Pentecost Sunday, Feast of St. Augustine & Happy Memorial Day! - May 28, 2023

We have a busy weekend here at St Austin Church. On Friday, May 26, we will have our closing Mass for our St Austin School. This Mass will take place in San Jose Catholic Church. For the last two years, St Austin School has been held in the classrooms of the former San Jose School. With our new school/ministry building set to open soon, this closing Mass will conclude our school’s residency at San Jose. We are most grateful to San Jose parish for the welcome they have extended to us. It has been enriching for us, and I hope for them, to interact more both with the San Jose parish community and with San Juan Diego High School, which is next door. So our last school Mass this Friday, May 26, concludes our stay at San Jose parish.

Then on Saturday, May 27, we observe the Feast of our parish/school patron, St Augustine of Canterbury, or as we more colloquially call him, St Austin. The name “Austin” is an English variant of the name “Augustine”, somewhat similar to “Chuck” which is a variant of the name “Charles”. Most of you know me as Fr Chuck, but when I am signing the payment applications for the construction of our new parish home, for over
$2,000,000.00 each time, I sign as Charles and not Chuck.

In any case, on Saturday May 27 we will have a Mass in the church at 8:00 a.m. All are welcome. We will pray for our parish/school community, and perhaps share a story or two about our parish. And have some coffee in the parish ministry space following.

Sunday is then the celebration of Pentecost. With the Paulist devotion to the Holy Spirit, this is also an important event for our parish. It is, after all, the “Birthday of the Church.” Because of the tongues of flame that came down on the Apostles on the original Pentecost, the priest, and deacon will be wearing red vestments. I invite and encourage you to rummage in your closet for that red dress or red shirt you seldom
wear, pull it out, and wear it on Pentecost. After all, it is our birthday as the Church, and the gift is truly great, indeed the Holy Spirit Him/Herself.

Finally, on Monday we observe Memorial Day. We recall and give thanks to all those who have fought and sacrificed for our country and our freedoms. We remember their heroism and their sacrifice so that we might also be inspired and motivated to work for the betterment of our nation, and world peace. Certainly, it is an excellent day to pray for peace: peace in our world, peace in our nation, peace in our city, peace in our homes, and in our hearts. On behalf of the Austin Paulists, I wish you a fun and memorable weekend. We have reason to celebrate!

God Bless!