Finding Your Sand Dollars

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Finding Your Sand Dollar

“The river over which every soul must pass to reach the kingdom of heaven is suffering, the boat which carries souls across the river is loveand humility is the virtue that gets us on the boat. ”

Fr. Scott Woods, drawing from the wisdom of the Carmelite Doctors

This week a friend shared a very inspirational story with me that I wanted to pass on to you. She is a member of a support group for both those suffering from a fatal disease which over a period of time causes the progressive deterioration of both physical and mental ability and their families/caregivers.

A fellow member had shared earlier this summer that the progression of the disease had necessitated her entrance into a nursing home. This was quite a blow to her and she found herself discouraged and depressed. She no longer wanted to get out of bed in the morning because she felt there was no point in doing so. She felt as if she spent her time just waiting. But then things changed dramatically for her. She writes, “I no longer spend my time waiting. I now use any spare time I have to reflect on how I can make this nursing home better for the residents and staff. I feel a sense of community here than I haven’t felt in a long time. I spend more of my days with people than I do watching them from my bed.”

What brought about such a dramatic change?

“A pastor stopped by last week. He knows of my love for seashells. He asked me what a day would be like if I found a sand dollar on the beach. I said that would be a perfect moment! He then told me, ‘This home is your beach. Go find the sand dollars.'”

This comment struck a deep chord in the woman’s heart. She recognized the truth of the Pastor’s words and she acted upon them. “Now I go to the dining hall as early as I can just to hold residents’ hands or tell them how much they are loved. People’s hearts are much more precious than all of the world’s seashells.“

The Christian steward recognizes that every good thing in their lives is a gift from God and they are grateful for the many blessings they receive and return them with increase to God. But it is only the very mature Christian who is able to experience great suffering and still find some goodness, who can muster the courage and strength to fight the temptation to turn inward and who can forget themselves and continue to reach out to others with love. But as her example shows, doing so, has brought her both wisdom and joy. Her generosity is heroic, God’s even more so.

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Stewardship, why bother?

Do you ever take the time to think about the people you admire the most? I don’t mean the people you just read about or watch on t.v. I mean the real people you interact with in your daily life. Of these folks, who are the ones you admire most? And why?

As I ponder this, I would say my heroes:

Seem to have an uncanny ability to ride the ups and downs of life with grace. They have an amazing capacity to see the best in difficult situations, to remain faithful, peaceful and dependable even in the midst of challenges.
are joyful. My heroes make me laugh. They bring joy with them into the room. They don’t take themselves or others too seriously. They see the upside in a situation. They see the best in others.
seem to have things together. Circumstances in life don’t seem to overwhelm them. Their lives are ordered and this gives them the freedom to be generous towards others; available to help and be present in their lives.
challenge me to be better. My heroes are humble and open to learning. They are growing themselves and inspire me to do the same.
are generous with me and with others. My heroes share their time, their talents and their treasures. Most importantly, they share their hearts and lives with others. They enter into a situation with their hands open (figuratively), ready to give and receive from others.
are deeply rooted. My heroes know who they are. They have the freedom to be available to others because they are not concerned with themselves or their own needs. They know their Why (Knowing Your Why)
live their lives for something bigger than themselves. They are men and women of deep faith who root their identity, their lives and their choices in Christ.

Do your heroes look like mine? Would you like to grow to be more like them? Embracing the spirituality of stewardship can help!

Living this Catholic Way of Life

Looking to deepen your practice of one of the four Stewardship Pillars? Click the image of the one below to find the best of our blogs and resources for each pillar.

Helping you live this Catholic Way of Life

The Office of Stewardship exists to help you build a Stewardship Parish and Cultivate a Catholic Way of Life.

We're working hard to bring you the best resources to support you in your journey of bringing yourself and your parish to embody Generous Hospitality, Lively Faith, and Dedicated Discipleship.

Enter your name and email to receive weekly reflections on Living this Catholic Way of Life.

Introducing…

Our beautiful new Catholic Way of Life blog!

Back in January I wrote this to our email subscribers:

“One of the projects we have been working on in the Office of Stewardship is exploring ways to make the information in past weekly emails more accessible and useful for you. We are going to move Fr. Mark’s Musings from 2015-2018 and the weekly emails I have been writing since July to a blog site which will enable you to search past posts by keywords and tags. It is my hope that this will be helpful to you. “

Today I wrote:

Our office has been working on several projects over the past several months. I shared with you several months ago that I had a desire to convert all of Fr. Mark’s Musings as well as these weekly emails I have been sending since July into a blog. The Lord took that desire of mine and replied,“Why think so small? Let’s revamp Stewardship’s whole presence on the web!” So we took a deep breath and dived into the project.

We are still just at the beginning stages, but the first part of this project, the new blog page, is up and running! All of the historical “blogs” are up and are fully searchable. We have categorized them under our pillars:

We have also tagged them with words we think you would find useful when you are searching for insight and inspiration. For instance, when Christmas approaches and you would like some great ideas on how to welcome the many guests who will be at your church for the Christmas Masses, just search for “Christmas hospitality” and all that we have written over the years comes up for you.

Click here to check it out. Also, while you are there, would you take a few minutes to leave a comment?

I am looking forward to providing a spot where we can share information with one another there. I often receive emails from readers of this weekly email. They share encouragement, their own stories and experiences, and great tips. I am sad the rest of you don’t see and share in all the good news I receive! I am hopeful that the blog will provide a spot for you to share these comments with everyone. Each week this email will go up on the blog as a post, so please share your good news!

Back in January, I also shared this old post of Fr. Mark’s. It made me laugh and I thought you would enjoy it as well. After all, “good stewards are always the joyful bearers of the Good News of Salvation.” I hope you enjoy it!

From Fr. Mark’s Musings:

On Saturday, I was driving to Martin to cover for the weekend Masses in Martin and Kadoka. About 30 miles from Kadoka a bull snake started to slither up the windshield. Thank goodness it was on the outside. Nevertheless, my heart started racing and I began to think irrationally about the snake crawling inside the car. What I should have done was to take a couple deep breaths, breathing in the Holy Spirit, pulled over and let the snake crawl off my vehicle and into the ditch—the logical and prudent thing to do. However, my fear got the best of me and I decided to hit the windshield wipers catapulting the snake over the top of the car.

Looking back at this encounter in light of the Bishop’s Pastoral letter, Stewardship: A Disciple’s Response, I was reminded of God’s creation and how I am called as a Christian Steward to care for and cultivate the world with the joyful appreciation for the God-given beauty and wonder of nature—yes this includes even snakes.

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Looking to deepen your practice of one of the four Stewardship Pillars? Click the image of the one below to find the best of our blogs and resources for each pillar.

Helping you live this Catholic Way of Life

The Office of Stewardship exists to help you build a Stewardship Parish and Cultivate a Catholic Way of Life.

We're working hard to bring you the best resources to support you in your journey of bringing yourself and your parish to embody Generous Hospitality, Lively Faith, and Dedicated Discipleship.

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The Joy of the Resurrection is Coming!

“Even now return to me with your whole heart for I am gracious and merciful.”

Gospel Antiphon, Tuesday the 3rd Week of Lent

Often when I am teaching as a catechist, I find myself saying, “In Catholicism it is rarely either/or. We are a both/and faith!” I was reminded of one more example of this truth this morning during my commute into work. Fr. Michel Mulloy and Andy Shaw were interviewing another priest on Real Presence Live about Laetare Sunday. Laetare means Rejoice and so on this Sunday, a bit more than half way through the somber season of Lent, the Church invites us to rejoice. One of the interviewers rightly commented that it seems incongruous to rejoice amidst the penances, the fasting and the focus on the suffering and death of our Savior that marks Lent. And I get that, but I also think about the many instances in life when joy is intermingled with great difficulty, suffering or sadness. Take for instance the loss of a loved one. There is much sadness at this time, but often there is also joy and laughter as family members gather, share memories and reconnect. I recently read an interesting article on Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome in which the author proposed that one of its causes was the loss of the camaraderie a soldier experiences in the midst of his or her military service. In the midst of very difficult circumstances deep bonds are often formed between soldiers and this article proposed that the isolation and loss of that after service contributes to the syndrome. This is another example of goodness amidst difficult circumstances. So I think in one sense we can see our liturgical life simply reflecting the reality of the rest of life, that rejoicing in the midst of this serious, grave, and solemn season isn’t unique to Laetare Sunday.

Perhaps too, the Church desires to remind us of the reason for our Lenten practices, namely that all we are doing and experiencing during Lent are ordered toward Easter. Our fasting, almsgiving and prayer should be helping to free us from the bonds of sin that hold us, to empty us of those things in our lives which prevent us from fully experiencing God’s love and mercy, refocusing our minds and hearts on those things that are most important and expanding our hearts to more fully give and receive love. All of these things bring us joy and are cause for rejoicing. Mother Church, in her wisdom, gives us this Sunday both as an acknowledgment that we can already begin to feel the good fruits of our hard work and also an encouragement to keep going — to persevere. All the hard work of Lent is worth it! The joy of the resurrection is coming! Let’s prepare well so that we can truly experience the grace and love poured out to us at Easter.

Living this Catholic Way of Life

Looking to deepen your practice of one of the four Stewardship Pillars? Click the image of the one below to find the best of our blogs and resources for each pillar.

Helping you live this Catholic Way of Life

The Office of Stewardship exists to help you build a Stewardship Parish and Cultivate a Catholic Way of Life.

We're working hard to bring you the best resources to support you in your journey of bringing yourself and your parish to embody Generous Hospitality, Lively Faith, and Dedicated Discipleship.

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“Patience is not simply the ability to wait–it’s how we behave while we are waiting.” Joyce Meyer

This Sunday’s 2nd reading from St. Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians, cautions the Christian church in Corinth (and us!), not to grumble as some of the Israelites did in the desert and “suffered death by the destroyer.” Yikes! It seems a strong rebuke — death — for something which we experience seemingly every day– grumbling! We grumble, our spouses grumble, our kids grumble, our co-workers grumble. The media we consume is full of grumbling. Sometimes we joke about it, realizing we perhaps shouldn’t be grumbling. “First world problem!”, we cry, for instance. Other times though, the problems and the challenges are serious and real and our grumbling seems justified. Whatever the case may be, it seems wise, given St. Paul’s strong counsel, that we should be on guard against our temptations to grumble.

What weapons do we have against this temptation? I think one weapon is the virtue of patience. Patience is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit and as Dr. Gray says in the video below is also an attribute of love. “Love is patient,” St. Paul writes in the 1 Corinthians 13.

The Christian Steward is, as the USCCB document reminds us, “always the joyful bearer of the Good News of salvation.” Grumblers aren’t joyful. And grumbling inevitably leaves us feeling discouraged and empty. I am inspired and challenged by this Sunday’s reading and Dr. Gray’s comments to strive to root out my own grumbling and to strengthen the virtue of patience so that I might more authentically be a witness of the Joy of the Gospel.

https://formed.org/study/5c5dceaf0db5a21500a6f1c8/lesson/5c6c322740ff2e1600efbaa6

Living this Catholic Way of Life

Looking to deepen your practice of one of the four Stewardship Pillars? Click the image of the one below to find the best of our blogs and resources for each pillar.

Helping you live this Catholic Way of Life

The Office of Stewardship exists to help you build a Stewardship Parish and Cultivate a Catholic Way of Life.

We're working hard to bring you the best resources to support you in your journey of bringing yourself and your parish to embody Generous Hospitality, Lively Faith, and Dedicated Discipleship.

Enter your name and email to receive weekly reflections on Living this Catholic Way of Life.