To hear Frank Hanna—widely regarded as one of the top Catholic philanthropists in America—talk about money is to get a reality check, a pep talk, a retreat, and examination of conscience…all rolled into one.

That’s what we experienced last week—alongside 400 other Catholic entrepreneurs—as the investment banker and entrepreneur keynoted the annual SENT Summit (Sept. 8-11) at Notre Dame. The timing for Hanna’s meditation couldn’t be better: families face daily financial anxieties; the advent of fall offers a chance to “reset” and model a healthy relationship with money to our children; and the graces of this Jubilee year—Pilgrims of Hope—ought to renew our vision on such important issues.

Here’s a 10-point “primer on authentic wealth” from Hanna’s keynote (all quotes are from Mr. Hanna):

1. Virtues are “gifts from God which require our cooperation and our will.” Hope is one of the three great theological virtues. As Catholics, we’re called to live it out in an authentic way.
2. “Hope is an expectation of the future … an action we take in confidence of God’s providence.”
3. “Credit comes from ‘credo’ (I believe),” showing that extending credit to others means that we “express a belief in them.” Wealth rises on “expectation of future earnings.” Thus, “all wealth is inherently a function of hope.”
4. “We’re not really taught the meaning of money … hardly any of us spend time learning what it means to have it.” Like St. John Paul II developed a Theology of the Body, “we need a theology of wealth … we can’t ignore it because we’re embarrassed to talk about it.”
5. To think of wealth as simply material assets is “thinking like Marxists.” Hanna suggests a new definition of wealth: “Wealth is a measure of well-being most accurately measured in the quality of the human capital and relationships we possess, and the hope and expectation of those relationships.”
6. “Our Western culture has lost hope in the family, which is the most critical ingredient in any society. So, we find ourselves as a culture in a situation where our wealth—our well-being—is diminishing because our relationships are diminishing, because our hope is diminishing.”
7. Our culture’s default position is that “I own my life,” like a banker mistaking deposits in the bank vault as somehow belonging to him. 
8. Instead, “the economy of this world is an economy of gift … If the economy of the world is one of gift, the only method by which we can be fully human … is to be consistent with this order within the universe … with the giving of ourselves.”
9. Practical acts of hope include “getting married, having children, starting a business, investing in others, giving authentic Catholic witness … good works foster in us the disposition to place our hope in God.”
10. After death, before Christ’s judgment: “We’re going to get some version of the question, ‘You know all that money I gave you? What’d you do with it? Did you use it to draw you and your loved ones closer to me?’“

Hanna’s ultimate call: “We can be like God, we can give like God … Let us pray for that magnanimity, that greatness of soul, that practice of the virtue of hope.” And his keynote was followed by a standing ovation…for good reason. In a world that is plagued by so much confusion about the meaning of money, Hanna invited us to see relationships, the virtue of hope, and investments in the human soul—which “pay dividends for all eternity”—as barometers of authentic wealth.

As we reflect on Hanna’s message, we can ask, “Is our Trinity House governed by the Economy of the Gift that brings about greater communion among persons?” May our families—through ever-more faithful witness to the Economy of Gift that upholds, surrounds, and permeates our homes—be beacons of authentic hope!