Wednesday, August 20, 2014

2. Where to Begin



Stewardship 101*
  Where to Begin?

 Let’s assume we have chosen Stewardship.   We will be responsible for knowing, loving and serving God.  So where do we begin?  First, with regular attendance at Mass and partaking of the Eucharist.  With Christ within us we can attempt anything.
     We learned the rudiments of the Catechism as we prepared for First Communion and Confirmation.  As we attended Mass we heard parts of the Bible, something from the Old Testament, something from a Psalm, something from the Apostles, and something from the Life of Christ.  Over a three year period, we probably have heard most of the Bible, and heard each Sunday’s lesson, or teaching.
      If that is all we do, then we will only have a glimpse of the whole.  We can’t really know God if we don’t know who He is, so how do we learn?  He has given us a book that chronicles His relationship with humans, Men and Women, and through their failures and successes we can learn of the forgiveness and great love He has for us. 
     One way is to choose a Gospel to read, and since this is the year of Matthew, Matthew would be a great choice.  But, we don’t want to sit down and read Matthew all at once, rather we could read a chapter or part of a chapter at any one sitting.  And, just to read Matthew is probably not enough, remember we are reading with a purpose- to know God, so we can love and serve Him.
     We could keep a small notebook or spiral or even some stapled sheets of paper with our Bible, and write down what Jesus says and does in each selection as we read it.  Then, we could review what we’ve discovered each day and think about what that means about who God is.  We could also take our notebook to Mass on Sunday, and jot down one idea that comes to us.  
     This isn’t the time for full note taking or even thinking about what we’ve read, our focus should be on the Mass itself, but it would be a shame to forget our “aha moment”.  After Mass we can read over our insight and think about what this tells us about God.  Now, we are learning about God all over again or maybe for the time in our adult life.  We are really being Stewards.  How marvelous!

* Paper Copy of all Stewardship 101 entries available for $5.  Includes shipping and handling.  e-mail Kathy @chickadeehillinc.com

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