My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
This weekend we are celebrating with Fr Steve Boes who in honor of his 40th Anniversary as a Priest. Please join us if you can at St John Vianney. Fr Steve will celebrate Mass at 10:30am with family members present and the festivities will begin after Mass in the Social Hall. Congratulations, Fr Steve, on your 40th Anniversary. Thank you for your service to our Church. Also on a side note, Fr Mario Rapose who was our associate celebrated his 25th Anniversary as a Priest this year as well. Congratulations to Fr. Mario.
We will be having our Totus Tuus summer camp from July 7th to the 11th from 9am to 2:30pm for Grades 1-6 and July 6th – 10th from 6:30pm-8:45pm for Grades 7-12 for our Family of Parishes. Totus Tuus (Totally Yours) is a fun and energetic parish-based summer catechetical program, for both grade school age children and junior and senior high school youth. Visit https://moqchurch.org/totus-tuus/ to register.
St John Vianney received a memorial gift from Deacon Frank Telich. As you know, Deacon Frank loved St John Vianney and left us his estate as his parting gift. Part of the gift was used to pay down our Parish debt per his request. Another part of that estate gift was put into our Parish endowment to support the future, and the final portion was used to build a Marian patio garden that will be dedicated in his memory. We started work on the Marian patio garden this week. It will be located by the side entrance of our Church. A statue of Mary has been ordered and will arrive in the next few weeks. While at it, a fire pit will be installed by the patio outside the social hall at St John Vianney. This will provide a gathering area for our youth and young adults or any group from our Family of Parishes.
The parking lot at Mary Our Queen is in bad shape. The cost to fix, mill and overlay our current asphalt parking lot is roughly about $150, 000. I have been trying to set aside some funds over the next few years to make that happen, however, I am told some parts of the parking lot need to be done sooner than later. I would like to make an appeal for the funds to make it a possibility this summer. We are asking for donations to make that happen. A second collection was held last weekend, and I am grateful that we have raised a little more than $56,000. Thank you for your generosity. We will have another second collection this weekend once again to raise the remaining funds for the replacement of the parking lot at Mary Our Queen. Once work for the parking lot gets done at Mary Our Queen, work will be done to patch up the cracked concrete at St John Vianney.
There will be some sod work done on the playground by the soccer field. As we had to open up the playground for the school last fall, we were not able to properly put sod on the ground. The area where the sod work will be done will be fenced off to give the new grass an opportunity to grow. We ask that you kindly stay away from that area. Thank you for your cooperation.
Work is also being done to upgrade the remaining 4 classrooms of the lower level of the school building. This includes new LVT flooring, ceiling tiles, new lighting and a new video projector for each classroom. These upgrades are made possible because of your generosity for our MARQUEE Fundraiser.
We had work done to replace the lighting controls for the Narthex, the Church and the Blessed Sacrament Chapel at St John Vianney. Hopefully by the time you read this column, the lighting control system will be programmed and ready to go.
Blessings,
Fr Marc
