Dear Friends and Parish Family:

Greetings to you my friends.  Thanks be to God summer is here finally.

My Beloved as we are all looking forward for the nice warm summer here at our beautiful beach and ready to welcoming our visitors with a great smile and joyful faces as usual, we are also looking forward for the closing of the year of St. Paul on Monday, June 29, 2009 with Mass at 8 a.m.

To us is the beginning of our spiritual missionary journey with St. Paul through the things we are doing and planning to do. 

At this spiritual reflection, I am also asking for your prayers and help in our journey here at Our Lady of Victory/St. Peter the Fisherman Parish.  As I have written before, God calls us all to be good stewards of all the gifts God has given us.  Such stewardship includes our time, our talent and our treasure.  As we recognize that everything is gift, we set out to live the spirituality of stewardship.

There are three questions we all need to answer.

First, are we giving sufficient time to the Lord?  Stewardship of time requires us to look at our lives, 24 hours a day.  Are we working to serve the Lord and build up His Kingdom?  How do we go about building His Kingdom?  One way is by performing the Corporal Works of Mercy:  Feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, visit the sick and imprisoned, bury the dead and give alms to the poor.  Are you doing any of these acts for the Lord?

Second, are we using our God-given talents, not only to help out in the parish, but more importantly, are we passionate about Jesus’ social teachings such as the needs of the poor and pro-life issues?  In other words, do we really care about building His Kingdom?

Our parish is making various attempts to become a stewardship parish.  Certainly, it is evident in the charitable works of parish programs such as the St. Vincent de Paul Society and through the Sunday Supper program.  We must ask ourselves, “How much time and talent am I giving to these corporal works of mercy?  Am I supporting these parish programs?”  Your help is always needed!

And finally, when stewardship is discussed we all think about money, as if it were the most important thing in our life.  We spend a lot of time accumulating treasure so that we can support ourselves and our families.  That is good!  But, if we are not willing to share our God-given treasure, we do not follow Jesus’ teachings.  Nearly half of the parables of Jesus have to do with material possessions.  Recall the parables of the lost coin, the widow’s mite, the buried treasure in the field, the Good Samaritan who gives the two silver pieces to the innkeeper, etc.  Sharing our treasure brings us closer to living as Jesus described.

Our parish cannot grow and prosper in Seaside and Arch Cape without your financial support.  Today a dollar does not go very far in the operation of the parish.  Presently, we are working on the 2009/10 fiscal year budget which begins July 1^st.  This year it is more difficult than ever to balance our budget as we are experiencing a significant reduction in revenues in our offertory collections.  Due to this limitation of our resources we are unable to hire ministerial staff as we had planned.  I am praying for an end to these difficult economic times that affect our parish and our parishioners and I also ask you to pray for that.

Our Parish Councils have an additional concern.  We are in need of a new church building in Seaside.  This need has been recognized for more than 25 years.  The building plans have been completed and we have over half of the funds needed to start construction.  But that is not enough, we need at least an additional $700,000 in cash and pledges before construction may begin.  Raising the needed funds can be accomplished by your commitment to stewardship.

Those who have outstanding pledges, I ask that you resume or continue to make payments to fulfill your promises.  Those who have completed their first pledge, I ask that you pledge again.  And finally, those who have not given anything for the new church building; I ask that you faithfully reconsider your position.  You will be grateful when you see how beautiful the new church will be and how it will accommodate all of the faithful.

Please join me now in building the new church and help put true stewardship to work in our parish.  Thank you.

Sincerely in Christ,

Rev. Nicholas Nilema, ALCP/OSS

Pastor