Helping our Catholic people to become great givers in competition with today's culture is a significant and worthy challenge as a ministry of evangelization to them. At the end of our lives what remains is what we have given. Despite all the time we spend wanting and worrying about material things, what we are remembered for isn't our house, car, business, or lifestyle, even if they were great. We are remembered for our generosity, our great giving to others we loved, our giving to and through the Church, and our giving to causes we cared about. That is why a good program of annual giving is as important to the givers as it is to the Church as a whole.
Few people become great givers overnight.
More grow into it by giving at greater and greater levels of generosity over time, in line with their potential. Because we cannot possibly know the capacity of each giver to give, the job that we accept as Church leaders is to invite people, without pre-judgment, to grow their personal generosity over time. How people respond to the invitation is ultimately between them and God. We simply carry out our job and trust that God will take care of the rest. Besides inviting great giving in a way that advances the mission of the Church, other important parts of our job are to express gratitude to those who give and to be good stewards of what is given.