First and foremost, let me wish everyone a Happy and Blessed Mother's Day. It seems strange that we only take one day out of the year to honor the woman, who has done so much for each of us. Shouldn't we be honoring our mother every day? It is even one of the Ten Commandments: Honor your father and your mother! Do some thing nice for your mother today, even if it is just a prayer of thanksgiving. We should also remember our Mother Mary today. She is the mother of Jesus, the mother of the church and our mother as well. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
The 9th is also the Sixth Sunday of Easter. In our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, we have a second Pentecost. Peter in the house of Cornelius, a gentile, says: "In truth, I see that God shows no partiality. Rather, in every nation whoever fears him and acts uprightly is acceptable to him. While Peter was still speaking these things, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who were listening to the word." With that Peter "ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ." Thus, all peoples become one in the Church. Our second reading and our Gospel are both from John and they tell us once again that God is love. "Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God." Jesus says in the Gospel: "As the Father loves me, so I love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love." He goes on to tell us: "I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy might be complete. This is my commandment: love one another as I love you." Note this is all in the present tense. Jesus loves us here and now and tells us we will have joy, if we love him and each other here and now..
We will celebrate The Ascension of the Lord next Sunday, not on Thursday. We continue to have our usual 8:15 and 10:30 AM Masses on Sundays. We still have every other pew roped off for distancing. We still wear masks and have plenty of hand sanitizer and clean off the pews after Mass. Thanks to Cheryl and Francine, we still record the 10:30 and put it on line right after Mass. You can find the link at the bottom of our webpage:
saintaugustineparish.org Our monthly zoom prayer service will be Sunday, May 16 at 1 PM. Also at 4 PM that day, Faith in Indiana will have an outdoor and zoom rally with many local politicians. You can participate in person at Howard Park or on zoom. The Black Catholic Advisory Board continues its Thursday night zoom at 7 PM, that's right, on Thursday. The Soup Kitchen continues to serve MWF from 11 AM to 12:30 PM and our St. Vincent de Paul group brings food to the needy.
On Saturday, May 8, we welcomed our newest member into the Church. I baptized Sebastian Gabriel Busk. Congratulations to the whole family! Take care and pray for an end to the pandemic.