by Thomas J. Shaughnessy
"Hey, Father Jim, we should have someone from the parish at this conference in Philadelphia next month."
"Oh really, Tom, and what conference might that be?"
"This stewardship conference sponsored by the National Catholic Stewardship Council—it's an annual thing and it looks like we might hear something there which would be useful for the parish."
"Well," says Father Jim, "Phil Green and I are already registered for that conference, would you like to join us?"
This is a story about stewardship, the Holy Spirit, and the Catherine of Siena Institute.
In January 1997 Phil Green (the chairman of our parish's Worship and Spiritual Life Committee) approached our pastor, Father Jim Verrecchia, to discuss the level of spirituality in our parish. Specifically, Phil suggested exploring stewardship as a means of increasing the spirituality of our parishioners and the parish as a whole. Father Jim was agreeable, the parish joined the National Catholic Stewardship Council, and plans were made for Phil and Father
Jim to attend the annual conference that was being held in Philadelphia later in the year.
For several years I had been gathering materials on stewardship because it seemed to offer a comprehensive and effective way of life for families, in particular a simpler lifestyle for those of us who are trying to raise children in what sometimes seems to be an alien if not a hostile culture. Being appointed to our parish Finance Committee finally gave me the nerve to open my big mouth and tell Father Jim we ought to send someone to the annual conference of the NCSC.
Father Jim had to think that the Holy Spirit wanted the three of us to go. Phil and I had different objectives and we had little in common. In fact, the first time we met was on the way to Philadelphia.
The conference was fantastic. We learned about the three T's, the three-legged stool of stewardship: time, talent, and treasure. A very wise bishop told us about the fourth T, the true foundation of stewardship: trust in God's providence. On the long drive back from Philadelphia and in the weeks that followed, we discussed how to introduce these concepts to our parish of more than five thousand families. (All Saints is the largest parish in Virginia and the most diverse.)
Almost immediately (thank you, Holy Spirit) we decided to do some gifts discernment before organizing ourselves. Our very first decision was to avoid the traditional Catholic method of staffing parish committees: appointing square pegs to round holes and leaving them there until they die or find their own replacements. We felt strongly that such an ambitious undertaking had to start with prayer and a genuine process of discernment—we had to give the Holy Spirit room to work. On November 1, 1997, our parish feast day, Father Jim announced a one-year period of prayer and preparation, with a particular emphasis on prayer to the Holy Spirit and an in-depth study of the bishop's pastoral letter, Stewardship: A Disciple's Response.
The task assigned to me was to catalog the gifts discernment programs available to our parish and to recommend one for implementation. As it happened, I was particularly suited to this task because it turned out to be a "no-brainer." Simply put, Sherry Weddell's Catholic Spiritual Gifts Inventoryis without peer. There is nothing comparable in any respect. It was precisely what we were looking for, and arrangements were made for the Institute to present a Called & Gifted Workshop to the parish in June 1998. But the Holy Spirit had bigger plans.
What we were looking for was a short-term solution to what we perceived to be our problem: finding parishioners with the right mix of gifts to introduce effectively the concept of stewardship to what was anticipated to be a tough audience. (Of course we knew that in the minds of many Catholics, stewardship is just another word for fund-raising. In other words, Father says "be a good steward" but the parish hears "give me more money.") Unexpectedly, what we found (thank you, Holy Spirit) was a long-term solution to the more vexing problem of establishing an on-going process designed to help parishioners discern their gifts and their charisms—in stewardship terms, their talents.
The Called & Gifted Workshop was a smashing success. For the first time, parishioners were given a context and a vocabulary to use to describe significant successes (and failures) in their spiritual lives. Many parishioners came up to me afterwards with effusive praise for the workshop and ambitious plans to continue the process of discernment and implementation. What was even more interesting was the number of parishioners who told me that they were going to consider giving up positions for which they were really not gifted. Square pegs no longer feel as if they must die in their round holes, and in the end this may be as important to the success of the parish as anything else.
Without detracting from the more obvious effects of the Called & Gifted Workshop, something else happened on that weekend in June. St. Pius X said, "It is useless to expect a person without formation to fulfill his Christian duties." Formation of parishioners is of paramount importance. Without formation, stewardship and all other efforts to increase the personal sanctity and holiness of a parishioner will fail. For many of the participants, the workshop was their first experience with the formation they need in order to be effective disciples and to respond as such with stewardship.
We are now looking forward with great anticipation to the
return of the Catherine of Siena Institute to our parish in
November and December of this year. Because of the many
inexpensive hotel rooms in Manassas and our proximity to both
National and Dulles airports, we expect to welcome a large number
of non-parishioners to this year's workshop [For more information
on attending this workshop, see the advertisement on page
12—Ed.]. We hope that this will be the first in a series of
annual workshops offered for the benefit of our parishioners and
other participants living in the eastern United States.
Thomas Shaughnessy directs the Center for Public Safety
inWashington, D.C., and sits on the Stewardship Committee at
All Saints Church in Manassas, Va.