So Much More Than a Cup of Joe

My coffee mugs change with the seasons. Sometimes I wonder if other people do that, or if it’s just me.
I have come to believe, by watching the coffee phenomenon explode over the last decade, that the taste of coffee, and the caffeine in coffee, have an equal (if not more important) counterpart. It’s the vibe of coffee.

Maybe it is an ambiance of comfort or warmth. Whatever it is that causes people of all ages to stand in line, walk through airports, commute to work, all while clutching our steaming coffee at all times of the day – it is obviously giving people something they appreciate and need.

Me? I’m a make-it-at-home coffee girl. I’ve even been teased for carrying my thermos of plain, black coffee to work (“Where’s your hard hat, Judy?”). Oh, I add sweetener to it, trust me. But the most important part of my coffee regimen is never the coffee. It is the vessel it’s in.

Today, it struck me that each one of my seasonal coffee mugs has a Scripture reminder. And in the all-too-brief-fall-season we have in Montana, my autumn coffee mug is commanding me (God’s vessel) to be grateful. “…always be thankful” it reads, from Colossians 3:15.

One thing I am thankful for is that my ministry with the Catholic Foundation of Eastern Montana revolves entirely around gratitude. In the past 25 years of helping people make gifts to their favorite charities, the overwhelming reason for their generosity comes from how thankful they are– for services they receive, for allowing them to help those less fortunate, for something that is so very important to their lives that they can’t imagine living without it. And now, in my service with the Catholic Foundation of Eastern Montana, I am thankful for the chance to help those people who truly want to give back to build the Catholic Church because they can’t imagine living without it. Their love of God, their Catholic faith, means the world to them.

As a grateful vessel of God’s creation, are you being called to make a significant and long-lasting gift to build His church in your parish or our diocese? Let’s grab a cup of coffee and talk. Maybe we’ll both be thankful for the opportunity.

And may the peace of Christ reign in your hearts, because it is for this that you were called together in one body. Always be thankful. – Colossians 3:15

by Judy Held, President, Catholic Foundation of Eastern Montana

(406) 727-6683, ext. 120
judy@catholicfoundationmt.org
P O Box 1345
Great Falls, MT 59403