Pastor’s Letter: September 17, 2023
My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Last Monday, September 11, we remembered all those whose lives were affected as a result of the terrorist attacks in our country in 2001. We continue to keep them in our prayers and we pray also for members in our military who continue to keep us safe. Mary Queen of Peace – Pray for us.
Religious Education has started at both St John Vianney and Mary Our Queen. We pray for a successful year. I would like to thank all our catechists for making time to share their faith.
We have assembled an atrium for the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (CGS) at St John Vianney. CGS is a Montessori based Catechesis method serving three to six year olds in the Parish. For more details, please call the Parish office as we have a few more spaces open. We have been offering CGS at Mary Our Queen for the last three years.
Thank you to Angie and Dave Mills for chairing our Fall Festival last Saturday at Mary Our Queen. Thank you to all our volunteers who made it perhaps our largest and most successful festival ever. We now turn to St John Vianney who will have their Fall Festival on September 24th. Please join us if you are able.
We will be changing the name of the Future Sacristy room at Mary Our Queen to Queen of Peace. As it is not likely that we will make that room a Sacristy, it is best we give that room a new name. There is a statue of Mary in that room holding the world in her hand as we continue to ask for her intercession for peace in our world.
We have purchased some new living room furniture (sofas etc) for both St John Vianney and Mary Our Queen for more small group gatherings. There is new furniture at the Family Room and Young Adult Room at St John Vianney and the Work Room (whose name will be changed) at the Parish Center in Mary Our Queen. We hope to create more spaces for Parish groups to gather. More details to follow.
We continue to keep all those affected by natural disasters in our prayers, especially the fires in Maui and hurricanes in California and Florida. If you would like to help those affected in Maui, we will be holding a second collection this weekend – September 16/17.
I hope you have received a mailing from our Parish that details the needs of Mary Our Queen in addition to a Stewardship renewal. We invite you to kindly pray about it and to consider making a love offering that helps us address the needs of our Parish as well as to help us build upon our future. Our hope is to raise an endowment scholarship in honor of our Founding Pastor, Msgr Kenny that provides scholarships to students in need and to put aside money for a contingency fund. As a kickoff to our Capital Campaign and Stewardship renewal at Mary Our Queen, we launched a $60 for our 60th Anniversary appeal. There are envelopes on the narthex table. Once again thank you for your generosity.
We continue to make an appeal for St John Vianney’s Capital Campaign. Fr Reiser has graciously undertaken to write a series of Icons – Christ in the Glory of All the Saints to help eliminate the Parish debt. We have detailed the background of the loan which St John Vianney made to remodel the Church as well as to build upon our campus a few weeks ago. Our current loan balance is $1,351,766.67 which we continue to service. I am grateful to Fr Reiser for leading this fundraiser. He has already unveiled the main panel – Christ in Glory. This panel has been hung at the upper back wall of the Church.
In addition to servicing our debt, there are two major repairs for our Campus at St John Vianney that need to be addressed. The first is our roof which is leaking throughout our building. After getting several roofers to make recommendations, we should be able to replace it for under $100,000. The other item that needs addressing is the bell tower. We are working to find solutions to fix it as all four pillars have cracks in it.
In the next few weeks, we will be sending a mailing with the hope we can address these repairs and to help retire our Parish debt at St John Vianney. For all who have given, we are grateful for your generosity. Your generosity helps us build upon our future.
We thank you for your consideration.
God’s Blessings,
Fr Marc