April 11, 2021

My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

This weekend we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday.  Divine Mercy is a devotion to Jesus that is based on the writings of Sr. Faustina Kowalska who conveyed the revelations she received about God’s mercy. As we unfold the Easter Mysteries that began with the Easter Vigil, we are invited to continue to dwell upon the mysteries of Christ who offered His life for our sake for the forgiveness of sins.  This speaks of His unconditional love for each of us and that His mercy is to draw all to Himself.

This Sunday and next Sunday, we will be celebrating with our Second Graders who will be receiving their First Communion.  Congratulations to our First Communicants.  We would like to thank all our Religious Education Teachers for guiding our Second Graders in preparing them to receive the Sacraments.

This weekend, we also brought to a conclusion our RCIA program.  We welcomed six new members into our Church at the Easter Vigil.  We would like to thank our RCIA team for making this journey with them. We will be beginning a new RCIA program in the fall.  If you or someone you know who would like to learn more about our Catholic Faith, kindly contact the Parish Office.

Our Archbishop after consulting with the Archdiocesan Priest Council and conferring with the Bishops in Grand Island and Lincoln will  be ending the general dispensation from the obligation from Sunday Mass effective the weekend of Pentecost, May 22-23, 2021 in the Archdiocese of Omaha.  His letter can be found in our Parish Website and on our Facebook page.

Our Archbishop also noted in his letter that “while the responsibility to participate in Sunday Mass rests with each of us, there are persons who may consider themselves excused under certain circumstances. Those who are prevented from attending due to advanced age, sickness, disability or some other serious reason are excused. For the foreseeable future, those who feel they are at heightened risk of contracting or communicating COVID-19 are excused.”  I am well aware of the seriousness of this virus given I had to be treated in hospital after contracting COVID-19 and had to go through a long recovery process.  I have been generally healthy and am not aware of any underlying conditions.  The most important thing I would like to do is to keep everyone safe.  I invite you to determine on your own if you fit in the above category.

We did open up our parish for meetings and groups on February 1st. We will be reevaluating our protocols in the near  future.  Meanwhile, we continue to navigate in the COVID-19 environment and to follow our established protocol at least until the end of May.  All DCHD protocols are and will be followed.  Close contact/quarantine information will come from the DCHD.  As a reminder, please monitor COVID-19 symptoms.  As always, if you or a family member has a fever, chills, body aches, headache, sore throat, cough, and loss of taste and smell, they should stay home from school or church until symptom free.  Continue to utilize and refer to our COVID-19 Resource Page at https://www.moqschool.org/moq-covid-19-resource-page/.  We continue to place the health and safety of all members of our school and parish community our top priority.

Please check out our Weekly Updates via email.  If you have not received an email, kindly call our Parish Office and we will add you in our email mailing list.  Thank you again for supporting us during this time. We continue to keep all those affected by this virus in our prayers.

God’s Blessings,

Fr Marc