St. John Neumann
Catholic Church

Most of us that have grown up in these United States of America use the "academic calendar" to schedule our lives. Yes, we have the traditional calendar, with the month of January as the first month of the year. Yes, we have the "fiscal year", with July the 1st as the beginning of a new year for financial budgeting and the like. Yes, the Catholic Church has a liturgical calendar, where Advent begins the new year of prayer for us (adventus , the coming of the Lord).

Still, most of you reading this column use "the academic calendar" to schedule your lives. Why? All those years of school have formed you. Whether you are a child or teenager, a college student or a working adult, the "new year" doesn't mean January the 1st or July the 1st or the first Sunday of Advent. The New Year means "the fall", the start of a new school year. Even those of you that are retired from everyday work know this to be true. We "start-up" again...in the fall...just like when we were in school.

Most of us that have grown up in these United States of America use the "academic calendar" to schedule our lives. Yes, we have the traditional calendar, with the month of January as the first month of the year. Yes, we have the "fiscal year", with July the 1st as the beginning of a new year for financial budgeting and the like. Yes, the Catholic Church has a liturgical calendar, where Advent begins the new year of prayer for us (adventus , the coming of the Lord).

Still, most of you reading this column use "the academic calendar" to schedule your lives. Why? All those years of school have formed you. Whether you are a child or teenager, a college student or a working adult, the "new year" doesn't mean January the 1st or July the 1st or the first Sunday of Advent. The New Year means "the fall", the start of a new school year. Even those of you that are retired from everyday work know this to be true. We "start-up" again...in the fall...just like when we were in school.

The parish is no different. As school starts up for another academic year, the parish starts up for another year of ongoing formation... the ongoing work of being formed in the new Way of life...as disciples of the Lord Jesus. Our Parish School of Religion (PSR) is underway, as is our EDGE program for our middleschoolers (6th through 8th grades). Our Life Teen program is about ready to begin another year of formation. Our adult ongoing formation offerings are about ready to begin, with the study of the Book of Genesis, the study of John Paul II's Theology of the Body, the course on Catholic Apologetics, and my book club offering.

With all of this, I will add another theme for this beginning of a "new year"... stewardship. According to the teaching of our Catholic Bishops, stewardship is not simply making donations or taking care of buildings and grounds. It is a spirituality, a way of life made of four parts:

1. Receiving the gifts of God with gratitude
2. Cultivating them responsibly
3. Sharing them lovingly in justice with others
4. Standing before the Lord in a spirit of accountability

Though stewardship is a way of life, I will use the month of September to discuss this spirituality of stewardship anew. On this Sunday, I would ask you to use our Bishop's guideline (seen above) and consider your stewardship of time. Think of the gift of time...the seconds, the minutes, the hours, the days, the weeks, the months, the years. Time is simply a measure of lived life. In your prayer, do you receive the gift of time (the gift of life) with gratitude? Do you acknowledge to yourself and to God, that your life... right now...is a gift? What about your life...all those minutes and hours, those days and weeks...how do you cultivate... tend...take care of...your life as a gift from God? How do you share this gift of life, this gift of your life? Lovingly? In justice, with others? Finally, as you stand before the Giver of all gifts, how will you take responsibility for the way you have used those minutes and hours, those days and weeks?

On the 26th and 27th of this month, in this "new year", SJN will have our Time and Talents fair. All of the ministries of our parish family will gather in Lind Hall; and a person in each of those ministries will be there..waiting for your visit. Please...think about your time, your life...as a gift to be shared. The Lord Jesus, as the Vine of Life, asks each us, as a living branch of that vine, to bear the fruit of the Kingdom. At the beginning of this "new year", NOW is the time to share a bit of your time, your life, seeking to bear the fruit of love.

AMDG

Msgr. David Talley