Tuesday, March 25, 2014

A note from Fr. Chuck -- March E-news


Last weekend at all the Masses we heard from several parishioners about their involvement at St. Austin and how much they value our amazing and active parish. I found it an encouraging pleasure to listen to them. These lay witnesses reinforced what Fr. Bob, Fr. René and I have been sharing with you during our homilies (and in my column!) over the past few weekends.

I hope you were able to attend Mass and hear one of our excellent volunteers speak! If not, recordings of the talks will be posted on our YouTube account soon, hopefully by early next week. Thank you to Adam Ragsdale, Kevin and Barbara Barry, John Schwartz and Charles Vernor for their efforts in sharing some of the many great things about St. Austin Catholic Parish, and how St. Austin’s community has touched their life and brought them closer to Jesus!

THANK YOU to everyone who turned in their commitment card already! If you were unable to attend Mass last weekend, you should be receiving a letter from me and a commitment card in the mail later this week. I don’t want you to be left out! Also, commitment cards will still be available in the pews this weekend. You can turn yours in by placing it in the offertory basket, dropping it off at the parish office or mailing it in the return envelope provided.
I encourage everyone to complete a commitment card. The action of making that commitment is important, whether you can afford only to pray for our parish, or to give a dollar, or to give more. Having your completed commitment card helps us to recognize you for your generosity, to plan for the future needs of the parish and to prepare a budget for the next fiscal year.

Do you give online? Great! I highly encourage everyone who is comfortable with doing so to set up online contributions to St. Austin. I do. It saves the parish money because payments post to your record in our database immediately, without the need for staff to manually enter data.

It is quick and easy to set up with our secure database, ChurchDB. If you’d like to set up your regular contributions online for the first time, click the Give Online button on our website and complete the online form. For our new pledge year, which begins May 1, 2014, select “Stewardship: Offertory 2014-15” in the drop down menu under the blue box that says, “Apply My Donation to The Following Fund Account.”

If you have an existing online contribution and your total dollar amount will change for the new pledge year beginning May 1, if you checked the box on your Commitment Card indicating that we can increase your contribution by the amount listed, then we will make the change for you. If you did not check this box or you are unsure, just email our bookkeeper, Pat Lucksinger, and let her know it is okay to change the amount of your transactions.
If you have any questions about your pledge or contributions, you can always contact Pat Lucksinger via email or at 512-477-9471 ext. 322 or Jennifer Anderson via email or at 512-477-9471 ext. 325 anytime. You can also contact me via email or at 512-477-9471 ext. 328, though I am sometimes more difficult to reach.

Thank you for your continued support of St. Austin Catholic Parish!


Wishing you a very blessed Lent,

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