April 24, 2022

My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

On this Octave of Easter, we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday this weekend.  Divine Mercy Sunday is based on the devotion to the Divine Mercy by Sr. Faustina through her encounter with Jesus.  As we continue our Easter celebrations, we are invited to unfold the loving mercy of Jesus who fought evil with love through the gift of the Cross.  In this weekend’s Gospel reading, we are invited to focus on Jesus’ humility in showing Thomas his wounds so that he may “not be unbelieving but believe.”

This weekend is also a special weekend for our Parish Family as we will be celebrating with our First Communicants their First Communion with 2 Liturgies at 2pm and 4pm.  Congratulations to our First Communicants and their Families.  We pray that they together with their families continue to be faithful disciples of Christ.  Please keep them and their families in your prayers.  Please note there will be no 5pm Mass this Sunday.

Our Archdiocese is currently undergoing a Pastoral Planning process for the future of our Archdiocese.  With the declining numbers in Mass attendance, the decline in population in the rural counties and the growth in a few concentrated counties as well as taking into account the declining priests’ numbers, the Pastoral Plan will create a new vision for how we as a Church will flourish in the future.  One of the proposals in this planning process is for Mary Our Queen Parish and St John Vianney Parish to share a Pastor and an Associate with both sites being utilized for the ministerial needs of the two faith communities. Another proposal is for our Parish to begin ministry for those who are Spanish speaking given the growth in Spanish-speaking parishioners in our area.  This will include having a Mass in Spanish on Sundays. Details of operations and the various needs for the new arrangement will be determined through meetings with leadership personnel of both parishes.  We will be having a Town Hall Meeting to present the Pastoral Planning process as well as to answer any questions regarding the proposal on Thursday May 5th at 7pm in the Trinity Rooms.  We invite you to join us as we plan for the future of our Parish.

With the addition of the Memorial Benches in our Entrance Plaza, we have more or less completed our Entrance Plaza.  Please note that the plaques for the Memorial Benches will be installed soon.  We are still looking to install 2 – 4 foot benches and 1 – 6 foot bench at the Entrance of our School patio (facing 119th Street).  If you would like to purchase a bench in memory of a loved one, kindly contact the Parish Office.

We continue to pray for all those affected by COVID-19.  Our Parish is opened up for meetings and for groups to gather.  For the time being, we will continue to make available part of the left side of our Church for those still wanting to social distance.  Thank you for kindly working with us.  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.

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.

Blessed Easter,

Fr Marc