Holiday greetings to you all!  I hope the season of giving and celebration is going well for you so far.  It also happens to be a time of great stress and anxiety for people, so I recommend you take Father Timothy’s advice and try to relax and remember what the Holidays are truly celebrating and try to reduce your “Christmas Crush.”
 
A few things to report this month:
 
As you can see from the activity on the campus and the parking places being taken up by dumpsters and piles of supplies, much work is being completed on our campus.  The education building roof is being redone, new security cameras and computers have been installed and Cadence Academy is renovating the interior of the education building and completing a complete makeover of the playground.  The new walls around the fourth acre are completed and we’re awaiting bids for painting.  Watching the change(s) is exciting!!
 
We held elections for the 2023 Parish Council last Sunday and I’m pleased to welcome an alumnus and two new members to the Parish Council.  Dimitris Laloudakis has been re-elected and John Lines and Dimitri Ntatsos have been elected as first-time members.  All three will begin new terms on the Council in January.  We welcome Dimitris back and look forward to the contributions and new ideas our two new members will provide us.  I would also like to take this opportunity to thank two current members of the Parish Council for their donation of time and talent for the last several years.  Rick Schneider and Marina Ambus have concluded their terms and will be moving on to other endeavors.  It was my pleasure to work with both and to share the vision we all have for maintaining our Parish and building it for the future.  Please thank them for their commitment and wish them well going forward when you see them.
 
Our Taste of Greece Taverna committee met and began planning our next event.  Please put Saturday, March 16 on your calendars so you can assist with our fund-raising; while we showcase our food and culture.  Many volunteers are needed, so please let Glenn Thorpe know how you can help.  Glenn will be setting up a ‘sign-up genius’ to assist in this process.  Additionally, if anyone wants to become part of the team that organizes the event, please inform us of your interest!  It will be beneficial to pass on the experience from the past, while also incorporating new ideas into planning future events..
 
Lastly, for those that weren’t in attendance at Liturgy last Sunday (Dec 10), I am adding the Stewardship message that was given.  I was also told that some of you couldn’t hear me too well in the rear of the church, so this might fill in some of the holes.
 
Merry Christmas to you and your families.  Yours in Christ,
 
John Chrisagis
Parish Council President

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Good morning!  I stand before you today as president of the parish council and chairman of the stewardship ministry @ St Katherine; in order to give the annual stewardship message to the parish on this, stewardship Sunday.  Stewardship Sunday is a day we have used for many years to signify the beginning of our stewardship campaign for the coming year.  We do it now so that you can be thinking about your stewardship pledge during this time of great Thanksgiving for the blessings God has bestowed upon us and our families.  I think it’s important that every once in a while, you hear a message regarding stewardship from a layman and not from Fr Timothy or another member of the clergy.

In life, I’m sure you’ve all noticed, we have those individuals that look for the good things and those that dwell on the bad. BUT we are taught that The most important traits for us to ascertain in this life are humility and love – neither of which are possible when we are being critical of others. With that in mind, let us strive to have good thoughts of others and properly utilize our creative energy and talents to further our relationship with God and each other.  An aid to good thoughts of others is maintaining awareness of our own sins and shortcomings. By doing so, we will begin down the path of love and humility.  It’s a choice you can make.

And speaking of choices, we have the freedom to make many choices in our lives.  Some are easy and some are very difficult.  One of those choices is how we accept, build, and maintain a relationship with Jesus Christ and our Church.  It is that freedom of choice that creates problems for many of us.  When you’re given too many choices, sometimes we succumb to the ‘paradox of choice.’  Rather than make a choice, because there are so many, we don’t make one at all!!  Sometimes our freedom of choice paralyzes us and hinders us from making an informed decision.  And, too often, in our confusion and haste, our decisions are based on our passions and/or to take the easy way out of a situation.  That is why truly thinking about your stewardship pledge and what it means to you is essential for you to make that proper choice.  It shouldn’t be just another thing on your to-do list.

I recently read two passages in an article about freedom and choice as it relates to religion.  Those passages read:

1. We are to hold in balance two complimentary truths: without God’s grace we can do nothing; but without our voluntary co-operation God will do nothing.
2. Our salvation results from the convergence of two factors, unequal in value yet both indispensable: divine initiative and human response.What God does is incomparably the more important, but man’s response is also required.

 
Everything written in these passages can be summarized to a basic premise: we have the freedom to choose how we wish to welcome and work with God in our lives.  And for us, there is just as much emphasis on our response as there is in divine initiative.  It brings to mind a word that often comes up in today’s society – accountability.

From a homily in July, Father Timothy stated (yes, I wrote it down because when I hear something I can use later or I find to be profound, I try not to forget it), “we must humble ourselves before Christ.  Pride and arrogance are the biggest faults to us accepting Christ into our lives.  We want ‘him’ to work in ways we want ‘him’ to.  We want ‘him’ to fit into our lives.  It doesn’t work that way.”

We have choices in life; and we live with those choices.  As we’ve learned in the past, the better you feel about the choices you make, the more excited and positive you are about those choices.  Becoming an active member of your church will assist in your personal choices as they relate to Jesus Christ and his bride.  From there, good things happen for us all.  So, think hard about your stewardship pledge for 2024.  And make the giving be meaningful for you.  It should be meaningful; and you should give to the best of your ability.  Because, as stated in (Luke12:48) “To whom much is given, much is expected.” 
Stewardship is part of your spiritual journey.  It’s not a duty and likewise, it’s not something you do out of guilt.  It SHOULD be a joyous celebration of gratitude for all we have been given.  And studies show that giving helps the giver more than it helps the one receiving the gift.  Maya Angelou once said that “I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.”

Our parish stewardship pledges have increased immensely in the past two years.  I can’t thank you enough for your thoughtful commitment.  I believe a clear vision and mission for the parish along with a working parish council with transparency of direction has assisted with this.  Look around you!  Things are happening…… and its time for each of you to join in on this change of attitude and help fulfill the mission of this parish!  Its an exciting time for St Katherine in SO many ways.  I truly believe we can accomplish great things moving forward.  

Our generosity is another way of fulfilling our commitment to making St Katherine our home, but to also consider it our ‘spiritual hospital.’  Why not?  We have healing sacraments; we help people grow and blossom.  This is our spiritual home & hospital first and foremost……. NOT an institution or an entity.  Let the parish leadership worry about the institution; parishioners should do what they can to assist in the fostering of a feeling of WANTING to be here because of how it makes you feel!!

I’ve asked the parish council members in attendance today – along with Father Timothy - to be the first to submit their 2024 pledge cards.  It’s important that we lead by example, and I thank you all profusely for your generous donation of not only your treasure, but the time and talent you give your spiritual home.  And likewise, I thank all the stewards of our parish for your generosity.

God bless you all and I wish you a Merry Christmas and Blessed Nativity.