My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
If you happen to be a Star Wars Fan, on Sunday you would probably hear “May the Fourth be with You” quite a bit. Apart from the cheesy Star Wars pun, this weekend we celebrate with our second graders at St John Vianney their First Communion. Congratulations to all our second graders at St John Vianney. Last weekend the Second Graders at Mary Our Queen celebrated their First Communion. I would like to thank all our Religious Education team that helped prepare our second graders to receive their First Communion. Please keep our First Communicants and their families in your prayers.
This weekend at the 11am Mass at Mary Our Queen, we will be taking the opportunity to congratulate all our High School Graduates and wish them well on their future endeavors.
We will be soon wrapping up our Religious Education Program at both St John Vianney and Mary Our Queen. Also, in a few weeks’ time, we will be celebrating our eighth graders graduation from Mary Our Queen School and conclude the school year at Mary Our Queen. I would like to thank our staff and catechists for making both our Religious Education program and School year a success.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Jacob Cortright for his dedication and service to Mary Our Queen – not only as our Religious Education Director, but also our Youth Ministry Director as well as our Theology Teacher for our 7th and 8th grade classes at Mary Our Queen School. Jacob has recently accepted a position at Spirit and Grace School and we would like to wish him the very best for his future endeavor.
With every ending also comes a new beginning. I would like to welcome Kelly Peklo who will be taking over as Mary Our Queen’s Religious Education Director and I would like to also welcome Leia Vranes who will be taking over as Youth Ministry Director. Leia currently serves as our Religious Education Director at St John Vianney as well as the coordinator for both St John Vianney and Mary Our Queen Young Adult Ministry.
For our Religious Education Program at St John Vianney, we will be offering the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd for our first and second graders of our program in the fall. Catechesis of the Good Shepherd is a Montessori-based religious formation program for children. It seeks to create and facilitate a sacred, hands-on space called an atrium, in which both the children and their catechists can hear, ponder, and celebrate the most essential mysteries of the Christian faith as revealed in the Scriptures and the Liturgy. The atrium is a space where the child develops his/her relationship with God, a relationship which already exists.
Mary Our Queen will be hosting a Level 1 catechist formation beginning in June. If you would like to serve as a catechist for the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd at either St John Vianney or Mary Our Queen or you would like more information, kindly contact Hannah Casey at Mary Our Queen Office – hcasey@moqchurch.org.
Archbishop Michael McGovern was appointed Archbishop of Omaha by Pope Francis on March 31. Archbishop McGovern will be installed as our new Archbishop on May 7. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Archbishop Lucas for his service to our Archdiocese and wish him well on his retirement. The Archdiocese has purchased a home between Mary Our Queen and St Roberts for our new Archbishop. We are currently fighting with St Roberts on who gets to send our new Archbishop his envelopes. Welcome Archbishop Michael.
Blessings,
Fr Marc
