Weekly HOMILY for September 24, 2006: Our Step in Faith

24th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle B
Our Lady of Grace
September 24, 2006

Our Step in Faith
By Bill and Theresa Campbell



The following is the testimony of Bill and Theresa Campbell sharing their thoughts about Our Lady of Grace and inviting all at the Masses this weekend to participate in our Annual Offertory Renewal.

Fondly,
Father Nick Amato


Bill: Good evening (morning)!

I’m Bill Campbell and this is my wife Theresa and our daughters Colleen, Christa, Jan and Juliana. Fr. Nick has asked us to speak at each Mass this weekend about our commitment to stewardship. That’s good news and bad news for you. The bad news is that Theresa and I are not dynamic speakers like Fr. Nick. The good news is that our talk will be shorter than the typical homily.

Theresa and I feel blessed by our Catholic faith and traditions, and thus we want to give something back. We hope you all feel blessed too. We all live in a beautiful area and belong to a vibrant parish. We should take time to appreciate our many gifts and thank God for them. We can also show our gratitude by generously sharing our time, talent and treasure. This is precisely what stewardship means – being faithful in our generosity.

We want to thank you for all the great things that are accomplished here that wouldn’t be possible without the almost 700 volunteers and your monetary gifts to the church. There are 60 different ministries, and although we will mention only a few of them today, all are worthwhile! We have an extensive outreach program providing food and clothing to those less fortunate than ourselves. The Knights of Columbus provide wonderful parish brunches plus many valuable services in direct service to our youth as well as helping others in need with house repairs. We have a Teen Life program that includes an upbeat Sunday 5 pm Mass with social and spiritual activities afterwards. Although the program is fairly new, it has been well received by the teens and does seem to have an impact at helping the teens grow closer to Jesus.

You may have noticed I am wearing a red ribbon around my neck. This is not a fashion statement on my part, but rather it signifies that I am a member of the Pastoral Council. We wear these ribbons so that you may stop any of us after Mass with questions you have or feedback on anything, positive or negative. That way we can share your concerns at the next monthly Council meeting.

Now I will turn it over to Theresa.

Theresa: Good evening (morning)!

The parishioners and friends we’ve met know that our family has been here just over a year. As a tribute to the kindness and friendliness of the people of this parish, we immediately felt we were in a place we could call home. I remember the Sunday we came to check things out, and we sang “The Summons.” We sang it just a few weeks ago, and the lyrics still move me, “ Will you come and follow me if I but call your name? Will you go where you don’t know and never be the same?” Somehow, I can’t help but think that we receive gifts like these, life-changing moments like these, as blessings and signs from God for being faithful stewards. Well, we came, and guess what, we will never be the same. We love it here, and with all the hassles of moving, Bill and I have assured each other, God willing, that this is where we will stay and raise our children.

Speaking of the girls, we were holding our own when we had just two, but things really started slipping by the time the third and then the fourth daughters were born. Then we figured it out: we realized that we were good in the man-to-man defense but much weaker in a zone defense. At this stage of the game, most days I will tell you that I need a sub! In fact, last summer when we moved, I looked to the sidelines and Our Lady of Grace was there. We had just attended the new parishioner orientation where I remember vividly Father Nick with his chalk in hand promising that Our Lady of Grace is here to help us with any need and that he in turn hopes that all of us will take an active role in helping the Church. So here I was knee-deep in unpacked boxes, four little girls with no school routine, running all around reacting in their own way to the stress of the move, Bill who was workingy long hours as he was transitioning from his Virginia office, no family in the immediate vicinity – in other words, feeling very overwhelmed. It was then that Fr. Nick’s words rang in my ears. I picked up the telephone and almost literally cried, “HELP! I need a sub!” The kind voice put me through to Mike Bertling who was the Youth Ministry Coordinator at the time. He provided me with a list of several dependable teens who could babysit and give me some relief. As the saying goes, it was the beginning of a beautiful relationship with those sitters and the regaining of a bit of summertime sanity. This is just one example of the many ways we feel blessed to be part of Our Lady of Grace.

To give back, we have really tried to embrace parish life and participate in the ministries and events in which we’re able. I joined our choir, the Voices of Grace. Let me tell you, they say that to sing is to pray twice. Our director Beth and the other members make rehearsals and Masses so uplifting, that I can’t believe I’m getting double credit in the prayer bank. (I admit this is my plug for the choir. We just started back up for the season, so please come join us if you’re interested. We know how good you all sound from up here.)

I also make the zippy beef casseroles for Our Daily Bread and provide food for Grace Our Table hospitalities. Our entire family enjoyed the Lenten Family Fridays (which was my ploy to get out of cooking for several Fridays in a row). Our girls participate in Children’s Liturgy of the Word, Vacation Bible Camp and the Youth Theater of Northern Baltimore County. It is no secret that we are big fans of Mary Miller and this ministry. I agree with a mother whose letter was published in the bulletin after the recent Godspell production that Mary and this ministry not only touch lives but SOULS. These children are our future. How can we not be grateful and support these programs?

Our oldest daughters, Colleen and Christa, are currently attending Our Lady of Grace School. They love it, and we have been equally thrilled with their daily religious affirmations, the great student-teacher ratio and cutting-edge technology in the classrooms, just to name a few things. Our two youngest, Jan and Juliana, can hardly wait to go. Just like the parish, there are wonderfully supportive families there and numerous volunteer opportunities. I have enjoyed volunteering in the lunchroom, on the playground and occasionally in their library and computer classes. I have taken an active role on the Marketing Committee and both Bill and I have attended the Open Houses to share our enthusiasm about our church and school.

Through all these examples, I hope we can see the true cycle of stewardship: We give in grateful response to God’s many blessings, and then the funny thing is, we often receive as much or more than we give. So we feel blessed even more by our giving, and the cycle goes on. Sometimes we can see the direct impact of our time, talent and treasure. Other times, we can never know how far-reaching our prayers, actions and generosity turn out to be.

I’ll turn it back to Bill now for a few final thoughts.

Bill: Unfortunately, I am not very handy at fixing things around the house. For that type of work, you need time, talent and tools and I’m 0 for 3. However, it’s not that way here. As I mentioned, there are 60 different ministries that you can get involved in, and I guarantee that at least some of the 60 need your particular abilities. We are all pressed for time, but you will find your volunteering experience to be worth it. For example, I’ve enjoyed all the people I have met on the Pastoral Council and feel good that we are helping to make a difference. I also had a blast watching all the children have so much fun when I volunteered at Field Day at Our Lady of Grace School. If you are generous in sharing your time, talent and treasure, you will not only help others, but it will make you happier too. The Prayer of St. Francis even reminds us that, “It is truly in giving that we receive.”

I waited until the end to talk about money, as it’s a turnoff for some people; however, we need money to keep our parish ministries going. Everything keeps getting more expensive. Utilities are projected to increase 22% this year. We want to not only continue to provide the current level of giving to the poor, but increase it. Thank you for your generosity in the past. Please think about it, pray about it and sleep on it and be as generous as you can be in giving to our church in the next year.