Thinking of Others: Acts of Consideration - April 2, 2023

This weekend is Palm/Passion Sunday, and we enter into Holy Week. This is a special, and indeed a holy, time of year. I wish you all the blessings and graces of our annual remembrance of Holy Week. We call to mind the events that won our salvation, that give all of our lives meaning and hope, and we pray to be inspired (literally, to be in-spirited) and renewed in faith. May we hear and take to heart the Easter message: do not be afraid!

With this in mind, I want to propose to you two actions that, if they apply to you, would be specific, concrete steps towards living with more significant concern for others. The first applies mainly to younger adults and students. If you ride one of the many scooters that inhabit (infest?) our city I urge you, when you have completed your trip, to take care where you park and leave the scooter. Many times they are abandoned right
in the middle of the sidewalk, or left in such a way that when they fall over, which they inevitably seem to do, they block the sidewalk. For people in wheelchairs, or with a walker, or pushing a baby-buggy or delivery cart, or just with arms full of stuff, the scooter then becomes quite an obstacle to walking. It is often difficult to negotiate the scooters even for able-bodied people, and for those with disabilities it becomes a serious challenge. So I encourage you to think of those coming after you, and park the scooter in place out of the flow of pedestrian traffic.

A second recommendation involves parking cars. It is rather a hike from our parking garage to our church. It rivals, if not exceeds, the distance from the farthest parking space on a large suburban church parking lot to the church. This is problematic for some of our very senior and disabled parishioners. On Sunday mornings, especially for the 7:30 and 8:45 a.m. Masses, which a lot of our senior members attend, it would be
considerate and charitable for those of us who are able-bodied, to leave the parking spots in front of the church for those with mobility issues, and for the rest of us to park in the parish garage. You may need to leave for church five minutes earlier to make it on time, and you will get in your morning constitutional, but it would be a very good thing to do.

I know as the day goes on, more people park in front who are not attending Mass, but going to various shops and events along the Drag. But the 7:30 and 8:45 Masses on Sundays usually don’t see that much “extraneous” traffic.

Our Parish Pastoral Council has a committee working on the issue of transportation from the garage, especially for those with mobility issues. When the construction of our development project is finished (May 2025), the situation will change somewhat. They are working on a long-term solution. But in the meantime, and probably beyond that, leaving the spaces immediately in front of the church for those who really need them,
would be a very good way to make the welcoming spirit of St Austin Parish community tangible and real.

Enough griping for now. Have a Blessed Holy Week!