of us that we take these gifts for granted. We can develop our talents and abilities throughout our lives, using and offering them as a sign of Christ’s presence with and for others. We all have talents! Take time to reflect on yours. Recognizing and offering those talents rather than hiding them is a sign of our trust in God. Without sharing our talents, we limit the ways in which Christ’s work is done. Our talents have been entrusted to us to develop, grow, and share. |
| _______________________________ Our Treasure is a Gift from God The gift of our treasure is probably the most challenging to each of us as well as being a test of our faith. l;lk; What makes a person wealthy? In the words of the late Archbishop Thomas Murphy, “What do you own, and what owns you?” .....kkkklklkl Jesus often teaches about the good use of financial and material resources, and he illustrates the negative impact of hoarding and being weighed down by money. The biblical principle of tithing, of offering at least 10 percent of one’s treasure to church and charity helps us to use our money in a way that keeps God first, as a sign of our gratitude to God for all we’ve been given. Tithing means to give not what is leftover, but rather to give to God first, as a sign of our love and trust. Those who have made this commitment will tell you that such a promise has made a wonderful impact in their lives; their priorities are clearer, their lives richer in ways that truly matter. Being a good steward of one’s financial and material resources is about more than 10 percent, however. What do you do with the other 90 percent? Are you a good steward of all you have? |
| Sharing Time |
| Sharing Talent |
| Sharing Treasure |