Author: Mary Margaret Thomas
2025 Jubliee Year
2025 Jubilee Year: Pilgrims of Hope By Father Byrd
On the first Sunday of Advent, December 1, we will seal the interior center doors to our Church in preparation for the Catholic Church’s 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope. The doors will remain sealed during Advent, December 1st to December 24th.
In the Old Testament (Leviticus 25:8-13), the Lord commanded that every fiftieth year should be a Jubilee Year. The Catholic Church has celebrated Jubilee Years for 725 years, since the year of 1300AD, the first Christian Jubilee Year. They are years of mercy to seek reconciliation, pursue deeper conversion, and reflect more upon the debt that Christ has paid for our liberation from the slavery of sin.
Pope Francis Pope Francis and the Vatican focused the 2025 Jubilee Year on the supernatural virtue of Hope (or Spes in Latin). There is a sense of hopelessness in our world and age, so we, as Catholics, must be a sign of Christ’s Hope. Pope Benedict XVI said, “The one who has hope lives differently; the one who hopes has been granted the gift of a new life.”
The Biblical Jubilees were occasions to return to one’s family and homeland, so 2025 could be a “Jubilee Year of Family Reunions.” Maybe you decide to visit Rome and walk through the great holy doors there. Maybe this year we try to reconcile with others with whom we might be estranged, forgiving them and asking for forgiveness. Whether we go or we stay, we all need to mark the Jubilee Year as special in our own ways, in our own prayers, and among our own families, so let’s begin now to pray on how we can best anticipate this holy year of grace for ourselves and for our families.
Authentic Catholic Patriotism Initiative Event, Jan. 27
We are excited to invite you to a special evening at Mary Our Queen Catholic Church in St. Joseph’s Hall on Monday, January 27, 2025. The event features a talk by Attorney General Chris Carr, who will share insights on his Catholic faith and the role that the Christian faith, in general, plays in patriotism. Our parish is reflecting on these issues in preparation for our nation’s Semiquincentennial in 2026. The evening will begin with dinner provided by our Knights of Columbus at 6 pm, followed by a brief address and a period for questioning at dinner’s end. The event is free, but we kindly request a donation at the check-in.
The event is co-sponsored by the Knights of Columbus and American Heritage Girls.
Please be advised that this event will be limited to the first 100 people to RSVP by 1/20/2025 through the form below.
Deepening Our Roots Stewardship Campaign
All registered parishioners were mailed a Stewardship Packet. You may also view our 2023-2024 Financial Update and Stewardship Report HERE.
Please prayerfully consider making a pledge and contributing to our offertory for the first time or renewing your pledge and increasing it this year. You may also make a one-time donation HERE to support our parish’s infrastructure and help cover the interest payments on our building debt.
You may return your Stewardship Commitment Card in the supplied return envelope in one of these ways:
- Mail back to MOQ (don’t forget to add postage)
- Drop off at the parish office
- Place in Offertory basket at Mass
- Submit your pledge online through the form below:
Annunciation Cooperative Volunteers Needed
The Annunciation Cooperative of Mary Our Queen’s Loretto ministry seeks to follow the example of our Blessed Mother by providing a safe haven for families who choose to educate in the home. The families of Annunciation bring the Domestic Church into our parish communities to cultivate a virtuous and moral life for the next generation of young Catholics. We will work together to educate our children in the traditions of the Catholic faith, bringing truth, beauty, and goodness into the world.
We are looking for adult volunteers to lead a selection of courses or offer your time to assist with our program’s needs. Official registration will open on Aug. 1, 2024. However, we cannot open registration until we have volunteers in place.
We also need volunteers for the Nursery for children ages 2 and under. Volunteer commitments are for one semester, and volunteers help on Monday, Wednesday, and/or Friday from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.
1st Semester: Sept. 6 to Dec. 13, with Thanksgiving week off (13wks)
2nd Semester: Jan. 6 to April 11, with Holy Week off (14wks)
If you are interested in volunteering, please view a complete listing of our needs and sign up here.
Walking with Purpose | Women’s Bible Study
Come as you are…YOU ARE WELCOME HERE
“Could it be that we’re looking for dignity and purpose in the wrong places?”
~ Lisa Brenninkmeyer, Founder and Chief Purpose Officer, Walking with Purpose
It’s been said, if we don’t learn from the past, we’ll repeat it. With that in mind, Walking with Purpose is excited to invite you to learn from women in the Old Testament. Join us as we view and discuss our second video in the Discovering Our Dignity Bible study: Dignity through Purpose. Grab a friend, and enjoy community, connection, and refreshments as we discover important truths from the women who have gone before us.
OPEN HOUSE: Wednesday, November 13
You may attend Wednesday morning at 10 am or evening at 7 pm
If you are new to our study, let us know you are coming through form below.
Use links below to purchase your book directly from Walking with Purpose website and to view/download our schedule.
Purchase the Discovering Our Dignity Book HERE
Click here for our 2024-2025 Schedule
Questions? Please contact us through the registration form below and submit. We will follow up with you either by email or phone.
Walking with Purpose Registration Form
That Man Is You!
That Man is You! (TMIY)
We’d love to have you be a part of this life-changing program!
THAT MAN IS YOU! (TMIY) is an interactive men’s program focused on the development of male leadership in the modern world. It combines the best research from science with the teachings of the Catholic faith and the wisdom of the saints to develop the vision of authentic men capable of transforming themselves, their families, and the greater society.
The new year brings together 6 dynamic speakers with a wide range of specialties to the TMIY stage to present “THY KINGDOM COME”. It is the same great format with new engaging personalities. We start with coffee/fellowship at 6:30 AM followed by a 30-minute video and end at 8:00 AM after small group discussions.
Jesus did not say to the Jews, “I’ve come to save you from Roman oppression and taxation.” Christ did not promise a worldly kingdom. In fact, He said, “In the world you will have tribulation … yet I have overcome the world … My kingship is not of this world … My kingdom is in your midst … My kingdom is within you!” The kingdom of God is among us. Indeed, it is here now. For where the King is, there is His Kingdom. Let us live with an eternal perspective. May we become the men we need to rebuild the kingdom!
Our Fall Semester will begin on Friday, September 13 @ 6:30 am in St. Joseph’s Hall. In order to cover our coffee supply, an RSVP through the form below is requested but not required to attend. ALL WALK-INS ARE WELCOME!
Village Gatherings | Young Adults, Single & Married
Calling all young Adults, Single and Married (with children): Every month, young adults and young families gather after the 11 a.m. Mass to share a potluck lunch. It’s a great way to meet and grow in relationships with our fellow parishioners and Catholics. We’d love to see you there! Use the links below to sign up for our upcoming Gatherings.
Stay tuned for our dates in 2025!
The Sacrament of Charity
Living the Eucharist
By Jeff Armbruster
In the late thirteenth century, St. Thomas Aquinas taught, “The Eucharist is the Sacrament of Love; it signifies Love, it produces love. The Eucharist is the consummation of the whole spiritual life.” More than seven centuries later, Pope Benedict XVI (2007) issued an Apostolic Exhortation entitled “Sacramentum Caritatis” (The Sacrament of Charity), expanding in detail the meaning of Aquinas’ teaching. In his letter, the Pope beautifully explained the Church’s teaching concerning the life-giving, life-altering importance of the Eucharist as it applies to virtually all aspects of the life of the Church, our existence as children of God, our sacramental lives, and the responsibility we each have to live daily the Eucharist through our charity to others. The document is quite long (more than 70 pages), and while a remarkably insightful, most will likely be unwilling to take the time to consume it all. Several relatively short sections, extracted from the introduction and conclusion, however, provide a great deal of insight into what Pope Benedict means by “living the Eucharist” in our daily lives as Catholics. (Possibly reading these few paragraphs might inspire you to read the entire document, which can be found on the Vatican website by simply searching, “Sacramentum Caritatis.”)
EXCERPTS from:
APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION
SACRAMENTUM CARITATIS
OF THE HOLY FATHER
BENEDICT XVI
INTRODUCTION
“The sacrament of charity (1), the Holy Eucharist is the gift that Jesus Christ makes of himself, thus revealing to us God’s infinite love for every man and woman. This wondrous sacrament makes manifest that “greater” love which led him to “lay down his life for his friends” (Jn 15:13). Jesus did indeed love them “to the end” (Jn 13:1). In those words the Evangelist introduces Christ’s act of immense humility: before dying for us on the Cross, he tied a towel around himself and washed the feet of his disciples. In the same way, Jesus continues, in the sacrament of the Eucharist, to love us “to the end,” even to offering us his body and his blood. What amazement must the Apostles have felt in witnessing what the Lord did and said during that Supper! What wonder must the eucharistic mystery also awaken in our own hearts!”
The food of truth
“In the sacrament of the altar, the Lord meets us, men and women created in God’s image and likeness (cf. Gen 1:27), and becomes our companion along the way. In this sacrament, the Lord truly becomes food for us, to satisfy our hunger for truth and freedom. Since only the truth can make us free (cf. Jn 8:32), Christ becomes for us the food of truth. With deep human insight, Saint Augustine clearly showed how we are moved spontaneously, and not by constraint, whenever we encounter something attractive and desirable. Asking himself what it is that can move us most deeply, the saintly Bishop went on to say: “What does our soul desire more passionately than truth?” (2) Each of us has an innate and irrepressible desire for ultimate and definitive truth. The Lord Jesus, “the way, and the truth, and the life” (Jn 14:6), speaks to our thirsting, pilgrim hearts, our hearts yearning for the source of life, our hearts longing for truth. Jesus Christ is the Truth in person, drawing the world to himself. “Jesus is the lodestar of human freedom: without him, freedom loses its focus, for without the knowledge of truth, freedom becomes debased, alienated and reduced to empty caprice. With him, freedom finds itself.” (3) In the sacrament of the Eucharist, Jesus shows us in particular the truth about the love which is the very essence of God. It is this evangelical truth which challenges each of us and our whole being. For this reason, the Church, which finds in the Eucharist the very centre of her life, is constantly concerned to proclaim to all, opportune importune (cf. 2 Tim 4:2), that God is love.(4) Precisely because Christ has become for us the food of truth, the Church turns to every man and woman, inviting them freely to accept God’s gift.”
Conclusion
“Dear brothers and sisters, the Eucharist is at the root of every form of holiness, and each of us is called to the fullness of life in the Holy Spirit. How many saints have advanced along the way of perfection thanks to their eucharistic devotion! From Saint Ignatius of Antioch to Saint Augustine, from Saint Anthony Abbot to Saint Benedict, from Saint Francis of Assisi to Saint Thomas Aquinas, from Saint Clare of Assisi to Saint Catherine of Siena, from Saint Paschal Baylon to Saint Peter Julian Eymard, from Saint Alphonsus Liguori to Blessed Charles de Foucauld, from Saint John Mary Vianney to Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, from Saint Pius of Pietrelcina to Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, from Blessed Piergiorgio Frassati to Blessed Ivan Merz, to name only a few, holiness has always found its centre in the sacrament of the Eucharist.
This most holy mystery thus needs to be firmly believed, devoutly celebrated and intensely lived in the Church. Jesus’ gift of himself in the sacrament which is the memorial of his passion tells us that the success of our lives is found in our participation in the trinitarian life offered to us truly and definitively in him. The celebration and worship of the Eucharist enable us to draw near to God’s love and to persevere in that love until we are united with the Lord whom we love. The offering of our lives, our fellowship with the whole community of believers and our solidarity with all men and women are essential aspects of that logiké latreía, spiritual worship, holy and pleasing to God (cf. Rom 12:1), which transforms every aspect of our human existence, to the glory of God. I therefore ask all pastors to spare no effort in promoting an authentically eucharistic Christian spirituality. Priests, deacons and all those who carry out a eucharistic ministry should always be able to find in this service, exercised with care and constant preparation, the strength and inspiration needed for their personal and communal path of sanctification. I exhort the lay faithful, and families in particular, to find ever anew in the sacrament of Christ’s love the energy needed to make their lives an authentic sign of the presence of the risen Lord. I ask all consecrated men and women to show by their eucharistic lives the splendour and the beauty of belonging totally to the Lord.
At the beginning of the fourth century, Christian worship was still forbidden by the imperial authorities. Some Christians in North Africa, who felt bound to celebrate the Lord’s Day, defied the prohibition. They were martyred after declaring that it was not possible for them to live without the Eucharist, the food of the Lord: sine dominico non possumus. (252) May these martyrs of Abitinae, in union with all those saints and beati who made the Eucharist the centre of their lives, intercede for us and teach us to be faithful to our encounter with the risen Christ. We too cannot live without partaking of the sacrament of our salvation; we too desire to be iuxta dominicam viventes, to reflect in our lives what we celebrate on the Lord’s Day. That day is the day of our definitive deliverance. Is it surprising, then, that we should wish to live every day in that newness of life which Christ has brought us in the mystery of the Eucharist?
May Mary Most Holy, the Immaculate Virgin, ark of the new and eternal covenant, accompany us on our way to meet the Lord who comes. In her we find realized most perfectly the essence of the Church. The Church sees in Mary – “Woman of the Eucharist,” as she was called by the Servant of God John Paul II (253) – her finest icon, and she contemplates Mary as a singular model of the eucharistic life. For this reason, as the priest prepares to receive on the altar the verum Corpus natum de Maria Virgine, speaking on behalf of the liturgical assembly, he says in the words of the canon: “We honour Mary, the ever-virgin mother of Jesus Christ our Lord and God” (254). Her holy name is also invoked and venerated in the canons of the Eastern Christian traditions. The faithful, for their part, “commend to Mary, Mother of the Church, their lives and the work of their hands. Striving to have the same sentiments as Mary, they help the whole community to become a living offering pleasing to the Father” (255). She is the tota pulchra, the all-beautiful, for in her the radiance of God’s glory shines forth. The beauty of the heavenly liturgy, which must be reflected in our own assemblies, is faithfully mirrored in her. From Mary we must learn to become men and women of the Eucharist and of the Church, and thus to present ourselves, in the words of Saint Paul, “holy and blameless” before the Lord, even as he wished us to be from the beginning (cf. Col 1:22; Eph 1:4) (256).
Through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, may the Holy Spirit kindle within us the same ardour experienced by the disciples on the way to Emmaus (cf. Lk 24:13-35) and renew our “eucharistic wonder” through the splendour and beauty radiating from the liturgical rite, the efficacious sign of the infinite beauty of the holy mystery of God. Those disciples arose and returned in haste to Jerusalem in order to share their joy with their brothers and sisters in the faith. True joy is found in recognizing that the Lord is still with us, our faithful companion along the way. The Eucharist makes us discover that Christ, risen from the dead, is our contemporary in the mystery of the Church, his body. Of this mystery of love we have become witnesses. Let us encourage one another to walk joyfully, our hearts filled with wonder, towards our encounter with the Holy Eucharist, so that we may experience and proclaim to others the truth of the words with which Jesus took leave of his disciples: “Lo, I am with you always, until the end of the world” (Mt 28:20).”
Mary’s Moms: Raising Future Saints
Welcome to Mary’s Moms!
Inspired by our Blessed Mother, we celebrate the privilege of raising our families to heaven through a support system of moms at Mary Our Queen. We provide meet-ups such as Rosary & Rosé and Moms & Muffins to share the joys and struggles of motherhood.
UPCOMING MEETUPS:
ROSARY & ROSÉ because even Mary prayed for wine.
Held on the Third Thursday of the month at 7 PM in the Cenacle room of the Trinity building. Come pray the rosary with other moms and enjoy a relaxing evening with snacks. Whether you pray the rosary often or maybe it’s been a minute, come as you are! Nurslings and expecting mothers are welcome!
See you on JANUARY 16th – RSVP HERE
MOMS & MUFFINS because motherhood loves company.
January 14th and 28th
Second and Fourth Tuesdays in the Youth Lounge from 10 AM-12 PM. Bring your little ones and enjoy a snack. Please use the side entry of the Parish Hall for a direct entrance to the Youth Lounge. Children 5 and under. Coffee and toys are provided.
UPCOMING EVENTS:
Family Adoration & Potluck
January 11th from 10AM-12PM
Join us for a 15 minute family adoration with Deacon Tom followed by a potluck brunch. All kids welcome! RSVP HERE
MOMosa’s Morning Out
February 15th from 10AM-12PM
Mary’s Moms invite all mothers to a GALentine’s potluck brunch. Connect with other moms and enjoy food uninterrupted. RSVP HERE
Any questions email marysmoms@maryourqueen.com
Join our mailing list to be updated on future events and meet-ups: