A Greater Harvest
Posted on: July 7, 2014
- In: Everyday Life | Faith | Prayer
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One of my bad habits? Trying to carry out tasks all on my own.
It’s not that I like tackling big jobs by myself; it’s more that I don’t like to bother people by asking them for help.
Take the church cleanup that I mentioned in some earlier posts. I should have asked someone to help me organize it. More to the point—I should have prayed more for guidance and people power to get the job done.
How often do we try to tackle parish activities in our own strength, with the resources we have? Do we simply try to organize community-building activities or launch ministries for children, youth or seniors and lament our limited resources, or do we dream bigger—or rather, pray bigger prayers?
In 2 Corinthians 9:10*, the apostle Paul writes, “He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your resources and increase the harvest of your righteousness.” Paul is talking about generous giving, but why couldn’t this apply to our ministry activities as well?
Couldn’t we pray for more volunteers to step forward to ensure youth group events run well? For guidance in running sacramental preparation activities so that more families are drawn to the church? For more volunteers to enable more parishioners to benefit from pastoral care ministries? Couldn’t we ask God to stretch or even multiply our resources to increase our “harvest”?
One testament to God’s power to multiply our resources is the growth of the Be the Change event in support of Ratanak International, which rescues Cambodian children from the sex trade and gives them a new start in life. Each year, new sponsors, performers, and prize donors have come forward to support this Ottawa event so that more funds can be raised to help Ratanak achieve its goals—a greater “harvest,” or more children helped.
When the summer ends and parish activities restart, I pray that we would ask God to guide our plans and make our human and financial resources go further and even grow so that we might share the good news with more of his people.
[Jesus] took the seven loaves and the fish, and having given thanks he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And they all ate and were satisfied; and they took up seven baskets full of the broken pieces left over. Those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children.
~ Matthew 15:35-39
(*Scripture quotes taken from the Holy Bible, Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition.)
A Catholic Convert in Ottawa 