April 3, 2022

My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

We enter into the Fifth Sunday of Lent.  In this week’s Gospel, we hear how Jesus drew a line not to condemn but rather  through His forgiving eyes showed us the mercy and love of God.  Next Sunday, we enter into Holy Week.  The question as we draw into the end of our Lenten Season is how has the invitation for renewal in this Season of Lent impacted your lives?  For God it is never too late to allow Him to renew our lives.

We had a successful Parish Mission last week.  We would like to thank Fr Donald Shane for leading us through a wonderful Lenten Mission where we allowed to gift of the Eucharist transform our lives.  It concluded with our Lenten Penance Service on Tuesday.  We once again invite you to take this opportunity this Lenten Season to make a good confession if you have not had the chance to do so.

We had part of our driveway asphalt replaced with concrete over the last two weeks.  We apologize of the inconvenience caused.  This project was originally scheduled last fall but unfortunately, we were not able to have it done until now.  We are hoping to have another section of the driveway replaced during this summer.

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 which began last Wednesday.  The implementation of the new model for the combined parishes projected for the summer of 2023.  For more information, please go to journeyoffaith.org.

We continue to pray for all those affected by COVID-19.  Our Parish is opened up for meetings and for groups to gather.  For time being, we will continue to make available 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.

God’s Blessings,

Fr Marc