My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

We hosted our Annual Memorial Mass at Mary Our Queen Church on Saturday. The candles that were lit for all whom we have buried from our Family of Parishes since last All Souls were presented to their families at the end of the Mass. In the month of November, we continue to remember all our beloved dead as we entrust them in God’s loving hands.

Mary Our Queen will be hosting Surviving the Holidays this Tuesday, November 10 from 6:30 to 8:30pm in the Trinity Rooms. This session provides support and practical tips for facing holiday challenges after loss. Please call the Parish Office for more details.

On the Feast of St Jude – October 28, Fr Reiser blessed the Icon of St Jude that he had written. The Icon is currently on display in front of the Ambo at St John Vianney. We would like to thank Fr Reiser for writing this Icon and presenting it to St John Vianney. St Jude is the patron saint for the impossible. Fr Reiser is also writing another Icon for St John Vianney. This Icon will be an Icon of St John Vianney. Both Icons will have a piece of cloth that is embedded in the Icons that has touched the relic of both St Jude and St John Vianney.

Thanks to all who assisted our annual fall campus cleanup at Mary Our Queen on Saturday. This helps us prepare for our spring mulching and planting.

Our Knights of Columbus at St John Vianney hosted their Annual Fundraiser breakfast last weekend in support of the Flower of Hope School in Haiti that we helped to build. Thank you for your generous support. We will be publishing a history of our support in building the School since 2011 on our Website soon.

Since having my foot surgery, I became more aware of the challenges of moving around the altar area at Mary Our Queen. Over the last few months, I have been working with Bob Soukup in coming up with some ideas on how to make our Sanctuary area more handicapped accessible. He and his team at Carlson West Povondra Architects are currently working on some designs to present to us. I am hoping with your support, that we will be able to address this need.

Also, when we purchased the house by the preschool two years ago, we did not do much apart from tearing down the house and creating a couple of play spaces for our preschoolers as we did not have a concrete plan for the use of the space. Over the last few months, in talking to the Director of our Early Education Program, we have identified some playground equipment (play system and swing set) that we can purchase and install that will meet the needs of our preschoolers. We are also looking for an alternative for the rubber mulch that we currently use for our preschool. The cost of installing poured rubber surface, similar to the surface that is installed in our school playground, would be significantly higher (roughly 4 to 5 times the cost of using rubber mulch). We are still working on budgeting for the preschool playground and hopefully we can install it during the summer and have it ready for the new school year.

More updates to follow. Have a Blessed Week.

Fr Marc