Lord, everything we have is a gift from you.  You call us to receive your gifts with thanks, to develop these gifts fully, and to share them generously. Through the Stewardship for Saints and Scholars Campaign help every young person in the Diocese of Lansing
see your truth, beauty, and goodness;
help families to raise their children in the Faith; and help parishes make a truly Catholic education available to all.
May the work of this campaign bear abundant fruit in the Saints and Scholars you are raising up for the future.  We ask these blessings through Christ our Lord. 

Continued from home page:  The study found wide support for the campaign, which has been named Stewardship for Saints and Scholars. This effort seeks to attract, form, train and retain excellent, faithful teachers and administrators at parish elementary and diocesan high schools (On Mission), to substantially grow the financial assistance available to families (Affordable), and to improve assistance for children with additional learning needs while also providing funds to enhance regional services through the four diocesan high schools (Accessible). 

Additionally, there is a component for each parish to address local needs. I want to highlight a few of the goals of this upcoming campaign:
1. Raise funds for helping train and retain teachers. To be a teacher is a calling to play an incredibly important role in a child’s life. That is even more true within a Catholic School when they work for lower pay.
2. Build a Diocesan endowment to increase the scholarships available for students at our schools at both the elementary/middle school level and high school level. The successful building of this fund would be a great blessing for generations to come helping families not just in our community but throughout the Diocese. This is very similar to the foresight of the many parishioners who helped build and continue to support the Fr. Rahrig Trust Fund in support of St. Joseph School, as well as our St. Joseph Trust and Endowment- a foresight I am deeply grateful for.
3. Helping our parishes address their own local needs. A local need we will be focusing on with this campaign will be the new pews for our Church. We have raised some funds for those pews and this campaign will get us the rest of the way there. For each parish these needs will be different depending on their situation.

It is exciting to be part of a venture that will have such a long-lasting impact. By the very fact of the existence of our parishes and school, we can look back to others who provided for us without necessarily benefiting themselves. For much of my life I was in no position to support this kind of campaign monetarily. I simply benefited from the generosity that supported my own education in a  Catholic School and then through Seminary. I am grateful that I can now start doing my part for others! The Diocese launched Stewardship for Saints and Scholars this past November with a silent phase.  Watch the video below to learn more.    - Fr. Gary