October 19, 2025

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Our stewardship month continues onwards! Many thanks to all of those who have participated so far. Your generosity truly makes a difference for the mission of our parish. For this week’s pastoral column, I’d like to focus on a key quality of good stewards: faith. I think faith is key for stewardship for a couple reasons. Faith: the spiritual gift that causes us to choose to follow Christ. The attitude of the heart that lets us turn to God in confidence. Or more simply, trust in God. Let’s talk about why it’s so important for stewardship. First, we’re not called to be good stewards because of social expectations or “Catholic guilt.” We do it because of our faith in Jesus Christ, who gave everything for us on the Cross. As St. Paul says in this weekend’s second reading, “Remain faithful to what you have learned and believed.” Faith reminds us that before we ever even thought about generosity, God was infinitely generous to us in his Son, Jesus. In other words, faith is the reason we strive to be good stewards. Second, faith gives us confidence that even the little bit that we have can make a difference. Some years ago, I was part of a parish choir that had a member who was special needs. He found singing very challenging, but the whole parish deeply appreciated the joy that he brought with him each week. His faith that God would work through his talent and time was a genuine inspiration for all of us. Faith truly gives us the confidence to be good stewards. Through the example of faith set by our patron St. Thomas, and the same faith which shines forth in the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary, let’s open our hearts and our hands in faith, this month and always. God bless,

Father Jantz