Dear in Christ,

God bless you!

It’s that time of year when we begin to assess ourselves as we begin new things this Fall, such as school, changes in our jobs, etc. And like all things in our spiritual lives, one of the things we need to assess is our giving. We will begin our stewardship emphasis in several weeks, but I’d like us to begin thinking about this now — and even acting.

First, a note about standards:

Tithing is the minimum Biblical standard — that’s giving 10% of your income.

Some of our families are tithers — including mine. I would never ask you to do anything in the spiritual life I’m not willing to do myself.

Read several articles on tithing from our archdiocese here.

Did you know that, if every family in our parish made the Lehigh or Northampton County median household income — $53,541 and $58,762, respectively — and then tithed on it, our annual parish pledges would be well over $500,000? Is that really possible? Yes.

While you consider tithing, remember the pledge that you made last Fall. How are you doing? Overall, some of us are falling behind. If you need to know how much you’ve fallen behind (if at all), contact Joanne Hancharick (let us know if you need her contact info), who keeps our confidential giving records.

Why is giving so important? Isn’t being a Christian about “spiritual” things?

God wants our whole person, not just a part of us. That means everything — including everything we own. He rightly has claim to everything we are and everything we have. And a good beginning to giving ourselves to Him fully is to give what perhaps may come hardest — our money. Spiritual life is about both immaterial and material things.

Yes, it’s true that our parish has a lot of big expenses over the past couple of years — big repairs and replacement items — and our reserves are considerably drained.

But this is not the first time that we’ve been called on to increase our Christian stewardship — both in amount and in consistency. We’ve been emphasizing this message both in good times and in bad. But especially when times are tight, which they are a bit at the moment, we have an opportunity to step forward in faith.

Difficult times are given to us to stretch us and increase our faith.

What proves our faith to God is our faithfulness. It has nothing to do with who gives the most or the least. We are only in “competition,” so to speak, with ourselves.

Am I tithing? Am I stretching myself? What am I doing to help us reach the goal of full tithing by every family?

Jesus has given and continues to give us so much. Our faithfulness to Him is our response, and it is how we participate in His gifts to us.

God bless you while you consider your faithfulness to Christ today — and remember that our faithfulness is not only — and not even primarily — about money. We also should assess our faithfulness in prayer together at church, in educating ourselves and our children, in receiving all of the sacraments, etc.

I will be happy to speak with you on how to assess your family’s faithfulness and how you can move forward in spiritual progress.

God bless you and grant you all good things!

Yours in Christ,

Fr. Andrew