tithing

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Happy2bcatholic

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I wonder if I’m ‘tithing’ enough. I wonder if I can gauge if I’m tithing enough by how wealthy I am. Like I feel like God would sort of provide a barometer of generosity - for instance, (since he will not be outdone in generosity) if my husband and I were able to tithe 10% of our gross pay then perhaps we would receive a windfall as a result and if on the onther hand we were stingy then the Lord would convict us of our stingy ways by allowing trouble to befall us. Although it does say in the Bible that rain and shine will fall evenly on all. What’s your take?

You see this is what prompts me to ask this. I see others who are very generous to the church (I don’t know how much they tithe though) and have 6 kids, etc and are VERY well off. We on the other hand are not well off - well compared to some we are but still not as well of as they are. See we have a 40 yr old house and almost everything in it is 40 yrs old. We just replaced the heater and a/c and next year we have to replace one of the bathrooms and so on and so forth. So we are only able to tithe 3.7% of my husband’s net pay and I tithe 10% of my part-time net pay. And we teach for the church for free. And we are always open to new life but we are childless and I’m not getting younger. So I look at others and wonder - maybe I should be more generous to the church - maybe that’s the way out. We are always saving a little here and a little there. Its hard. I’m sure others do the same. I really don’t think we can tithe 10% of my husbands net pay but in my fantasy world we tithe 10% of our gross pays and we hit the lottery - ha! I do all the finances. I go to the financial planner and squirrel the money away and count it and plan it, etc… so much so that the thought of my husband possibly being laid off caused me to think of jumping out of a window momentarily! Of course I wouldn’t do that - but I wonder if I should just tithe more - take a leap of faith - be imprudent and give more to the church - but what if we cannot pay the mortgage! Any stories along these lines? Thanks.
 
my fiance and i are saving for our wedding, and have had numerous talks about tithing. we are both finishing our undergrad degrees in university, and will together have about $50,00 in school debts. although we were at first skeptical about whether we were in a position to tithe, we thought long and hard and decided that 10% was doable. sure, money is tight. but if we didn’t start tithing now, we don’t know when we would start. money is going to be tight for us for a long time.

i used to think that because we are students, and the community at our university parish seems to expect students not to tithe, that we should be exempt. but, i don’t think the intention of tithing is for the rich to tithe and the less wealthy to let them take care of it. there’s something to be said about sacrificing and trusting in God. of course, i can only speak for myself. i can tithe and still afford the necessities (with my OSAP loans, lol), but i’m sure some are not as fortunate as i am this way. Good luck in discerning what the best choice is for you and your family!
 
BTW, i think tithing includes not only money, but time, so the time you give to the church could also be included in your % tithed.
 
I know the Word of God says what you give to God He will give back a hundred fold. I say use common sense, give what you can afford. I know many people who tried to out give God and lost their shirt.
 
Good Morning Church

I am a complete believer in tithing as taught in Scripture. 10% right off the top.
In fact, many years ago, my husband was sent out as part of a team, to Parishes in our Southern California Diocese and taught tithing after Sunday Masses. The results were awesome.

Not only were the folks blessed, just as GOD PROMISED and I do not believe God ever breaks a promise, don’t think He is capable of it, but the Church was blessed abundantly.

If every Catholic family tithed 5%, I think we would see great things in the Church, maybe even free Catholic education.

I happen to come out of a Protestant family, but with a good number of Mormons. My dad and mom both grew up in Utah.
All you have to do is look at results of tithing on the Mormon Church to see postitive results.
 
There is an old saying that a dollar looks so small to most of us when we try to buy something, but looks big in the collection basket. The truth is that Catholics give so much less than our Protestant brothers and sisters that it is not even close. We are fortunate to have donors who step foreward from time to time and bail us out with large donations. We have to give what we can, but we can do better than one dollar a week.

Deacon Tony SFO
 
Thank you everyone for your thoughtful replies. Is it true that one can give more than what is prudent and ‘lose their shirt’ and be surprised that God did NOT out do them in generosity? Thanks.
 
when we married 35 yrs ago and moved shortly afterward to the east side of Cleveland, we had $26 bucks left after deposit on apartment, utilities etc.,baby on the way, no insurance, new jobs, gross pay for both of us less than $100 a week, we found a parish we could walk to (no car). The pastor preached on tithing, and the choices were 10%, 5%, or an hour’s wage. My husband is Joe Catholic so he started giving exactly 10%, $7.83 to be exact. We have followed the rule throughout our marriage. We have been poor, we have been okay, able to partially retire at age 55, but never have we been without anything truly needed. That is because the attitude has been from the beginning everything material comes from God and belongs to God, any created thing including our earnings and the ability to earn, and also our children, belong to God. Best advice for newlyweds, start out with this attitude.

Note to those waiting to have kids until you can “afford it” – you can never afford it, there is no such thing, it just keeps getting more and more expensive, so jump in, it is true that God will Provide.
 
Interesting that this topic should come up, as a convert from places where tithing 10% was taught often and firmly, we have become slack in giving.

This week, we have decided as a family to go back to givng to God the things that are God’s - and that 10% is His.
 
I believe tithing also includes charities that you give to in addition to the Church collection.

So if you give to certain charities, remember to factor those into your 10% tith.
 
Howdy, I’m from Canada. Let me throw a twist into this topic and see what you all have to say on this. We have a lot of free services that we pay for through our taxes, like health care and our government sends a lot of money to other countries that need help. My question is, do we factor this into our tithing amount? If so, how would one do that?

:blessyou:
Moe
 
hey moedom,i’m from canada too, but have never heard of accounting for part of your tithing from taxes…i don’t know anyone who does that. it may totally be a practice that people do, but to me, it seems like an excuse not to give one’s full 10% of income.

jrab…i’ve heard that as long as 50% of what you tithe goes to the church, you can donate to other causes, like charities. not sure what everybody else has heard…
 
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TreeHugger:
hey moedom,i’m from canada too, but have never heard of accounting for part of your tithing from taxes…i don’t know anyone who does that. it may totally be a practice that people do, but to me, it seems like an excuse not to give one’s full 10% of income.

jrab…i’ve heard that as long as 50% of what you tithe goes to the church, you can donate to other causes, like charities. not sure what everybody else has heard…
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So, for example if you are getting paid $100 and they tax you $50 and then $25 of that goes to charity then would you still be giving 10% of $100? Would it not be like giving %35? And I am just talking about charity here. Just wondering.:whistle: As far as church is concern we only give a little to our local parish since our diocese is steeped in abuses. The rest goes to other more catholic causes to organizations that are more in line with the Church.
 
hey moedom,
i can relate to you with the big taxes we canadians pay! the financial advisor at our marriage prep class told us last week to look at our income after taxes, so not the gross amount before taxes, if we tithe.
but hey…like i said, i don’t know everything.
 
Our new plan is based on our post-tax income - 5% to the local parish, the rest in monthly donations to various groups (this month, checks will go to EWTN and Catholic Answers).

There is no way that I could ever see forced contributions to a corrupt govt that pays for abortion as part of my tithe. Taxes were addressed by Jesus when He said to render to Ceasar the things that are Ceasar’s and to God the things that are God’s…

Kage
 
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moedom:
As far as church is concern we only give a little to our local parish since our diocese is steeped in abuses. .
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I sure understand that, moedom. Our new priest has put a very large Movie screen in our church.The background is bright irridescent green. It is very distracting and takes attention away from where it belongs…On God.One of the members sits in the pew with a laptop and changes the scenes on the Movie Screen during Mass. I am going to nicely talk to the priest about removing it and if not, I will be going to a different church and giving my tithe to them. I have gone to the same church since I was a child. I went to Catholic School there and it will be very sad if I have to leave. 😦

:blessyou:
Annie
 
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AnnieD:
I sure understand that, moedom. Our new priest has put a very large Movie screen in our church.The background is bright irridescent green. It is very distracting and takes attention away from where it belongs…On God.One of the members sits in the pew with a laptop and changes the scenes on the Movie Screen during Mass. I am going to nicely talk to the priest about removing it and if not, I will be going to a different church and giving my tithe to them. I have gone to the same church since I was a child. I went to Catholic School there and it will be very sad if I have to leave. 😦

:blessyou:
Annie
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Gee our RTL group could sure use something like that.😉
Moe
 
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moedom:
Gee our RTL group could sure use something like that.😉
Moe
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The Movie Screen would sure be eyecatching for your RTL group to use, moe. Your message would probably be seen for miles.
:rotfl:

:blessyou:

Annie
 
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