The Good Giving Series
is about the spiritual power of giving.
We will learn why and how Catholics are becoming better at joyful giving. All year, articles, emails, seminars and videos will be shared with parishioners about the art of financial sacrifice.
US Tax refund NEWS 2026
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A Surrender Story : Part I
He was irritated. For all the work he did during the day, he disliked giving away a portion of it. He was responsible for what he generated. He provided for his family and they enjoyed the benefits. To sacrifice a portion of it made him resentful. He would give, but it mustn’t be too valuable. Cain didn't like that feeling of surrendering his wealth. God had no regard for Cain’s faint intentions… And God literally told him so. However, it hurt Cain’s pride to be told to make a correct sacrifice. He was uncomfortable when God told him that to do otherwise kept bringing other sins closer to his own door. (Genesis 4:7) The idea of a proper offering in order to open his heart and become closer to God did not register with Cain. God said, however, this his brother’s gifts DID express gratitude and sincere sacrifice. Abel’s generosity of his finest first fruits were acceptable and shaped a closer love with God. As with other matters, Cain would have to take care of that situation… Of this story, Peter Kreeft, a Catholic theologian and philosophy professor (Boston College) reminds us: ….the self finds its identity (and happiness) only by self-forgetfulness, self- giving, and dying a little.” “Giving transforms ordinary life (time, suffering, relationships) into participation in divine love and redemption.”
(From his book: Jesus Shock)
He was irritated. For all the work he did during the day, he disliked giving away a portion of it. He was responsible for what he generated. He provided for his family and they enjoyed the benefits. To sacrifice a portion of it made him resentful. He would give, but it mustn’t be too valuable. Cain didn't like that feeling of surrendering his wealth. God had no regard for Cain’s faint intentions… And God literally told him so. However, it hurt Cain’s pride to be told to make a correct sacrifice. He was uncomfortable when God told him that to do otherwise kept bringing other sins closer to his own door. (Genesis 4:7) The idea of a proper offering in order to open his heart and become closer to God did not register with Cain. God said, however, this his brother’s gifts DID express gratitude and sincere sacrifice. Abel’s generosity of his finest first fruits were acceptable and shaped a closer love with God. As with other matters, Cain would have to take care of that situation… Of this story, Peter Kreeft, a Catholic theologian and philosophy professor (Boston College) reminds us: ….the self finds its identity (and happiness) only by self-forgetfulness, self- giving, and dying a little.” “Giving transforms ordinary life (time, suffering, relationships) into participation in divine love and redemption.”
(From his book: Jesus Shock)
A Giving Story #2
Sarah and her husband had wanted a baby. Their married years were filled with longing for a child.
So, when she, at 65 and her husband at 75 years old, received from God a hint that they would have a baby, Sarah laughed. Little did she know it would be 25 MORE years when she gave birth to their son Isaac. Her husband Abraham was 100! And she was a mother at 90.
Issac was their miracle baby. God’s promise was fulfilled.
One day, God told Abraham he was to take his beloved son and go up into the mountains and offer him as a burnt offering. He found the place and he bound Issac and prepared the wood for the fire and the knife for slaughter.
But the Angel of the Lord called out to Abraham. Abraham said, “Here I am”.
“Lay not a hand on the lad. For now I know that you fear God.” Abraham not only obeyed God, but he looked up and gave to God a gift. A ram, caught in the brambles, became a burnt offering to the Lord.
The unquestioned obedience and willingness to sacrifice at the behest of God was a great and glorious act of giving. And the Angel of the Lord spoke a second time: you did not withhold from God your beloved son. As a result of this faith, I will bless you and multiply your descendants.
And Sarah smiled.
What kind of trust did Abraham have for God to compel him to give in this way?
How do we learn to trust Him and give so unreservedly?
Sarah and her husband had wanted a baby. Their married years were filled with longing for a child.
So, when she, at 65 and her husband at 75 years old, received from God a hint that they would have a baby, Sarah laughed. Little did she know it would be 25 MORE years when she gave birth to their son Isaac. Her husband Abraham was 100! And she was a mother at 90.
Issac was their miracle baby. God’s promise was fulfilled.
One day, God told Abraham he was to take his beloved son and go up into the mountains and offer him as a burnt offering. He found the place and he bound Issac and prepared the wood for the fire and the knife for slaughter.
But the Angel of the Lord called out to Abraham. Abraham said, “Here I am”.
“Lay not a hand on the lad. For now I know that you fear God.” Abraham not only obeyed God, but he looked up and gave to God a gift. A ram, caught in the brambles, became a burnt offering to the Lord.
The unquestioned obedience and willingness to sacrifice at the behest of God was a great and glorious act of giving. And the Angel of the Lord spoke a second time: you did not withhold from God your beloved son. As a result of this faith, I will bless you and multiply your descendants.
And Sarah smiled.
What kind of trust did Abraham have for God to compel him to give in this way?
How do we learn to trust Him and give so unreservedly?
A Giving Story #3
During a regular seven-hour trip, a man, traveling is robbed, beaten up, stripped of his clothes and left half -dead. No matter the year it happens or the zip code, there is a most typical response by people who come across such a scene: avoid it. There are risks and costs to getting involved: Are the robbers still nearby? Who and what is the story of the victim? Might I get blamed for or embroiled in a very bad situation? By helping the man, my trip and my life might change. My plans did not include this. Imagine stopping your car. Pulling over, you administer aid to this person’s wounds. Helping him with clothes, you put him in your car and take him to a motel. You stay overnight to get him stable. Your appointments require that you leave, but you give the manager of the motel about $60.00 upfront and tell him to look after him. On your way home, you will reimburse the motel manager for any other expenses. In the Book of Luke, Jesus’s Good Samaritan story is a giving story. It is a giving story with a twist. Several people, including Jewish priests avoid the scene. The person who does stop to help the victim is a person from Samaria. Jews and Samarians had deep ethnic and religious hatred for one another. The contempt each “people” had for the other would have made this story outcome inconceivable to the listeners.
Jesus, however, in the end, does not distinguish our hero by any designation but one: Who was the hero?
Neighbor.
Jesus describes the hero, however, with only one word: Neighbor.
When he ends the story, he says “Go and do likewise.”
Giving Story #4
In the last Giving Story, Jesus shares a parable about the Good Samaritan. The story has two moves: a twist and a turn.
The person who rescues a man beaten and robbed is Samarian. Jews and Samarians had deep ethnic and religious hatred for one another. So, the Jews find it very hard to imagine a Samarian having such compassion.
Jesus describes the hero, however, with only one word: Neighbor.
When he ends the story, he says “Go and do likewise.”
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Giving also can have strange and wonderful implications.
All four gospels recount the miracle of The Feeding of the Five Thousand.
In this story, after Jesus had healed the sick and spoken to huge crowds at the side of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus and the disciples feel compassion for the crowds.
Jesus tells them they need to be fed. The disciples exclaimed, “200 day’s wages would not even come close to feeding them a little.” Andrew signals that a lad has five barley loaves and two fish.
The boy’s small reserves were given to Jesus. After He looked up to heaven, He gave thanks. He broke the loaves and divided the fish. They distributed them. And the crowds ate to full satisfaction with leftovers.
Sometime giving a little within the dignity of Christ becomes greater than the original gift.
And giving not only can improve the situation, but it transforms the one giving.
“Go and do likewise”
In the last Giving Story, Jesus shares a parable about the Good Samaritan. The story has two moves: a twist and a turn.
The person who rescues a man beaten and robbed is Samarian. Jews and Samarians had deep ethnic and religious hatred for one another. So, the Jews find it very hard to imagine a Samarian having such compassion.
Jesus describes the hero, however, with only one word: Neighbor.
When he ends the story, he says “Go and do likewise.”
____________________________________________________________
Giving also can have strange and wonderful implications.
All four gospels recount the miracle of The Feeding of the Five Thousand.
In this story, after Jesus had healed the sick and spoken to huge crowds at the side of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus and the disciples feel compassion for the crowds.
Jesus tells them they need to be fed. The disciples exclaimed, “200 day’s wages would not even come close to feeding them a little.” Andrew signals that a lad has five barley loaves and two fish.
The boy’s small reserves were given to Jesus. After He looked up to heaven, He gave thanks. He broke the loaves and divided the fish. They distributed them. And the crowds ate to full satisfaction with leftovers.
Sometime giving a little within the dignity of Christ becomes greater than the original gift.
And giving not only can improve the situation, but it transforms the one giving.
“Go and do likewise”
The United State of America is 250 years old.
AND THE Catholic faith has ALWAYS been part of it’s story.
#1 The first Christian service on this soil was a Catholic Mass. Our oldest permanent settlement was first established in St. Augustine, Florida by the Spanish. It remains and worships in the Catholic Faith.
#2 Saints were martyred on this soil well over 100 years BEFORE the American Revolution. It was Catholics who established Catholic churches, evangelist missions and wilderness forts. These saints and martyrs worked and died for the Catholic faith, stretching from the first American colonies to the distant Western frontiers.
#3 Almost every region of what is now the United States was first explored and mapped by Catholics. Catholic explorers, soldiers, priests and pioneers consecrated this new world to their faith. They christened our land with Catholic names: Maryland, St. Louis, San Francisco, and Santa Fe. You can name more…
(San Antonio, San Diego, Corpus Christi, San Jose,…keep going…)
#4 Today, twenty percent of Americans are Catholic. Approximately 61 million! And there has been a noticeable uptick in Catholic conversions in 2026: National Catholic Register reports that more than 30,000 Americans become Catholic just this Easter! Now add the number of official 2025 conversions which was significant outside of the special Easter Vigil and that means there has been a 26% rate of increase of new American Catholics since 2024.
We are America’s Catholics
We are growing in numbers
It is time to expand access to local Catholic education
Holy Childhood of Jesus
Local Catholic Tuition Fund 2026 is the only giving opportunity in the Good Giving Series. We are witnessing more children and families in our Catholic Church. Would you help us raise money by July 20 so that more local students receive education and faith formation at a local CATHOLIC SCHOOL, this Fall?
This is NOT A SCHOOL FUNDRAISER. It is tuition for children and adolescents you see and sit next to in our Catholic Church.
This is a one time, 250th USA birthday gift for Catholic education and faith formation. Every 23 people who give $250 sends a student to a local Catholic school! Please pray on this. Think of the ripple effect your gift can have on the next generation of our Catholic faith.
Write check payable to HCJ Tuition Fund 2026. Or call the HCJ office to use your credit card and mention Tuition Fund 2026. Deadline is July 20. Thank you.
Local Catholic Tuition Fund 2026 is the only giving opportunity in the Good Giving Series. We are witnessing more children and families in our Catholic Church. Would you help us raise money by July 20 so that more local students receive education and faith formation at a local CATHOLIC SCHOOL, this Fall?
This is NOT A SCHOOL FUNDRAISER. It is tuition for children and adolescents you see and sit next to in our Catholic Church.
This is a one time, 250th USA birthday gift for Catholic education and faith formation. Every 23 people who give $250 sends a student to a local Catholic school! Please pray on this. Think of the ripple effect your gift can have on the next generation of our Catholic faith.
Write check payable to HCJ Tuition Fund 2026. Or call the HCJ office to use your credit card and mention Tuition Fund 2026. Deadline is July 20. Thank you.