Good morning and Happy Mother's Day!

My name is Janine Graziano-Full, and my husband Nick, and 3 children, Olivia, Raymond, and Elizabeth, have been parishioners here at St. Matthew's since 2013.

I'm fully aware I'm standing between you and breakfast, so I thank you for your attention :) 

I was very excited and willing to speak today about the ways we can support our parish because what I do for a living.

I am the Chief Possibility Officer of Live Full Coaching. I coach leaders and teams how to have unapologetic work life balance and to create a life they love at work and home. In fact that's the title of the book I wrote on this very topic.

My focus is to help people walk around wide awake about their values and what's important to them. Once you know better, you do better, and a life lived according to those values is a life fulfilled. Tapping into your Faith to navigate these insights and changes makes them more inspiring and sustainable. Let's face it...there is no better life than having God as your copilot.

One of the main reasons we joined St. Matthew's as a young family was the welcoming values and the human connection we felt here. We felt St. Matthew's focused on providing and giving vs. what they wanted or needed from us. Sometimes if an organization over indexes on 'pass the basket', it can be a turnoff for some people. We felt the opposite here, which made us want to give even more.

One of our passions as a family is food. Not only do we love to eat it, but the thought of those going hungry is a true pain point for us. When we have been blessed with finances to do so, we often give extra money specifically for the Food Pantry and Meal effort here at St. Matthew's. We not only 'wait' for the finances, we plan for it because it aligns with our values.

You may feel you don't have the extra money to donate if your family or loved ones are feeling strapped these days for the basics. There are still ways to give of your time or talent that align with your values so that it doesn't feel like an obligation but more of a privilege to help your parish.

You may have seen our son Raymond (Ray) serve weekly at Mass. He also coleads a CCD class. Our whole family volunteers for the annual festival with the meal service for those in need.

Another way I personally feel called to give to our parish is with my talent of teamwork and life coaching. Whether that's providing communication skills training like listening, assertion and conflict management, relationship and team dynamics, work life balance workshops, working mothers groups, these are all seeds being planted that I'd like to explore to match my talents with the needs of the St. Matthew's community.

As a wife, mother of 3, and business owner, I don't have a lot of spare time. Who does really. Yet if it's important to you---if it aligns with a value of yours, you will create the time/treasure/talent, plan accordingly, and lean in willingly. It will feel good to you. Of course we can always sacrifice, but the message I'm offering you today is to reflect on the authenticity within, powered by God as our copilot, to navigate the win-wins of the world.

You should have received a letter from Father Don with a commitment card asking to review and renew your commitment to sharing your time, talent and treasure as part of the ‘Forming Disciples, Sharing Gifts’ stewardship initiative begun last year.

I truly invite you to reflect and pray on what speaks to you with aligning your values to your time, treasure and talent. We are all blessed with one or many of these God-given aspects that can be shared to enhance our parish mission.

You can go online to review ministry options that you are welcome to be a part of. If for some reason you did not get a letter, there are commitment cards and ministry booklets in the back of the church.

Please bring the card next week and place in the collection basket.

Finally, we invite you to join us for coffee & donuts after all masses next weekend. This will provide us an opportunity to meet other parishioners and speak about various ministry options that are needed at this time.

I'll end with the following from 2 Corinthians 9:6-7

The Cheerful Giver

⁶ The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully^[a] will also reap bountifully. ⁷ Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Now go enjoy your breaksfast. Thank you for your time, and God Bless!