March 6, 2022
My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
We enter into the Season of Lent. Lent is a time where we are invited to take the opportunity to make it as a season of prayer, fasting and
almsgiving. It begins on Ash Wednesday and ends at sundown on Holy Thursday. A communication via email with Lenten Resources was sent out to you this week. Please join us for our Parish Mission on March 27 to 29. This year we are fortunate to have Fr Donald Shane to lead our Parish Mission. Our Parish Mission will focus on the Eucharist and how it transforms our lives. It will conclude with a Reconciliation Service on March 29. We also have our Live Lent Together program in our Parish which involves small group gatherings to break open God’s Word. Please call the Parish Office if you would like to participate.
We celebrated our annual fundraiser – the MARQUEE last Saturday. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our Chairs for the year’s MARQUEE – Tamarae & Matt Kock, Karen & Chris Lawler, Courtney & Jeff Wolf, Jami & Rob Woodling and Melanie & Chris Woods and all who contributed to make our MARQUEE a success. We are grateful for your generosity that helps continue building up our Parish Community.
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 in light of 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. Details of operations and the various needs for the new arrangement will be determined through meetings with leadership personnel of both parishes with the implementation of the new model for the combined parishes projected for the summer of 2023. For more information
please go to journeyoffaith.org.
The remodel of our Blessed Sacrament Chapel is almost complete. This includes an insert for the perpetual Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, the addition of a relief sculpture of the Last Supper and anew statue of Mary. We are now working on some new furnishings as well as having a base for the statue of Mary refinished.
In light of the recent announcement by the Douglas County Health Director lifting the mask mandate in Omaha, our nonpublic partner Westside Community Schools moving to a mask optional policy, and access to the COVID-19 vaccine, our School Board met on February 16 to review our protocol status and moved to make mask wearing optional for students in our School. As for now, this is the only protocol that has changed. We will continue to follow the Douglas County Health Department guidelines if we have positive COVID-19 cases and/or direct exposures to COVID-19 in our school community. We continue to pray for all those affected by COVID-19. I know that this has not been easy for everyone. We also continue to do our best to keep everyone safe. Our Parish continues to remain open for meetings and for groups to gather. We have made available the left side of our Church for those still wanting to social distance. We continue to request that mask be used when coming forward to receive Communion. 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