My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Thank you to all who supported Mary Our Queen’s 29th annual MARQUEE Dinner and Auction, at the LaVista Embassy Suites Conference Center last Saturday.   The MARQUEE is not only our parish’s largest annual fundraiser but it provides us an opportunity to celebrate our community with old and new friends. The proceeds of the event have been used to assist in meeting the operating needs of the Parish, to support Parish and educational programs, fund technology needs and help pay for maintenance and building improvements.  We are excited about the vision for our Mary Our Queen family and the opportunities ahead for our faith-filled future!  Proceeds from this year’s MARQUEE Raise the Paddle will go towards Classroom Updates and Teacher and Staff Bonuses.

 

We enter into the Second Sunday of Lent this weekend.  In last weekend’s Gospel Reading, we hear of the account of Jesus being tempted in the desert just like all of us are.  This weekend, we hear of the account of the transfiguration of Jesus.  In His transfiguration, Jesus shows us His glory and confirms that Jesus is the Son of God.  The three tents represent booths.  The Feast of Booths in the Bible is a weeklong festival in Jerusalem where we not only remember God’s providing for His people in the wilderness but also look towards the Messianic age when all nations will flow to Jerusalem to worship the Lord.  The booth is a small tent made out of branches where one will live for seven days in remembrance of how the Israelites lived in tents after the Exodus until they were led to the land that God promised.  While in this Gospel passage, the tents could be interpreted as Peter wanting to keep the prophets longer, we come to understand that Jesus is meant to lead us to His glory.

 

Once again, in addition to our Lenten offerings, we will be praying the Stations of the Cross on Wednesday at 6pm at Mary Our Queen and on Fridays at 4pm at St John Vianney.  Please note that there is an added bonus attending the Stations of the Cross at St John Vianney as you will get the opportunity to skip the line to the Fish Fry after the Stations of the Cross.

 

Please join us on Fridays during the season of Lent at Mary Our Queen from 5 to 7pm or St John Vianney from 4:30pm to 8pm for our Lenten Fish Frys.  We would like to thank our Knights of Columbus at both Mary Our Queen and St John Vianney for hosting.

 

Thanks to your generosity from past MARQUEES, we have been able to update all the classrooms on the second-floor in our School.  This year, in addition to updating three classrooms on the fourth floor of our school during the summer, we will also be updating the flooring of the hallway of the second floor of our school that leads to the elevator.  This includes the used uniform room.  We will also be updating the ceiling tiles and lighting of the second-floor hallway of our school.

 

Another project that will be coming up this summer is to replace our steam boilers in Mary Our Queen’s Campus.  We will be replacing our current steam boilers with new hot water boilers. We will also be upgrading the control system in the Kenny Center which was installed when the Kenny Center was built.  The old steam boilers will then be removed to allow the space it occupies to be used as a storage area.

 

The ash tree by the back garages at St John Vianney was recently taken down.  There will be a few trees that will be trimmed up by the parking lot soon.  Over the last three years, we had to cut down 5 trees on the campus.  Hopefully, sometime this spring, we can come up with a plan to plant some new trees at St John Vianney to continue to keep our campus surroundings beautiful.

 

Blessings for the week, Fr Marc