In these November days, as the earth yields its final harvest and we prepare for Thanksgiving, we are called to a deeper gratitude—the gratitude of disciples who know that everything is a gift from God.

Stewardship, at its heart, is the grateful response of a Christian disciple who recognizes and receives God’s gifts, shares these gifts out of love of God and neighbor, and returns them with increase to the Lord.

Notice the movement: first we receive, then we recognize, then we return with increase. This is not a transaction; it is a love story. God gives everything to us. He gives us life, the opportunity for salvation through His Son, the gift of the Most Holy Eucharist, and even the trials that purify us like gold in the furnace. In return, He desires a free, joyful offering of ourselves that bears fruit.

The widow’s two small coins still teach us the measure of true giving (Mark 12:41-44). She did not give from her surplus; she gave her whole livelihood. And Our Lord, who reads the hearts of all, declared her gift greater than all the rest.

Every Sunday we are invited to do something similar. The priest offers simple gifts of bread and wine to God, and by the power of the Holy Spirit through the words of consecration they are transubstantiated into the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass itself is the perfect act of Stewardship.

Our daily lives are called to imitate this sacred pattern. The hours we consecrate to prayer, the talents we place at the service of the church and to the poor, the treasure we return through sacrificial giving, all of it is meant to bring us closer to Christ Jesus. In the words of St. Paul, we are to present our bodies “as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God” (Rom 12:1).

This is why we are all called to be missionary disciples and to grow in the stewardship way of life. Living life as a missionary disciple means saying, “Lord, I freely offer the first and best portion of the gifts you have given me out of love for You and my neighbors.” When we do this, Our Lord never fails to magnify what we offer and to magnify its impact beyond all expectations.

This Thanksgiving season, let us ask three simple questions in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament:

What spiritual, personal, and material gifts has the Lord entrusted to me this year?

Have I truly acknowledged them as gifts from God?

How is the Holy Spirit inviting me to return these gifts with an increase through deeper prayer, more generous service, and sacrificial giving?

As we renew our commitment to stewardship during this time of Thanksgiving, let us do so in the spirit of the widow and in the spirit of Calvary: holding nothing back, trusting that the God who clothes the lilies and feeds the birds will never be outdone in generosity.

May Mary, who received the greatest gift and immediately rose to visit Elizabeth, teach us to make our entire lives a grateful Magnificat: “My soul magnifies the Lord…for He who is mighty has done great things for me and holy is His name.”