Stewardship is ALIVE at Sacred Heart
We Are The Disciples of Christ

Parish Stewardship Committee gets a fresh start.
For the past year, parish leaders have been studying the new Manual for Parish Pastoral Councils, which, in the words of Archbishop Jerome Hanus,
“provides a framework ….to shape a faith-filled, life-giving community
that becomes the instrument of salvation for the members.”
With the direction of these new guidelines the parish Stewardship Committee
is ready to start fresh.
The purpose of the Stewardship Committee:
“To encourage parishioners to exercise stewardship as an expression of gratitude to God and as a way of life for disciples of Christ” (from the Manual).
All previous members are invited to be part of this new committee formation, but we are also hoping for new members. If you are somebody who exercises stewardship as a response in gratitude for God's gifts, and who would like to help promote stewardship in our parish, please consider offering your gifts as a member of the Stewardship Committee. Our meetings are the 3rd Monday of every month from 5:30 to 6:30 pm. The first meeting is Monday, September 20. Watch the parish calendar for details.
For information contact Nancy Rigel @ 234-4996, email dbq209s@arch.pvt.K12.ia.us
or Jill Weber @ 240-3975, email jrrebew@cfu.net





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

CHARLOTTE KLEIN

“Well done, good and faithful servant.”
Mt. 25:21


EXPRESSING THE JOY
OF THE SEASON
As the Christmas season of Joy approaches,
it is appropriate that a nomination for the December Steward of the Month
stated about the nominee, Char Klein,
"She is a woman who carries in her being that indelible sign of a Christian...JOY."
 
A parishioner of Sacred Heart since the mid-fifties,
Char has been involved in a myriad of ministries.
For 56 years, her first and lasting love has been music;
first singing as a part of a duet with her late husband, Johnny,
and after his death as an integral voice in the funeral choir.
As a member of the Liturgy committee,
she trains and coordinates lectors, serving as a lector herself,
and participates in the annual Candlelight Memorial Mass.
 
Through the years, she has been a funeral planner,
was involved in Lay Formation and RCIA
and currently is a Eucharistic Minister
to Allen Memorial Hospital as well as a Rosary leader
before daily Mass one week each month.
 
The mother of seven daughters, Char Klein has known personal grief,
losing daughters Karen Klein Sawyer in 2007 and Nancy Klein Boatright in 2008.
She is also the mother of Jo Ellen, Deanna, Jane, Amy and BethAnn,
the grandmother of nine and great-grandma of four.
"I am grateful I can be involved in my parish," Char says.
And to remain so, she adds,
"I walk five times a week to keep my bones lubricated."