Hearts on Fire: An Augustinian Year
Like No Other
A Year Overflowing with Augustinian Achievement
The foundation of Austin Prep is rooted in our unmistakable Catholic faith and Augustinian heritage. That Augustinian heritage was as present as ever and inseparable from our daily activities during the 2024-2025 academic year. Continuing to place veritas, unitas, and caritas at the center of the Austin Prep community strengthened our Catholic identity – a core pillar of Austin Prep’s 2024-2029 Strategic Plan. The following activities and events highlight our “Augustinian Year Like no Other.”
TAugustinian Prior Provincial Insprires with Opening Visit
o open the 2024-2025 academic year, Austin Prep welcomed Father Robert Hagan, O.S.A., Augustinian Prior Provincial of the Province of St. Thomas of Villanova, as the principal celebrant and homilist for our annual Convocation Liturgy and Parade of Flags. His homily about the basketball player who was ill-prepared to enter a game because he had two left sneakers made a lasting impact.
Distinguished Augustinian Scholar Enriches our Community
Dr. Joseph Kelley, a world renowned Augustinian scholar joined the faculty as Austin Prep’s Augustinian Scholar-in-Residence. Dr. Kelley spent more than 50 years at Merrimack College as a faculty member and instructional leader before retiring from higher education. In his role at Austin Prep, Dr. Kelley provides professional development to the faculty and staff on the Augustinian way of life. Dr. Kelley was the keynote speaker at our annual St. Augustine Lecture in May and traveled to Vatican City in June, where he met Pope Leo XIV, and joined other Augustinian scholars from around the world on a project translating some of St. Augustine’s writings.
The Hickeys Were Affiliated to the Order of St. Augustine
In December, Head of School James Hickey, Ph.D. and his wife Cindy, were affiliated to the Order of St. Augustine, the highest honor the Order can bestow. According to the Constitutions of the Order of St. Augustine, “The Order has the faculty of affiliating to itself the faithful who merit special recognition because of their distinguished cooperation for the good of the Order. By reason of this affiliation, they belong to the Augustinian Family and share in all of the spiritual benefits of the Order.” The affiliation, which was approved by the Prior General of the Order of St. Augustine in Rome, recognized Austin Prep for its commitment to the Augustinian way of life. To mark the occasion, Father Arthur Johnson, O.S.A. and Father Peter Gori, O.S.A., Austin Prep Class of 1970, celebrated a mass on campus for students and staff.
AEducators Worldwide Gather for Augustinian Values Institute at Austin Prep
ustin Prep was honored to host the 21st annual Augustinian Values Institute (AVI) on campus in April. Educators with a vocation in Augustinian schools around the globe as far away as Australia converged on campus to deepen their understanding of the Augustinian charisms of veritas, unitas, and caritas. The AVI is a directed three-day exploration of the Augustinian core values which advances solidarity for the Augustinian mission and expands our professional network. In April 2026, Austin Prep will be holding the Student Augustinian Values Institute (SAVI) hosting students from the other Augustinian schools on campus.
TAugustinian Roots
Celebrated at Baccalaureate
Liturgy and Commencement
he commencement mass for the Class of 2025 marked a special moment with Father Arthur Johnson, O.S.A. as the main celebrant and homilist. Assigned as a newly ordained friar, Fr. Art was a founding father of Austin Prep and welcomed our first students to campus in September 1963. Despite his abiding presence over more than six decades, the Baccalaureate Liturgy for the Class of 2025 was remarkably the first graduation mass he celebrated in his over 60-year journey with the School.
Augustinian Friar
Elevated to
Pope Leo XIV
Shortly after white smoke appeared from the smokestack of the Sistine Chapel on May 8th, Austin Prep learned that an Augustinian had been chosen by the College of Cardinals as a successor to St. Peter. Faculty, students, and staff who formed watch parties on campus in offices and classrooms waiting for the announcement of the new Pope erupted with excitement Pope Leo XIV, an Augustinian Friar and the former Cardinal Robert Prevost, O.S.A., emerged on the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica. It somehow felt like a member of our immediate family was elected successor of St. Peter.
And one more for good measure…
Archbishop Richard Henning Blesses Austin Prep with First Visit
While not an Augustinian Friar, Most Reverend Richard G. Henning, the new archbishop of the Archdiocese of Boston, celebrated a school wide Mass at Austin Prep in March. We were honored to welcome Archbishop Henning to campus so early in his tenure with the Archdiocese of Boston, and he was very impressed with Austin Prep students, specifically acknowledging the school choir at the end of Mass and mingling with students in classrooms and in the dining hall. The native New Yorker was not yet ready to declare his allegiance with the Boston Red Sox, but he did note that after the visit to campus that he is a “big Austin Prep Cougars fan!”
Dear Friends,
Ihave known Augustinians for my entire life as friars were frequently weekend assistants at my parish, Holy Spirit in Sharon Hill, PA. I attended an Augustinian High School, (Msgr. Bonner, now Bonner-Prendie, in Drexel Hill, PA), an Augustinian College (Villanova University), experienced my formation and training to be a friar and a priest from the Augustinians, and have been serving as Vice President for Mission and Ministry at Merrimack College for the past 18 years. I owe so much to Augustinian Education that when I was asked to join the Board of Trustees at Austin Prep in 2013, I could not say no. Serving on the Board has been
one more piece of my own Augustinian education, showing forth a key aspect of Augustinian spirituality, namely that we are not divided into teachers and learners, but rather we are all learners, and it is Christ who is our true and only real teacher. Being a part of Austin Prep for these past several years has taught me as much, if not more, about the beauty, power, and goodness of the Augustinian ideals of unitas, veritas, caritas than all of my other Augustinian influencers.
The Catholic and Augustinian mission of Austin Prep is unmatched. The strong Augustinian education that took root
more than 60 years ago is stronger than ever. Parents increasingly seek Austin Prep as a sought-after place to educate their children. The school has never been in a better place, and amidst all the change over those 60 plus years, the one thing that has deepened most is Austin Prep’s unwavering commitment to the Augustinian mission. It is not a coincidence that as the strength of our mission deepened, the positive reputation of Austin Prep has grown.
This has been a great year to be an Augustinian. With the election of my brother and former college classmate Robert Prevost as Pope Leo XIV, the world has focused its attention on who we are and what we value as Augustinians. The world will learn that as much from us as from him, especially if we, who are also sons and daughters of St. Augustine, pray and work with him for true peace, unity, and community in the human family. They will see what Augustinian means if we, like him, listen so well and carefully to one another that we will hear Christ teaching us through our brothers and sisters. They will see what Augustinian means when we seek the common good rather than our own good and mutual honor God in the differences among us as well as what we share in common.
In 2023 I had the opportunity to accompany James Hickey, Ph.D., Head of School, members of the Austin Prep choir, family and friends on a Christmas pilgrimage to the Eternal City. Through this experience of shared community for a week of bus rides and meals together, I felt myself welcomed into the Austin Prep family and that is so much more important
to me than serving as a Trustee on its Board. We shared great moments together, like a New Year’s Eve encounter with Pope Francis. It was a great privilege and pleasure to preside and preach at Eucharist almost daily. It was a very special and heartfelt joy for me to visit the spiritual home of the Augustinians, the Basilica of St. Augustine. This Basilica contains the remains of Augustine’s mother, St. Monica, and has shrines to the saints and blessed that have accompanied me on my Augustinian journey, such as St. Rita of Cascia and St. Thomas of Villanova. Sharing my home with the Austin Prep family allowed me to welcome them as they welcomed me.
This past spring, Austin Prep welcomed Augustinian educators from around the world to participate in the Augustinian Values Institute for the first time. I was again very pleased and privileged to participate in the AVI with a presentation and to preside at Mass for Palm Sunday. This experience took me back through my history of being educated in Augustinian Schools with Augustinian values, connected a lot of dots for me, and left me with overflowing gratitude for what that has given me. The opportunity that I have at both Merrimack College and Austin Prep is a truly sacred honor.
With an Augustinian Heart,
Fr. Ray Dlugos, O.S.A.
Austin Prep Trustee
Merrimack College Vice President for Mission and Ministry
