January 9, 2022

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in a sermon from 1968:

"Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter. I won’t have any money to leave behind. I won’t have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind. And that’s all I want to say."

We're proud to share that Pat Macy of our parish is this year's Drum Major for Justice to be presented at the Mass for Peace & Justice commemorating the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The Mass will take place at Holy Cross Catholic Church on Saturday, January 15 at 11 a.m. We hope to see you there to make a joyful noise for Pat. 

You Fed the Hungry - Thank You! A Starving Artist in Fact

As we begin a new year of ministry to our neighbors, we thank you for your generous contributions that make it all possible. Our dispatchers receive hundreds of calls each month and the stories we hear are amazing.

We recently helped a starving artist – literally!  This young man called us for help with rent, utilities, food cards and bus passes.  He told us that he is an artist, working two jobs, and sometimes has no food to eat. He needed a lot of help – had lost his roommate and gotten behind on his rent. He had scheduled his first art show for January, hoping to bring in some extra money. Thankfully, his landlord was willing to work with him and was very grateful for our help with his rent. Since he has no car, he had no way to get to the food banks, so we provided bus passes and food cards for him. He was also behind on his utilities and we were able to help with those, too. Your funding made all this possible. He was so very grateful.

We hope that our stories about our neighbors give you insight into our ministry, which is so very necessary in these difficult times. COVID really made a negative impact on so many people’s lives, causing them to lose jobs, homes and so much more.  We are grateful that our ministry is there to support them and give them hope.

Thank you again for your generosity and if you would like to volunteer, we would love to have you!  In addition to helping our neighbors in need with rent, utilities, medicine, food cards and bus passes, we also volunteer at the St. Vincent de Paul (SVdP) food bank on Fridays to bag vegetables and on Saturdays to hand out food to those in need.
 

Those who are gracious to the poor lend to the Lord, and the Lord will fully repay them.
~ Proverbs 19:17

Want to learn more about the good work of our SVdP Society? Contact Huddie Murray at [email protected].

January is Poverty Awareness Month

We'll have more for you soon, but as this weekend is our Second Collection for Persons in Need we wanted to share a sample of information on the issue of poverty. St. Austin's social justice efforts are legend in our community. Your donations to the collection are split between our St. Vincent de Paul Society and Outreach Program. Together these ministries provide hope and help to hundres of people across Austin. Many have asked what the difference is between the work of the two programs - how we support those in need is described at Get Help.

As we work on a new advocacy plaza on Poverty, we invite you to explore these resources from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development's Poverty Awareness Month page.

Please give generously to our Persons in Need Collection this weekend.
Your generosity makes a difference in many lives.