A Letter From Our Pastor: A Wonderful Time to Commit to God

Dear Parishioners,

It’s Stewardship Renewal time! What an exciting time of year for people new to the parish to make commitments and for everyone (including your priests!) to re-up commitments of time, talent, and treasure for the year ahead. Why do it every year? Because each of us is different from last year. I know some of you have had serious encounters with the Lord Jesus and are ready to go deeper. I know some of you have recently changed jobs or retired so your time commitments have changed — some have more now and others have less. Perhaps your financial picture has changed as well. We do the renewal every year because new people are in our parish! We also do the renewal because a year ago a lot of people were not engaged with the parish due to the pandemic. So here we are ready for Stewardship Renewal 2021.

Among the ministries you’ll see in this year’s Stewardship Renewal is Love Thy Neighbor and the Collection Ministry. Let me tell you about them. Love Thy Neighbor is our overarching term for the myriad ways we help people in our community. We assist people with food and gas through the Mother Teresa Ministry. We help parishioners in need. We help with natural disasters or significant hardships. We also help people with rental assistance. Each of these falls under “Love Thy Neighbor” and it’s your time, talent, and treasure that makes it possible.

Speaking of treasure, the Collection Ministry assists the parish business office with counting our collection each week. This ministry requires some time during the day and a little patience. Our parishioners are wonderfully generous and it takes the form of online giving, PayPal, ACH (taken directly from the bank), envelopes of various types, and cash and coins. We’re grateful for it all but we have to count it to make sure every cent is accounted for and spent wisely. If this ministry interests you, I hope you’ll sign up.

So get ready! The Annual Stewardship Renewal is for everyone, even our kids and teens. We want everyone to prayerfully consider their time, talent, and treasure commitments for the year ahead. Together, we are evangelizing Payne County for Christ and His Church!

In Christ,

Very Rev. Brian O’Brien, Pastor, St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church

Very Rev. Brian O’Brien, Pastor, St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church