Commitment Sunday

Gratitude is most important virtue in the life of a Christian. Gratitude is the key to happiness and the antidote to the negativity and vitriol in our society. When I am grateful for everything I have as a gift from God, I am more joyful, more understanding of others, and more willing to be generous. The very heart of the Mass, the Eucharist, is a word that itself means “Thanksgiving”—gratitude is part of who we are!

That is why I wanted to begin this message, which celebrates this year’s Stewardship Renewal by saying “Thank You” for all you have done to build up St. Dominic Parish. Our parish is becoming more and more a “parish family, fully alive in Christ, setting the world ablaze”, because of you and your generosity. Some of the most encouraging signs of life in our parish are the following:
• This past year we brought over 60 adults into the Catholic Church!
• Our EDGE middle school youth group, which we began this past year, now has 100 young people participating weekly.

We also began the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd for our 4 and 5 year olds.
• Our parish has a new sound and video system that helps more people to hear and see the beautiful Masses we celebrate

each week.
• We have created two new positions here at the parish to help with the growth of our parish: the Director of Missionary

Discipleship (Theresa Prejean) and the Director of the Sunday Experience (Adam Ubowski).
• We are celebrating our Parish Centennial with more domestic and international missions, including our Mission to Haiti

this spring.
• We have worked to move our monthly charitable giving to 7.5% of our income, which means that we are able to give

thousands of dollars each month to support worthy causes like Catholic Charities, Little Sisters of the Poor, and St. John School.

Each year, we ask the members of St. Dominic Parish to be prayerful, intentional and generous about what they are giving to support the parish. We have many pressing nancial needs, from parish maintenance and restoration, to replacing TV Mass equipment, to overhauling our Religious Ed building (to house the 100+ middle schoolers!). The need is great. But instead of just giving to a need, I would like you to consider developing your need to give. You are a part of this parish, and if you want this parish to grow and thrive and impact many more people, I pray that you will seriously consider how you are nancially supporting it. For this year’s Stewardship Renewal, in addition to signing up for a parish ministry that speaks to your gifts and talents, I would like you and your family to do at least one of these three things: attend Financial Peace University, sign up to begin giving electronically, or plan what percentage you will be giving to St. Dominic in the coming year.

Today, we have the opportunity to formerly pledge to one or to all three of the actions to help us more intentionally show our gratitude to God for all He has given us. Thank you for your response and may God bless you!