If you are a lector at weekend Mass you can stop by the Work Sacristy after church this weekend and pick up your copy of the 2024 Lector Workbook from Liturgy Training Publications.   

The Community Wide Christmas Dinner celebrates its 25th year in 2023.  Be a part of it!

Help is needed December 23, 24, 25 and 26.  If you’re not available Christmas Eve or Christmas Day you can help with the set up before or clean up the day after.  

Christmas is the season of giving, and it especially blesses the Lord and others when we can make a merrier Christmas for those who are struggling.  This dinner brings together those who have no one to celebrate with and those who lack the resources to celebrate with food and gifts.  

This weekend is the annual collection for Catholic Social Teaching.  This replaces the Bishops’ national collection for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development.  The monies raised are used to support local diocesan initiatives that revolve around social justice.  You can give online through our website or make a check payable to Queens that has Catholic Social Teaching written on the memo line of the envelope.

The Diocese distanced itself from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development when it was discovered that some of the groups it was funding were not faithful to church teaching.  The grants made by this diocesan collection are thoroughly vetted and support nothing that is controversial or contrary to the faith.

At all the Masses this weekend we will be encouraged to support the Annual Advent Appeal for Catholic Charities of Jackson, Lenawee and Hillsdale Counties.  Catholic Charities is an extension of the parishes, providing services that parishes cannot – foster care and adoption, healing from childhood trauma, neglect and sexual exploitation, counseling for individuals, marriages, substance abuse and those grieving the loss of a loved one. 

Catholic Charities does so much for so many, often free of charge.  They can’t do it without the funds necessary to pay their staff and keep the lights on at their various facilities.  In the coming weeks you will receive a mailing at your home from me and Sue Lewis, the Director of Catholic Charities, inviting your support.  Please be generous in providing help and creating hope.  Learn more about what they do here:   

The Queens Social Justice Commission is sponsoring the Toys for Tots collection at all Masses next weekend, December 2-3.  We will make time during the offertory for you to bring your gifts up the altar.  The needy children all around Jackson County will have a much merrier Christmas thankful to your generosity.  

Friday December 8th is the Patronal Feast Day of the Catholic Church in the United States and the Diocese of Lansing.  The Immaculate Conception is a reminder to us that God was planning to send His son to save us long before Mary became pregnant at the Annunciation.  God made Mary to be without sin precisely so that she might become the stainless vessel of devotion in which Jesus the Word Made Flesh could dwell.

Queens will have a vigil Mass for the holy day at 5:30pm on Thursday December 7th with Masses on Friday December 8th happening at 6:45am, 9am and 5:30pm.  

There is a fragile and temporary ceasefire in Israel as some but not all hostages are being released from Gaza.  The Christian families from Bethlehem are once again caught in the middle of a desperate and existential struggle for survival.  They will be here at Queens the weekend of December 9 and 10 with their fine, hand crafted religious items made of olive wood from the Holy Land.  Please come and support them.  If you don’t want to shop, they also accept donations.  These items make beautiful gifts for Christmas, birthdays and anniversaries, baptism, 1st Communion, weddings, Confirmation and graduation.

The Parish Life Commission will sponsor Coffee and Donuts that morning to feed the kids while you browse their collection in Vincentian Hall.  They will continue serving after noon Mass to entice more people to come down and shop, though at that point they will switch from donuts to cookies!

We can’t begin to imagine the hardships these families experience just to get by.  Please help them.  They are the guardians of the holiest sites from the Bible and the numbers of Christians brave enough to live in an ever-hostile area continues to plummet.  

The Knights of Columbus are sponsoring a speed dating event for Catholic singles ages 21-35 in the Queens School Social Center on the evening of Saturday December 9^th.  These events are becoming more and more popular all across the country.  Why?  With fewer people marrying and many more inter-faith marriages, it is so hard for people of faith to connect with other young Catholics who are looking for someone who shares their values.  If you have a single child in this age group at home encourage them to attend.  This is a worry free, no strings attached event allowing young people who are unattached to meet other young people in the same situation.  If nothing else, it builds community among an often overlooked age group in the church.

For $10, you get substantial appetizers and two tickets for drinks (beer, seltzer, soft drinks).  There will be ice breaker questions to get the conversation going.  Even if you don’t make a connection, you might make a new friend at Church.   

Beer & Hymns is coming up Saturday December 9th.  Get your $12 ticket from Carol Hatch or using link below.  Head over to the Roadhouse on Lansing Avenue at 7pm on Saturday December 9th.  Come early as tables fill up fast.  

‘PRAY FOR THE PEACE OF JERUSALEM’ (Ps. 122:6).

Fr. Tim MacDonald

Pastor

The Lions and the Spartans haven’t given us much to cheer about in the last couple of days.  That is all about to change today with the 118th meeting of the Wolverines and Buckeyes in the Big House 45 minutes away!  11-0 vs 11-0! 

Our best wishes to the Lumen Christi Titans who take on the Maroons of Menominee in the MHSAA State Football Championship at Ford Field tomorrow morning.  These same two teams faced off in the state finals in 2007 with the U.P. walking away with the win.  Many of those playing this year were just being born when that last matchup went down.    

So many of the Mighty TITANS of Lumen Christi are part of our Queens parish family, both coaches and players.  We wish them all a safe and successful return to the finals.  We are proud of you!

Queen of the Miraculous Medal Catholic Church

606 S. Wisner St.  Jackson, Michigan 49203

(517) 783-2748  www.queenschurch.com