As you shop for your Super Bowl LIX party, whether you’re rooting for the Chiefs or the Eagles, don’t forget about those who go without.  The Soup-er Bowl of Caring is our way of remembering the less fortunate even as we celebrate the greatest night in sports.

Please bring cans of soup to the Masses THIS weekend and you can leave them inside the doors.  These cans will fill the shelves of the Queens St. Vincent de Paul Pantry, helping to feed hundreds of people every week.    

Save all your returnable bottles and cans from your Super Bowl Watch Party and bring them to Mass the weekend of February 15-16 to be collected by the Scouts.  

The World Day of Prayer for the Sick is coming up this Tuesday February 11^th, the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.  In anticipation of that, you are invited to our Annual Healing Mass at 9:00am this Monday the 10^th.  This is an opportunity to receive sacramental graces as though are sick, elderly, dealing with chronic pain or disease seek healing, hope and help from on high.  Please sit every other pew so I can pass through the pews to anoint those who seek the sacrament. 

For one reason or another, there are plenty of adult Catholics who never received the Sacrament of Confirmation.  Confirmation completes our initiation into the faith after baptism and 1st Communion.  Those who are not confirmed are missing an important gift that God wants all of us to have – the gifts of the Holy Spirit. 

If you have been baptized in the Catholic Church and made your 1st Communion but never got Confirmed, we can help you.  Queens will host an 8-week Adult Confirmation Class on Tuesday evenings from 6:30 – 8pm at the parish office, starting Tuesday February 18th. 

This class is free and open to everyone.  If you are not Confirmed and want to fix that, contact our Director of Faith Formation and RCIA/OCIA, Mrs. Betsy Koval:  517.783.2748, bkoval@queenschurch.com. 

THE DIOCESAN SERVICES APPEAL begins soon.  I know this is unfortunate timing coming on the heels of Saints and Scholars, but those funds are reserved for Catholic education while DSA accounts for 2/3 of the diocesan operating budget and funds 100 programs and ministries that are vital to the ongoing work of the church across the Diocese.  The parish goals have been frozen this year to account for the overlap with the capital campaign.  Ours usually goes up year over year based on our increased offertory and previous DSA success at raising goal.  Like last year, we are seeking to raise just over $220,000 to help the Diocese reach its goal of $5,750,000.

Your donations to the Diocesan Services Appeal assist in the production of the televised Outreach Mass from St. Thomas Aquinas in East Lansing, something many of our seniors depend on as they are unable to get to church and perhaps not tech savvy when it comes to watching the livestream online.  DSA subsidizes Faith Magazine so you don’t have to pay for a subscription.  DSA also pays for the seminary education of our future priests.  Thanks to ongoing support from DSA, the Diocese has an ordination class of 7 this year, the largest class of newly ordained priests in well over 30 years.  Your donations make waves when we put out together into the deep water for a great catch for the glory of God! 

We surpassed our goal last year by more than $70,000!  If everyone who supported DSA in 2024 gives again, we should easily reach our goal.  More to come . . .

FRANKI MOSCATO IN CONCERT:  The Jackson Youth Group wishes to invite ALL Catholics and Christians to Lumen Christi at 6:00pm on Sunday February 23^rd for a free inspirational talk and concert with nationally known singer and speaker Franki Moscato, a Wisconsin native and former contestant on TV’s American Idol in 2019, making it through to the Hollywood rounds.

Franki’s message is about the need for kindness in a world so filled with hate.  Franki uses her contemporary Christian music to spread a Gospel message of love to anyone who will listen.  Bring the whole family and join us on Sunday evening February 23^rd at 6:30pm at Lumen Christi to celebrate the love, peace and kindness that Jesus has given to us and urges us to share with one another. This event is free and open to the public. No tickets or reservations necessary.  Invite your non-Catholic family, friends, neighbors and co-workers! 

From her website, www.frankijo.com:

A passionate advocate for those struggling with mental health, Moscato has used her platform to raise awareness for adolescent suicide prevention. Since the age of eleven, she has dedicated herself to advocating for young people in need of hope, and at 19, she founded the Franki Moscato Foundation to support Wisconsin youth battling mental health challenges. Moscato demonstrated her love for children by volunteering as a pediatric musical therapist at two area hospitals. She also performed at bedsides at the Sunrise Children’s Hospital in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Franki Moscato Foundation headquarters is in a commercial space in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where her signature “BE KIND” message, that can be seen everywhere, is on merchandise, in schools, and at youth organizations—and it serves to spread the word, raise awareness of this decaying etiquette, and earn proceeds to help strapped families, schools, and state-wide youth organizations fight teen suicide.

Franki’s faith remains at the center of her work, and she continually uses her voice to bring hope and healing to others.

A free will offering will be collected to help the youth group as they raise money to attend summer camps and conferences.  

The Catholic Church has had a ministry presence in the prisons of Jackson for decades.  It has been much harder to gain a foothold in the county jail.  Thanks to the persistence of the diocese and our deacons, there is now weekly Catholic ministry for those incarcerated in the Jackson County Jail. 

These men will also benefit from donations made to the Prison Bible Fund.  People were so generous when I asked before so I am renewing my request.  Your donations have paid for hundreds of bibles and other reading materials so we can help these men who have fallen on hard times to get right with God, make amends for their crimes and aspire to return to society as productive citizens.   

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teaching” (Heb 13:8-9).

Fr. Tim MacDonald

Pastor