December 11, 2022
My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
It is beginning to feel a lot like Christmas……………not. We celebrate the Third Sunday of Advent this weekend. The Third Sunday of Ad- vent is also known as Gaudete Sunday. The Latin word Gaudete means rejoice. We are invited to be a people of faithful expectation as we prepare for the coming of the Lord. As mentioned at a homily earlier, there are two parts of Advent. The First part of Advent is
preparation for Christ Second Coming. 8 Days prior to Christmas, (Dec 17) We prepare for the Feast of the Nativity of the Lord (Christmas). The response of Jesus to John the Baptist speaks of Good News. This was foretold by the prophet Isaiah “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor.” While there might be a little impatience is in wanting to celebrate Christmas, perhaps we can follow the example of Mary where she trusted in God leading us. We remember the words of John the Baptist – “He must increase and I must decrease.” We patiently wait as a people of faithful expectation.
We are in the midst of changing our database, communications and online giving software. This will give us the opportunity to integrate our Church software to something which is more comprehensive instead of using multiple software applications that requires the replication of different tasks. We will be sending communications to inform you of the process and how you are able to log into this new software with ease. As we approach 2023, you will be hearing about our Stewardship renewal plans for our Parish. This will not be just monetary, but it will incorporate the financial, ministry and spiritual needs of our parish and school community.
We continue to work with priests for coverage in celebration of the Sacraments so that we are able meet the needs of our parish. There might be a little hiccups on the way so please be patient. Beginning January, we will be outline to process of how Mary Our Queen and St John Vianney becomes a Family of Parishes and how our offices will be integrated to one office that serves both Parishes. We are blessed with an exceptional parish community and my prayer is that we continue to grow in our faith and service together in light of our Pastoral Planning that involves St John Vianney.
We are in the process of filling a few roles that are needed in the Parish Office so that the needs of our Parish can be met. I am hoping that these roles be fille in the next few months. I am grateful that Jake Cortright agreed to step up to serve as Religious Education Director in addition to his teaching duties in the school and Youth Minister. Jake was supposed to assume a new role in the Summer of 2023 in a hybrid role of Religious Education Director, Youth Minister and Teacher that will involve Mary Our Queen and St John Vianney forming a Family of Parishes.
As always, I am constantly looking at how our Parish campus can be improved. We have recently replaced the HVAC units for the Church and Cafeteria and are preparing to replace the upper levels of our school’s old steam piping at the end of the School year. The other is the installation of a new HVAC system in the gym. This will take care of the replacement of the old steam piping that began two summers ago. Unfortunately the steam piping in our school building dates back to the time when our school was built which is why we are making these changes as quickly as we can. With the mechanical systems of our Parish replaced, the only other major item is the roof of our Kenny Center which also needs replaced.
God’s Blessings,
Fr Marc