August 28, 2022

My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

In my column the last two weeks, I wrote about the improvements that were made to our campus over the summer months and into  the fall. Last week I spoke upon the items that need to be addressed and the possible need for a capital campaign.

Since February, our Parish has been undergoing a Pastoral Planning with the Archdiocese.  For our part of the Pastoral Planning, it involves with our Parish forming a Family of Parishes with St John Vianney that involves the sharing of a Pastor and an Associate with both sites being utilized for the ministerial needs of the two faith communities.  It also involves our Parish beginning a ministry for those who are Spanish speaking given the growth in Spanish-speaking parishioners in our area.  This includes having a Mass in Spanish.

As we continue to work with St John Vianney in regards to collaboration and cooperation, there have been various other programs we have been developing to bring growth in our Parish.

One of the programs involved is the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. We started the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd with the establishment of an atrium in our Early Childhood Education Center.  The atrium is a specially designed environment where children and adults come together to pray, work, and contemplate the mystery of God and the presence of God in our lives.  The atrium is designed to meet the developmental needs of the children and provide a beautiful space to share in the process of discovering the word of God together.  We established a second atrium in the Kenny Center last year and a third atrium at our Parish Center this year.  We hope to implement Catechesis of the Good Shepherd for ages 3 to 8 years old (preschool to 2nd Grade).  We know that the generosity and support we received for our Early Childhood Education Building is credited to our parish community.  We proudly welcomed 85 preschoolers this week for the 2022-23 school year, filling over 109 classroom programs for both morning and full day of preschool.  We are blessed to welcome these families to MOQ and share the start of their education faith journey.

Another program we have been developing is our Confirmation Program. We are introducing Alpha for all our Confirmation Candidates.  Alpha helps explore the basics of the Christian faith and is designed to inspire conversation where one can share their thoughts and ideas. The second part of our Confirmation Program involves Sacramental preparation proper.  The hope is to provide an experience that allows our youth to seek more involvement in our youth programs.

We are all on a journey of faith.  The gift of our Parish is to be a place where of faith is lives and is shared together.  On Monday, we celebrated the Queenship of Mary – our Parish Patroness.  This Sunday at 11am, we will celebrate the Queenship of Mary.  We not only celebrate the gifts that have been given to us that allows us to be the Parish we are today, we celebrate the gift of our faith that continues to be shared.  This is why we continue to find new ways to bring growth to our faith.  A Blessed Feast Day to all of you.  We also like to take this opportunity to thank all our volunteers. Without you we would not be the Parish we are today.

God Bless ,

Fr Marc