Stewardship
-
Supporting Corpus Christi during COVID-19
Dear Friends,
Thank you so much for you on-going prayers and financial support of our parish! During this time when we are all feeling the crunch of the COVID-19 restrictions, especially of not being able to offer Mass to the public, I would humbly ask you to continue to support your parish both prayerfully and financially. Sometimes people think that if we’re not having public Masses, then we won’t have expenses, but the reality is that – just like your household – we still have bills to pay!
There are a number of ways that you can continue to support your parish financially during these upcoming weeks of uncertainty for all of us:
1. Consider On-Line Giving. We use a very reputable vendor, Our Sunday Visitor, in which all transactions are made through them. Unless you are specifically signed up for a managedaccount , no one on the Parish Staff has access to your credit or debit card information. Simply go to: https://www.acionlinegiving.com/333 to sign up forOnline Giving!
2. Use Text-to-Give. By creating a text with your donation amount, you can have your gift taken directly from your checking account and sent to the parish. Simply send a message to 813 993-0440 with the amount of your gift as the text. For example, if you enter 25 into the message and text it to this phone number, it will give you directions on how to have it taken out of your bankaccount and sent to Corpus Christi. After you set it the first time, it will continue to use the same information.
3. Consider adding Corpus Christi to the list for online bill paying through your bank. Many of our parishioners simply add their monthly gift to the parish as one of their “bills” and it is sent directly to our parish. Contact your local bank for more details.
4. Mail your gift in an envelope, along with any prayer requests that you might have, to our parish. Our mailing address is 9715 N 56th Street, Temple Terrace FL 33617.
5. Drop your gift off at the Parish Office using the mail slot. While our Parish Office is currently operating on a skeleton crew with many of our folks working from home, the mail slot is always available for you to drop off your donation as well as any other communications that you would like for the parish to have.
I appreciate all of the sacrifices that all of you are making to stop the spread of COVID-19, and especially the sacrifice of not being able to participate in Public Mass during this time. As long as we’re able to, our Church is open for private prayer throughout the day from 7:30 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. Bishop Parkes has asked the priests to continue celebrating private Masses for the intentions of the faithful. Please know that all of you are in my prayers and I’m anxiously awaiting the day that we will be able tocelebrate Mass together as Corpus Christi once again!
Sincerely,
Father Mike Smith, Pastor
-
Time, Talent & Treasure
In their Pastoral Letter on Stewardship, a Disciple’s Response, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops state:
"The Christian steward is one who receives God’s gifts gratefully, cherishes and tends them in a responsible and accountable manner, shares them in justice and love with others, and returns them with increase to the Lord."
Stewardship involves all of life
Stewardship involves all of life – body, mind and spirit, our material possessions, friendships, etc. All we are and have is a gift from our Creator for us to use wisely to build up God’s kingdom here on earth.
Time
Time is a very precious gift. Most of us feel we don’t have enough time for all the things we want to do. Everyone is given the same amount of time: 24 hours each day, 168 hours each week. How do you use your time in the service of God? How do you gift your time to others?
Talent
All of us have been blessed with various talents, whether we are aware of it or not, or whether we have developed our talents or not. Of course, it is usually not possible to develop all of our talents. But, ideally, we can and should develop some of them and use them wisely to bless the communities we belong to.
To find out ways you can share your Time and Talent with your parish family, please call our office at (813) 988-1593. You many also choose to learn more about the ministries of our parish by clicking on the links to each of the parish ministry pages.
TreasureWhen it comes to financial support of our church family, the biblical ideal is a tithe - or 10% - of one’s income. Our Catholic Church leaders suggest giving 5% to church and 5% to charity. Most Catholics who tithe reach this ideal gradually. In this area of stewardship, one of the most important steps to consider is to become an "intentional giver". An intentional giver is one who has the willing diligence to look at his/her annual income and then prayerfully and intentionally decide what percentage should be set aside for the support of the church and for charity.
The key to understanding how God wants us to give to the Church is found in 1 Corinthians 16:2, "On the first day each week each of you should set aside and save whatever one can afford," and in 2 Corinthians 9:5-8, "So I thought if necessary to encourage the brothers to go on ahead to you and arrange in advance for your promised gift, so that in this way it might be ready as a bountiful gift and not as an exaction. Consider this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each must do as already determined, without sadness or compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. Moreover, God is able to make every grace abundant to you so that in all things, always having all you need, you may have an abundance for every good work."