Stewardship is ALIVE at Sacred Heart
We Are The Disciples of Christ
Prayer is essential to the life of a Christian Steward.
Our prayer helps us to be better aware of God’s goodness in our lives.
Prayer is also essential to one’s conversion and continues to challenge us
to be better Christians.
Stewardship Prayer
It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.
The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,
it is even beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction
of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work.
Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of saying
that the kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection.
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the church’s mission.
No set of goals and objectives includes everything.
This is what we are about.
We plant the seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted,
knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation
in realizing that. This enables us to do something,
and to do it very well. It may be incomplete,
but it is a beginning, a step along the way,
an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the end results, but that is the difference
between the master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own.
Amen.
- Archbishop Oscar Romero (b. August 15, 1917)
STEWARD OF THE MONTH
Lauren Schmitt
“Well done, good and faithful servant.”
(Matt. 25:21)
A Quiet Witness
Lauren Schmitt, the daughter of Steve and Jana,
is a senior at Columbus High School
and one of the three Schmitt triplets actively involved at Sacred Heart, singing with the high school choir,
serving as ushers or Eucharistic Ministers.
Of these three, Lauren is this month's Steward
because she is a young woman who quietly goes about helping
in many ways here in our parish and in her school community.
She serves on the Peer Ministry Retreat Team
for the Waterloo Catholic Youth Ministry;
is a Student Ambassador for Columbus High School and
is on the Liturgy Committee there.
A member of the Columbus Service Club,
Lauren works with several outreach programs,
including Meals on Wheels, Muscular Dystrophy car wash
and the House of Hope.
A member of the Stewardship Committee in our parish,
Lauren offers the perspective of a young adult
who is committed to sharing her gifts and time with the faith community into which she was baptized as an infant.
Some of her stewardship activities have focused on the immediate needs
of people here and around the world.
She was a Red Cross volunteer,
serving meals in Parkersburg after the tornado;
assisted with other Waterloo Catholic youth to remove sandbags
after the floods of 2008
and helped sort and pack shoe boxes
for the Children of the Dump project in Nicaragua.
Twice Lauren has attended the National Catholic Youth Conference,
as well as NDVision at Notre Dame University.
Lauren is a model of faith, commitment and service to all,
especially to the youth of our parish and at Columbus.
She doesn't seek recognition, just offers to help whenever and wherever she sees a need - with a smile, a kind word and a willing hand.
These are the signs of a good and faithful servant.