In the Book of Exodus, God spoke these words: “I am the Lord your God… You shall not have other gods beside me.” In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells us, “No one can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other… You cannot serve God and mammon (wealth).” The Father and the Son made very clear the ordering of our relationship with God and money. Unfortunately, most of us at some point in our life have gotten this backwards — we put money before God.
In working in stewardship ministry over the past decade, two things are clear to me. One, people are looking for guidance in managing their charitable giving. Two, a person’s attitude toward money can have a direct influence on their relationship with God.
Just as we help people develop better prayer lives to strengthen their friendship with God or help people discern their charisms to participate in parish ministry, we need to help people manage their giving so that it doesn’t become a barrier to God, but rather another opportunity to joyfully serve Him and His people.
As Catholics, we are invited to be generous with our money through our weekly offertory, second collections, the Annual Catholic Appeal, capital campaigns and various community charities. And, believe it or not, the Church does realize that people have a finite amount of money. So instead of becoming angry or frustrated over all the things we are invited to support, what if we planned accordingly? What if we found a way to support all the giving opportunities we are invited to participate in?
My Catholic Giving Guide is a tool designed to help you calculate the amount of money you can give annually and then designate money for each giving opportunity until you reach your predetermined annual giving amount. It is a simple spreadsheet that can be used annually as your income increases or decreases to adjust your charitable giving. There are several advantages to using the My Catholic Giving Guide. One, you and your spouse discern the amount to give; no one is pressuring you. Two, almost all of the giving opportunities are listed, so you can plan your charitable giving on an annual basis and enter the donations directly into your parish electronic offertory system. Three, planning your charitable giving on an annual basis helps people be more generous.
The My Catholic Giving Guide is available on the archdiocesan website in English and Spanish at archstl.org/stewardship, under the Stewardship Overview tab. Or, contact Dave Baranowski at [email protected] for a copy.
God calls us to be generous with all of our gifts, including our money. In gratitude, we are called to give from our “first fruits,” our first and best to God, and not from our “leftovers.” Planning our charitable giving helps us to put God first in all things.
In St. Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, we are reminded that “whoever sows sparingly will reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully… For God loves a cheerful giver.”
David Baranowski is the director of stewardship education in the Archdiocese of St. Louis. He and his wife are parishioners at Assumption in south St. Louis County.