All aspects of stewardship on display at Seminarian Summer Gala

The Seminarian Summer Gala was a beautiful display of all aspects of stewardship in action!
The evening opened and closed with everyone’s gift of time in prayer. Before dinner, Mass was celebrated for all attendees by Archbishop Thomas J. Rodi with Fr. Patrick Gilbreath giving the homily and seminarians serving. The talented Mr. and Mrs. Trey Krause shared their gift of music at Mass. At the end of the evening, everyone prayed the seminarian prayer together. 
The gift of talent shined brightly all evening. The Gala committee and numerous volunteers including teens from St. Michael Catholic High School were instrumental in setting up, breaking down and cleaning up after the event. Justin Castanza shared his gift of wit as the emcee for the event. Fr. Nicholas Napolitano’s culinary talent provided a delicious meal. The talented Nap Barranco and his hard-working kitchen crew were extraordinary at handling all the back-of-house duties. The kitchen crew plated all the food, moved trays of food out of the kitchen promptly and managed the dirty dishes appropriately. Serving wine and beer all night, the talented Michael Zoghby and Gardner Malouf took care of all the bar needs. The priests who serve our spiritual needs every day played a different role the night of the Gala as they so graciously served as the waiters. After the meal, everyone enjoyed Fr. Pat Arensberg’s gift of his homemade limoncello. Thank you isn’t enough to express how much your service is appreciated. 
Last, but certainly not least, the gift of treasure was shared abundantly! The Seminarian Summer Gala was established in 2018 to raise funds to support the increasing cost of forming our seminarians. Each year we are blessed with generous donors and this year didn’t disappoint.  The generosity from gala sponsors, ticket sales and Burse leadership gifts allowed us to raise $181,000 before expenses. The gala funds three of our 14 seminarians. Thank you to everyone for your generosity to seminarian formation. What a fantastic way to kick off the Burse Club Drive!
The evening was a blessing for our seminarians and an overall amazing example of stewardship. God smiled on the gala with His gift of a beautiful sunset over the bay for all to enjoy.
­­— Shannon Roh is the Executive Director of the Office of Development and Stewardship for the Archdiocese of Mobile.