A Message from Father Tony

Dear OLQP Brothers and Sisters, 

We have re-opened our Church for almost two months now. What a great joy it is for us to celebrate the Holy Masses again with our parishioners after four months of not having the public Masses. 

However, the number of our parishioners going to Holy Mass is low even though the maximum number allowed at each mass is between 70 to 80 people. We hope and pray there will be an increase in our churchgoers. 
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I encourage each one to be strong in their faith in Christ. We are His and with Him, we have nothing to fear. Truly, our Lord awaits us in the Holy Eucharist in His Real Presence – Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity. With Him, in Him, and through Him, we are at peace. Only Our Lord gives the peace which the world cannot give. I exhort our parishioners, therefore, to be confident in Christ. He patiently awaits us at Mass. 

Over the past two weeks, there have been several important events that took place at our Church; however, many of you may not be aware of these events. So, allow me to mention them briefly. 

On August 9th, two of our Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) candidates, Jaime Fontanez and Miguel Chacho, received the Sacrament of Confirmation. Then, on August 16th, David Soler, another RCIA candidates, received the three Sacraments of Initiation – Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist. For over a year or so, our three RCIA candidates have been faithfully attending the RCIA Program of our parish facilitated by Rev. Deacon Joe and our Parish RCIA Team. Our heartfelt congratulations and welcome to David, Jaime, and Miguel to our parish community! 

With the Baptism and Confirmation of our RCIA Candidates, I hope that it would draw interest for some people to the Catholic Church. If anyone, or someone you know, desires to become Catholic as an adult, I would greatly encourage him/her to contact Deacon Joe Mantineo and the Team at the Parish Center for more information about our RCIA Program. 

In addition, we finally celebrated the First Communion Masses for our twenty-four Religious Education children on Aug. 18, 19, and 20 which were initially scheduled last April. Due to the lockdown, however, they had to be moved to later. 

What a beautiful moment it was to see the children receive their first communion. Their joy of receiving Jesus in the Eucharist was very palpable. We pray that they will continue to grow in love and appreciation of the Holy Eucharist. 
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Lastly, after over ten years of dedicated service of being the Director of Religious Education of our parish, Angela Connelly will be retiring at the end of the month. It is with a sense of sadness that I inform you this since, undoubtedly, many of our children have been blessed to learn and grow in their faith because of her devoted and untiring leadership. On August 30, at the 10 am Mass, we will have the opportunity to express our gratitude to Angela for her faithful years of service to the parish and to wish her the very best for her retirement. 

Through these events, we come to discover that despite these challenging times, Our Lord is here at Our Lady Queen of Peace and that through the intercession of our Blessed Mother and all the saints, we experience that the Spirit is alive and moving forward to where God calls us to be! 

God bless us All, Fr. Tony 

Please click here to see this past Sunday's bulletin!