Stewardship Renewal Commitment Sunday, Nov. 17

‘Recommitting ourselves to be laborers in love with the Lord’

“Stewardship Renewal Commitment Sunday”, Nov. 17, is designed to offer people a chance to recommit themselves to being laborers in love with the Lord; to renew as Christian disciples; to be grateful; to profoundly begin again to share God’s blessings with others.
It’s about looking at new ways that one might be of service to their Church and to each other, whether by being a welcoming beacon in the Church, by offering daily prayer, by assisting with spiritual formation programs (think teaching a PSR class, for example), or by offering their time serving their parish in some capacity.
In the weeks leading up to Commitment Sunday, Catholics in the diocese have heard messages from the pulpit, and have read a series of articles in the SKR highlighting different aspects of stewardship, all of which will cause us to joyfully receive and share in Christ.
By our baptism, we are called Christian: let us generously follow Jesus, and share His gifts with others.

Stewardship Renewal Commitment Sunday, Nov. 17 asks

How do we live out our baptism?

It wouldn’t be unusual if the heading, “Stewardship Renewal Commitment Sunday” caused one to assume they’re being asked to be especially generous financially.
If they did assume that, they’d be wrong. Well, not entirely. Stewardship does have to do with giving. But the financial side is just one of many ways that individuals, through their baptism, are asked to give of themselves to their Church and each other. As expressed in the theme of the Nov. 17 Commitment Sunday, the upcoming event is about “Joyfully Receiving and Sharing.”
Rudy Valenzuela was born in 1900; Mark Twain was still writing novels, World War I was still years away, and one in only 13 homes had a telephone. When he was interviewed in 2002, he told the SKR that he remembered vividly the site of Haley’s Comet sailing through the sky back in 1908, and when Poncho Villa came to his home in Chihuahua, Mexico and help crush the regime of President Porfirio Diaz.

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Hospitality is part of our faith tradition

By Daniel Mulhall
Catholic News Service
Abraham was a rich man, but he had no son with his wife Sarah, and he and his wife had grown old. One day as he sat at his tent in the hot sun he noticed three men. Abraham immediately ran to them, bowed down in front of them, and invited them to dine with him.
Bringing them into the shade, he fixed a special dinner and treated them as royalty -- which they were, as angels of the Lord. Following this act of hospitality, Abraham and his wife Sarah were blessed by God in their old age with a son, Isaac.

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Sister Mary Ann Klein -- local teacher, nurse -- dies at 88

Sister Mary Ann Klein (Sister Mary James), 88, died Friday, Oct. 4, 2013, in the Catholic Care Center in Wichita.
Born Dec. 4, 1924, in Fowler, Sister Mary Ann was the daughter of the late Jacob and Anna Hoffman Klein. She entered the Dominican Sisters in Great Bend on March 17, 1940, and pronounced her first vows August 13, 1943. She celebrated 70 years of religious profession earlier this year.
Sister Mary Ann began her ministerial life as a teacher in parochial elementary schools in Odin, Willowdale, La Crosse, and Clonmel, Kansas. In 1951 she began her studies in nursing and ministered in St. Rose Hospital, Great Bend, and St. Catherine Hospital in Garden City. She served as a missionary in health ministry in the Sokoto Prefecture in Nigeria in the 1960s.

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The Four Pillars of Stewardship: Prayer

Catechists urged to focus on prayer

By CHARLENE SCOTT MYERS
Southwest Kansas Register
Editor’s Note: The following is Part I of a two-part series. Part I focuses on “Prayer”, one of the four pillars of stewardship. Part II will address the “Service” pillar, including how catechists can use strong proclamation to encourage children to pray. Stein noted that she utilized several sources in her talk that readers may wish to access. They will be included online, and in the next issue of the SKR.

The Coordinator of Catechist Formation in the Diocese of Dodge City, Coleen Stein, urges catechists to pray because “Prayer is the way we connect and stay connected to God.”
Stein joined Bishop Emeritus Ronald M. Gilmore as a speaker on the Interactive Television Network Sept. 4 and 7.  
“We begin by looking at what is prayer, why is prayer important, how do we pray, and how can we help others, especially our students, pray,” she said.  
“We think of prayer as something we do in order to get something else.  We pray for things:  rain, peace, health, success.  And when we get what we ask for, we believe our prayer is responsible for it.  If we don’t get it, we wonder whether we prayed wrong, or whether God knew better, or whether someone else deserved to win more than we did.”

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A brief moment with Pope Francis

Newlyweds Deanna and Michael Johnston of Dodge City had a chance encounter with Pope Francis while honeymooning recently in Rome.

By DIANNA JOHNSTON
Special to the Register
Editor’s Note: Dianna Johnston is a pastoral minister at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe. A photo of her and her husband, Michael’s encounter with Pope Francis is on Page 1.

My husband and I were married on Oct. 5 in my hometown of Memphis, TN.  It sounds cliché to say this, but it really was the happiest day of my life.  After three years of working with engaged couples at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe and teaching the Theology of the Body, it was wonderful to enter into the Sacrament of Marriage with my best friend, surrounded by our family and friends.  God is so good!  
Before we were even engaged, Michael and I knew that we would be going to Rome in October for our last Graduate Theology course with Newman University. The trip doubled as our honeymoon and we were able to spend 12 days there, which included a trip to Assisi and Orvieto.

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