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 on Saturday. The theme for the MARQUEE is Off to the Races. Mary Our Queen Achieving Religious Quality and Unsurpassed Elementary Education (MARQUEE) – is our parish’s largest annual fundraiser. It consists of a dinner, dance and auction (silent and live). It is a chance 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 entered the season of Lent beginning with Ash Wednesday. Please see our bulletin for our Mass Times and the flyer in our narthex in regard to our Lenten offerings. In this weekend’s Gospel, we hear how Jesus was tempted in the desert after fasting for 40 days and 40 nights. In his temptation, Jesus refuses to use his power for his own benefit and accepts whatever God wills. He also refuses to test God by demanding from him an extraordinary show of power. By refusing to worship false God’s, Jesus is recalling Israel’s worship of false Gods and that we can follow his example in our lives.
In addition to our Lenten offerings, we will be praying the Stations of the Cross on Wednesdays 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 at St John Vianney 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 Fry. We would like to thank our Knights of Columbus at both Mary Our Queen and St John Vianney for hosting the Fish Fries.
On Tuesday, there was a scholarship presentation at Mary Our Queen by representatives from our Catholic High Schools. Congratulations to all 8th Grade students who received scholarships to High Schools. It is a proud moment for Mary Our Queen as this year we had 30% of our students receive High School scholarships. This is a tremendous tribute to our teachers and staff of Mary Our Queen School.
We recently changed the snowplow service at St John Vianney to control how our parking lot is cleared and when salt is applied to treat our parking lot and sidewalks. Our previous contractor had applied 36 tons of salt over our parking lot from November to early January and billed us over $9000 for their service compared to 2 tons of salt to treat the parking lot at Mary Our Queen in the same time period. We will now be using the same snow plow contractor for both our Parishes. This will give us better control over how our parking lots are cleared and protected as salt is corrosive to our parking lot and sidewalks. Please note that with this change, during snow days at St John Vianney, we ask that you park and enter the Church via the rectory side entrance. The parking lot and walkways over the rectory entrance will be the first to be cleared. The parking lot facing the school entrance and sidewalk will be cleared before the weekend or when there are large parish services or gatherings at St John Vianney. Thank you for your understanding.
Blessings for the week,
Fr Marc
The post Pastor’s Letter: February 22 appeared first on Mary Our Queen Catholic Church, Omaha, Nebraska.
