Praying with the poster: why the 2025 stewardship image matters
By Fr. C. Jarrod Lies
Our stewardship renewal is centered on one profound motive: “In Love of God and Neighbor” (John 15:9-12). It is a motive of the Sacred Heart itself, the heart of Christ burning with divine charity.
This poster is not merely artwork, but a catechesis in glass and light, a window into the mystery of stewardship. Our prayer begins accordingly: Lord Jesus, whose Heart is inflamed with love, from You flows every gift and grace.
The flames lift our eyes upward, reminding us that Christ’s love is not static but alive, burning, and self-giving. Every act of stewardship begins here – not with our own resources, but with the truth that “we love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19).
From that heart flow streams of color – gifts cascading outward. As we pray: Draw my heart into Yours, that I may receive the gifts of the Spirit, given to me by the Father.
The poster portrays this visually: From the heart of Christ radiate ribbons of light, representing the Spirit’s gifts. The smaller hearts that appear along those streams are our own lives – swept up into the current of divine love. In stewardship, we first receive before we give. We receive the Spirit’s gifts – time, talent, and treasure – not as possessions, but as graces entrusted to us by the Father meant to be shared.
Our prayer makes this request explicit: Inspire me to be a faithful steward – sharing my time, my talents, and my treasure as gifts to be given.
Look again at the poster: The smaller hearts flowing outward are not ornament but symbol – our own offerings, carried by grace into the world. This is the very cycle of stewardship: gift given, gift received, gift transformed, gift shared.
Thus we pray: May the love I receive from Your Sacred Heart flow outward in love of God and neighbor,
Here is our renewal theme in its fullness. The Sacred Heart not only pours love into us; it sends us forth as missionary disciples. To love God is to love neighbor; to love neighbor is to return to God. Stewardship is the rhythm of this circulation of love – always flowing, never hoarded.
How blessed are we to have the great “cloud of witnesses” (Heb 12:1), the saints, whose lives shine brightly with the acts of stewardship that arise from their impassioned discipleship. Thus, we beg: until, with all the saints, we may move ever closer to the “goal of our faith, the salvation of our souls” (1 Peter 1:9). There, we hope to rest forever in the Sacred Heart’s embrace.
Stewardship renewal, then, is not about filling out a form or checking a box. It is about opening ourselves anew to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, gratefully receiving the Father’s gifts, and allowing the Holy Spirit to move those gifts outward in love of God and neighbor. This is the rhythm of stewardship, and this is the path to holiness.
Fr. C. Jarrod Lies is the Diocese of Wichita’s Vicar for Evangelization, Discipleship, and Stewardship.