Pastor’s Letter: December 3, 2023

My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

We enter the season of Advent.  Advent is a time of preparation that directs our hearts and minds to Christ’s coming.  There are two parts to the Season of Advent.  The first part is the preparation for Christ’s second coming at the end of time and the second part (8 days before Christmas) involves the preparation of the celebration of Christ’s birth in the manger.  We are invited to be a people  of faithful expectation.  We pray these words “Come Lord Jesus Come” recognizing that the readings in the Season of Advent invite us to be alert and ready and that all this is possible because of Jesus himself.  The liturgical colour for Advent is purple (just like the Season of Lent) as both Seasons prepare us for great Feast Days.  In this case, Christmas.

This season of Advent we invite you to two Advent Talks to help us make the most of the Advent Season by Keith Jiron.  Each session will be short – just 30 minutes and convenient as it will be offered on the Sunday mornings of December 10 and 17 at both Mary Our Queen from 10:15am to 10:45am and St John Vianney from 11:45am to 12:15pm.

Sunday Dec 10

Preparing to receive Jesus and Mary

Sunday Dec 17

Preparing to receive Jesus through the Miracle of the Eucharist

We invite all of you to attend this time of learning, reflection, and fellowship.  For questions, please call Jodi Meyer at 402.669.0972.

Work going on at SJV – We had our new donor display board installed in the narthex.  We are now working to get the program online.  As reported last week, we had the shingled roof replaced in the middle of November.  There was a report of one roof leak since the replacement which is being addressed.  With the shingled roof replacement at St John Vianney, the only thing we need to monitor is our flat roof which is too close to the end of its shelf life of 20 years and the bell tower which has developed cracks in all four columns.

Work going on at MOQ – We are trying to wrap up the work for the new HVAC for the gym at Mary Our Queen as well as the work on the control systems that manage all the mechanicals at Mary Our Queen.  As with any new installation, we have encountered problems and we are trying to get them all addressed.  We had a new slide for the playground delivered last week however, it came in damaged.  We are now working on its replacement.  We were also planning to install a new poured rubber surface on the playground by the soccer field.  However, this project had to be rescheduled to the spring of next year due to the delay in the delivery of the new playground equipment.  More details soon.

God’s Blessings,

Fr Marc