Giving Thanks As We Open a Beautiful Season of Hope - Nov 23, 2022

First of all, a look back, to thank and congratulate everyone who joined us and participated in the special “Slab Signing” event two weeks ago. It was a great success! Special Thanks to the team at Hensel Phelps, our general contractor, who prepped and organized the event. Special Thanks also to our parish team, to Sharon Lehtonen and her crew who provided the refreshments, to our stalwart leaders Trish Dolese, Christopher Kennedy, and the Development Committee, for organizing and supervising the signing, and of course to our wonderful Knights of Columbus who fed us all delicious sausage wraps! I am so happy that many of you made your mark on this construction project which holds so many of our hopes for a brighter future as a parish and school community. To all those who participated in the “Slab Signing”, along with all those who have participated in our fundraising campaign and all those who have supported our project through your prayers, THANK YOU! We had much to be grateful for on Thanksgiving because of our development project. God is good!

Last week I had the privilege of participating in the blessing and dedication of the new Paulist House of Studies (i.e., seminary) in Washington, DC. Many of you have helped to make this building a reality by your donations and prayers, and I can assure you that they have been well used. It is a stunning building architecturally, and at the same time both very comfortable and homey, and also very efficient and well suited to a house of study and mission in the 21st Century. I hope you will have an opportunity in the future,
if you are ever in the DC area, to stop in and say hello to the Paulist seminarians and priests in residence there. Tell them you are from St. Austin Parish in Texas and they will welcome you warmly. In addition, I also picked up a few good ideas on how to do a dedication of a new building. The Paulists in DC know how to do a dedication right.

Sunday ADVENT begins! Happy Liturgical New Year!!! Advent is a beautiful time, of prayers of longing and peace, of yearning for the coming of the Christ Child and of a much brighter future. It is a season of Hope.

Too bad so much of Advent is lost in the Christmas rush. The later we get into the season, the harder it is to enter into the spirit and feeling of Advent. So I encourage to take advantage now, in the early days of Advent, to open your heart to the longing for a Savior, and the desire of God’s Kingdom, before we are hopelessly distracted by the commercial fervor of Christmas. O Come, O Come, Emmanuel!

God bless,