Our mission is to assist, teach, affirm, and empower Catholics in the Diocese of Laredo to live as disciples and stewards of the Church.
As Christians and faithful disciples, we are asked to receive God’s gifts gratefully, cultivate them responsibly, share them lovingly, and return them with increase to the Lord. Our faith response leads to a way of life we call stewardship that seeks to express our oneness in the mission of Christ. (U.S. Bishop’s Pastoral Letter: A Disciple’s Response, 1993)
The Office of Stewardship and Development undertakes its mission through:
“As each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God’s varied grace” (1 Pt 4:10).
What identifies a steward? Safeguarding material and human resources and using them responsibly is one answer, and so is generous giving of time, talent, and treasure. But being a Christian steward means more. As Christian stewards, we receive God’s gifts gratefully, cultivate them responsibly, share them lovingly in justice with others, and return them with increase to the Lord.
Disciples as Stewards
Let us begin with being a disciple—a follower of our Lord Jesus Christ. As members of the Church, Jesus calls us to be disciples. This has astonishing implications:
Mature disciples consciously decide to follow Jesus, no matter the cost.
Christian disciples experience conversion—life-shaping changes of mind and heart—and commit themselves to the Lord.
Christian stewards respond in a particular way to the call to be a disciple. Stewardship has the power to shape and mold our understanding of our lives and how we live.
Jesus’ disciples and Christian stewards recognize God as the origin of life, the giver of freedom, and the source of all things. We are grateful for the gifts we have received and are eager to use them to show our love for God and one another. We look to the life and teaching of Jesus for guidance in living as Christian stewards.
The Bible contains a profound message about the stewardship of material creation: God created the world but entrusts it to human beings. Caring for and cultivating the world involves the following:
– Joyful appreciation for the God-given beauty and wonder of nature;
– Protection and preservation of the environment, which would be the stewardship of ecological concern;
– Respect for human life—shielding life from threat and assault, doing everything that can be done to enhance this gift and make life flourish, and
– Development of this world through noble human effort—physical labor, the trades and professions, the arts and sciences. We call such effort “work.” Work is a fulfilling human vocation.
The Second Vatican Council points out that, through work, we build up not only our world but the Kingdom of God, already present among us. Work is a partnership with God—our share in a divine human collaboration in creation. It occupies a central place in our lives as Christian stewards.
Jesus calls us, as his disciples, to a new way of life—the Christian way of life—of which stewardship is part. But Jesus does not call us as nameless people in a faceless crowd. He calls us individually, by name. Each of us—clergy, religious, layperson, married, single, adult, child—has a personal vocation. God intends each of us to play a unique role in carrying out the divine plan. The challenge, then, is to understand our role—our vocation—and respond generously to God’s call. Christian vocation entails the practice of stewardship. In addition, Christ calls each of us to be stewards of our personal vocations, which we receive from God.
Stewards of God’s gifts are not passive beneficiaries. We cooperate with God in our redemption and the redemption of others. We are also obliged to be stewards of the Church—collaborators and cooperators in continuing the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, which is the Church’s essential mission. This mission—proclaiming, teaching, serving, and sanctifying—is our task. It is each of us’ personal responsibility as stewards of the Church. All members of the Church have their roles to play in carrying out its mission:
– Parents who nurture their children in the light of faith;
– Parishioners who work in concrete ways to make their parishes true communities of faith and vibrant sources of service to the larger community;
– All Catholics who give generous support—time, money, prayers, and personal service according to their circumstances—to parish and diocesan programs
and to the universal Church.
People who want to live as Christian disciples and Christian stewards face serious obstacles. In the United States and other nations, a dominant secular culture often contradicts religious convictions about the meaning of life. This culture frequently encourages us to focus on ourselves and our pleasures.
At times, we can find it far too easy to ignore spiritual realities and deny religion a role in shaping human and social values. As Catholics who have entered into the mainstream of American society and experienced its advantages, many of us also have been adversely influenced by this secular culture. We know what it is to struggle against selfishness and greed, and we realize it is harder for many today to accept the challenge of being a Christian steward. Therefore, we must make a special effort to understand the true meaning of stewardship and live accordingly.
A Steward’s Way
The life of a Christian steward models the life of Jesus. It is challenging and even difficult in many respects, yet intense joy comes to those who take the risk to live as Christian stewards. Women and men who seek to live as stewards learn that “all things work for good for those who love God” (Rom 8:28).
After Jesus, we look to Mary as an ideal steward. As the Mother of Christ, she lived her ministry in a spirit of fidelity and service; she responded generously to the call. We must ask ourselves: Do we also wish to be disciples of Jesus Christ and Christian stewards of our world and our Church? Central to our human and Christian vocations, as well as to the unique vocation each of us receives from God, is that we are good stewards of our gifts. God gives us this divine-human workshop, this world and Church of ours.
The Spirit shows us the way.
Stewardship is a part of that journey.
Stewardship recognizes that God is the origin of life, the giver of freedom, and the source of all we have and will be.
Grateful stewards who return their gifts of Time, Talent, and Treasure to God express their acceptance of their role as disciples and deserve to have complete confidence that their contributions are:
Donors may feel confident that the Diocese of Laredo will not share any lists or any personal or financial information with other organizations or vendors.