Hello, my name is Christine Squires. These are our children, - PDF document

Hello, my name is Christine Squires. These are our children, Madeline, Isabella, and Joseph, and this is my husband Burke. We became parishioners here at St. Joseph ’ s 3 ½ years ago when we moved to the area. Our girls are schooled at home. There is always lots to do around the house; cooking, cleaning, lesson planning and teaching. And there is the normal driving the girls around to different activities, gymnastics and soccer. I love to play tennis when I can. Burke works in Bethesda on the NIH campus three days a week. Two days he works from home. We usually have a lot going on. But even though our lives are busy we feel it is important to make time for God. Not just the hour a week we come to Mass, but to give a little more of our time. And one of the ways we do this is by helping at the parish. Deacon Greg talked to us about stewardship. Stewardship is giving back a portion of our time, talent, and treasure in gratitude to God for all of His many blessings. Burke and I have been asked to share with you how we practice stewardship, how we give back to God our time and our talent. We do give back our treasure too, but this week we are focusing on time and talents. Burke and I began practicing stewardship as a married couple at our last parish. We are part of a Catholic formation group that encourages its disciples to go to their local parish and help where there is a need. At our previous parish there was a need for English-speaking lectors so we started there. In that parish, there were two lectors for each Sunday Mass, so Burke would do the first reading while I held Madeline who was an

infant at the time, then he would come back to the pew, take the baby, and I would go up to do the second reading. It worked for us. From there we were asked to teach Baptism Prep classes. Again, we had an infant. She would be in the infant carrier, and we would teach the class. It wasn’t a class we had to teach often since there were a lot of volunteers. We were able to split the task with others and only had to teach every other month or so. This was our way of giving back our time and talent to our last parish. Then we moved to this area and attended St. Joseph ’ s. There was a new Discipleship Ministry being formed and we were asked to join. So we started attending the meetings. The meetings were in the evenings and we had the girls come with us. We gave the girls some activities to do in another room. After two meetings I realized it just didn’t work for both Burke and I to be there. The girls need our attention more in the evenings and it broke up our nighttime schedule. So I stopped going to the meetings. You have to find something that works not only for you, but what works for your family as well. The formation group we are part of also teaches us that if your pastor asks you to do something, if at all possible, do it. We were leaving Mass one day and Father Frazier was recruiting people to help with Holy Grounds. Burke and I were walking past Father and he said, “Burke and Christine, go on over there and sign up to help with Holy Grounds. ” So I looked at Burke and said, “ Guess we are helping with Holy Grounds. ” We prayed about it and decided to try it out to see if it worked for us. And it did. The girls love it. I mean, donuts! And they get up early anyway. I think they may enjoy it more than we do. We have come to know so many people by helping with it. And it is wonderful to see others getting to know each other. I can compare giving of my time at the Church to exercising. At first it is really hard working out if you hav en’t done it in a while. You get sore, not used to sweating, it ’ s tiring … but the more you do it, you see the results. You feel really good. You like it. You want to do it. In the same way, we don’t always want to get up at 6am to help on a weekend morning. But once we are there, and see the people coming together, it feels good. And we even see the fruits of this in our family. We come closer together. And we have formed great friendships with others that center around Christ. Besides helping with Holy Grounds, Burke continues to help with the Discipleship Committee, and he is a lector. I help with Vacation Bible School, Little Flowers Girls Club, and support the Elizabeth Ministry.

God has done so much for us, and this is our small way of giving back. And as long as it doesn’t take away from our family life, we all get so much out of it. So we want to encourage you to give your time and talents to the parish. As a suggestion, pray about those gifts you are able to share. Do you like to decorate? There are a few decorating committees for different events and there’s f lower arranging. Do you like to sing? Do you like to shop? There are many events that could use extra shoppers. Right now I’m experiencing how hard it is just to go in and pick up a gallon of milk. I’m sure others feel the same. Do you like to teach? You don’t hav e to have a degree or experience. There are RCIA classes and catechism classes. You will be given the tools and guidance needed to teach. You don’t have to have children to be able to teach. You can be a grandparent, or college-aged. Do you like to drive? Youth ministry often needs drivers. Elderly from Buckingham Choice or those without a vehicle need a ride to Mass. Would you rather do something behind the scenes? There is a prayer ministry starting up, and prayer intentions can be sent to you. And t his list goes on… You can give as little or as much as you want and it is all appreciated. From my experience, the employees, and other volunteers appreciate any time you can give. As an example Burke and I were leaving Holy Grounds two weeks ago and a young boy was pushing around the mop broom in Lapointe Hall It was so good to see someone stepping up and helping out. If everyone can give a little bit of time like that things could go so much quicker and easier. The Holy Grounds volunteers that day were probably able to leave a half an hour earlier because of his help. Not just for Holy Grounds though, for other ministries as well. If everyone were to chip in for just a little bit… well, t hink of big family dinners. Mom cleans, prepares the food, cooks, gets it on the table. B ut you don’t let her clean up alone, right? You all chip in and it gets done fast and its fun! You grow closer. If you can see your parish as your extended family, it will be easier to give of your time. And our parish family is growing since the Church has been built. And there are more homes being built in the area. We are going to continue to grow. There are a lot of new families and new needs arising. So your time and talents are needed here. I’ll be here after Mass if you have any questions. Or I invite you to call or email James at the office. He knows the ministries here and can match up your gifts. Pray about it. Ask Jesus to open your eyes to the opportunities

around you. Try it out and see if it works for you and your family. If you do, I think you may find that stewardship is not only giving thanks to God by helping others, but also feeling the personal joy from making a difference in the life of someone else. Thank you.