What Catholics Should Do With Their Money

I haven't had a personal bank account for 13 years so I'm gonna talk about money hey I'm Father Mark Mary with the Franciscan friars of the renewal and this is Ascension presents we're going to talk about money we're gonna have some show and tell some practical stuff here's the situation I'm Franciscan which means two things number one uh I don't have any money like I don't have personal money we don't really spend money we live simply uh number two in the rule from Saint Francis to the brothers it's just this reminder that we're not to look down upon those who wear nice food I wear nice clothes wear nice food eat nice clothes wear nice close eat nice food so I'm gonna try and like stay stay in that spirit because there's just this part of this is a reality of uh we live we live very simply and when we're out with other people sometimes um people spending habits like wasting food things like that they're hard for me to wrestle and reconcile with so it just had me thinking and so I'm just going to talk a little bit about money and there should be two parts of the video one is essentially like teaching you how to fish and then one is giving you some fish so some resources for your ongoing kind of discernment and study if you're interested and then some just very practical applications right off the bat and and why we're talking about this right is uh money's not just like a dirty thing right like the love of money is condemned certainly but like the Friars are Medical Center in Honduras which gives free care to the poor so the poor right like it's only made possible through like we need money or that the orphanage we're helping to kind of run it needs money like uh so many of our like putting food on your table Etc right so they're so the money's part of life but at the same time we just we want to keep our spending habits and our relationship with money in the context of the whole world where uh we know so many people are still struggling and really suffering and even starving but we also have the technology and the globalization to actually help them right and so we just want to keep all this in context for those of you who are like interested in it and willing to do a little research I'm going to offer three resources three books which talk about it and they're going to kind of be on different parts of the spectrum the first one which is like the more kind of Hardcore one is by one of my favorite spiritual kind of contemporary spiritual authors father Thomas Dube Father Tom stube wrote a book called happy are you poor and and father Dubai in his book really looking at the gospels and the example of Christ and the church and again uh the example of the saint in the situation of the world really proposes a a fairly challenging approach to this right and so certainly if you're if you're really young and fired up about things I'd really and you want to read it which is kind of like if you're young or fired up you're going to love the book I would recommend before making any like major life changes at least bouncing it off like a priest a spiritual Mentor a parent but but it's it sets the bar pretty high I think it's a really good resource and a lot of people have found it to be very fruitful now on the other end um which is really fascinating to me is a book that probably most of you haven't heard of it's not as popular in like Catholic spaces called what your money means what your money means and how to use it well green probably because of money clever all right and it's by Frank Hannah and it has reviews recommendations on the back from Thomas Monahan the like the Domino's guy right who became a big Catholic philanthropist and also retired Archbishop Charles shapu so uh Frank Hannah's Catholic guy made just like really killed it in business made a lot of money also just as you use that money really well to fund different movements in the church okay and one of the interesting things about it and why this book is really interesting is here's a man who's very very financially successful but who's Catholic and is willing to really look at and wrestle with questions or comments proposed like from from some of the Saints like you know if if you have like more than you need and you don't give it to the poor like you're stealing from the poor and he takes a really honest let's say honest look at this and and wrestles with and establishes some principles and so it's it's from a different it's a different mindset than father Dube he's going to ask some different questions some of his resolutions might be a little bit different but if you want to look at like a very very successful business person in the world who's wrestling with these questions what your money means and how to use it well I think it's it's like a really really great resource that isn't nearly as well known as it should be and then thirdly and this is the weird part all right bear with me is habits for holiness the author's a little goofy but um there's a chapter in it that deals with it and it's I would say it's kind of in the middle between uh but happy are you poor and what your money means from father Dubai and and Mr Frank Hannah but and it's very small and very like concrete and I really just try to kind of like use this principle of contentment and give some some um some tools if you will for ongoing to sermon application all right so what your money means happy are you poor habits for Holiness now let's go to do some real practical things one area in which a lot of people are kind of overspending or spending frivolously or unintentionally which we really got to try to avoid in in the world today again where money can go so far in helping people like with the charity Mary's meals so one thing with online shopping that we that I'd really really encourage you to do for things that are non-essentials have it sit in your like your little cart for ideally 48 hours or at least 24 hours if you need diapers or formula or whatever for your babies okay you can just like get that right away but a lot of times you're like trying to like redecorate your room or in your new dorm room or you're looking at video game stuff or workout stuff or whatever and you kind of get in there and you're looking at it it's fun to look at stuff and you get excited and you watch the video and maybe you go to YouTube and read some reviews you get all like your passions all sort of fired up right and you get it all excited put it in your cart and give it 24 48 hours and then go look at it again and see now like okay now that you've allowed those sort of emotions and the passions and all that those like those desires to kind of be tempered do you still want it is it still worth the money is it still something you really need is it really a good way to spend uh your resources if you make the Judgment yeah okay cool go for it because I just I really think that so much of how things are being sold online really really is geared towards getting like kind of manipulating you to get really excited and to buy as easy as possible as quick as possible and don't be played by the game put it in your cart go back review it also it's just you might like it's kind of like a common thing in religious life where maybe like they get a letter from a friend or some somebody like that and they just let it sit for like 24 hours and then you go open it the next day night not right when you get it and even that it's just a good little sacrifice a good little practice of patience and a good way to make sure that we are living ordered and well-directed and intentional lives number two is a little bit creative I would propose like putting on yourself some sort of what I'll call like a poor tax so you figure out whatever the percentage or the breakdown is but say it's like 10 of every dollar I spend that's like just like on me or not on essential items I'm going to also like allocate to give to the poor so right so if I'm going to spend 100 bucks on something I have to also set aside ten dollars that I'm going to give to some sort of Charity so you got to have some sort of Charity right already queued up where you can give easily again I'll drop it again Mary's meals is an awesome place to do this what I like about it is this primarily because it allows us to practice this this Galatians 210 thing of always being mindful of the poor and our spending and what we're doing we're never just doing it in a vacuum we're never just doing it in like the context of our own maybe very comfortable space which many of us live in but we want to keep especially as Christians and as Catholics we want to keep in context all of the the situation of the whole world so some sort of tax for yourself you can do it as like a family okay forever you know and again I think ten percent five percent twenty percent however where you want to do it it's just a really good principle a way to be mindful of the poor and a way to actually continue to help the poor and thirdly it's just really really makes a lot of sense when you're going shopping before you go in the store have a list I know it's a I know it's a discipline I know it's not necessarily easy I know we like to go into real stores brick and mortar stores and kind of look around and get inspired and be creative but again it's just they know what they're doing and they know how to get you to buy stuff you don't need and we just don't want to be spending a lot of money so it's like I know ladies you like love to go to Target and just look around and throw some stuff in your cart I don't think it's a great attitude towards money as Christians in the context we live again especially again with with the reality of the poor and and I know like it's not just for ladies like it's a dude like the first big purchase I had when I was in high school was this like sound system for my for my Jeep and I ended up getting like two 12-inch subs and a 1200 watt amp and it was like I went in there and he okay what about this and the next thing next thing I got up sold like 800 like we can do it too when you're going into the whatever Cabela's or the sports store or whatever the music store whatever your thing is hardware store like make a list be intentional know what you're doing um if you see some stuff we can make put it essentially in like your physical cards that your digital card oh here's some other things I'm interested in go home let 24 hours 48 hours pass and then revisit it all right and again like this is all we're trying to be mindful of the poor we're trying to follow the gospel we're trying to be good stewards we're trying to set a good example so if you want to check out some books again happy are you poor father Dubai what your money means by Frank Hannah habits for Holiness by Father Mark Mary by me and just some practical things as well thanks for watching you guys are great look forward to seeing you again next week remember we are pilgrims on the serious programs so you got we're gonna make it peace [Music]

Channel: Ascension Presents

Views: 24,630

Keywords: Money, finances, catholic finances, Ascension Presents, Ascension Youtube, Ascension Press, ascension press, ascension presents, cfrs, franciscan friars of the renewal, fr. Mark-mary, catholic friars, Fr. Mark-Mary, CFRs, Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, money and catholics, poverty, vow of poverty, catholic financial advise, how to spend your money wisely

Id: Ln6UkJdeB3k

Length: 10min 37sec (637 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 07 2022