Fr. Simon's Letter - March 6, 2022

Our Lenten journey has begun. It is the 40-day period in which we are called to a conversion of heart through prayer, fasting and charitable works. Through its Lenten pilgrimage, the observance of Jesus’ passion on the cross in Holy Week and his resurrection, the Church seeks to enable us to make an honest response to the questions the priest will ask on Easter Sunday - “Do you reject sin so as to live in the freedom of God's children?” “Do you reject the glamour of evil and refuse to be mastered by sin?” “Do you reject Satan, father of sin and prince of darkness?”

The season of Lent is a reminder to us that the road to be traveled consists not so much in a law to be observed, but rather in the person of Christ himself, who must be encountered, welcomed and followed. On this Lenten journey, let us be attentive to welcoming Christ's invitation to follow him more decisively and coherently. Let us renew the grace and commitments of our baptism, so as to clothe ourselves in Christ. Let us reach Easter renewed and able to say with St. Paul ‘it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.’

UPP Update - After a long two years of waiting, we’ve been looking forward for this to be the year when we would once again celebrate our parish community under the sprawling tent, in the shadow of the basilica. However, once we looked at the current costs to host the event as we have for the past several years, it became clear that, like so many other things these days, the prices have skyrocketed. 

As responsible stewards, along with the UPP Chairs and co-chairs, we made the difficult but prudent decision to move our UPP event to an off-campus, indoor location. We will have our main UPP event on Friday, May 13, 2022, but indoors at Chateau Ritz on Milwaukee Avenue in Niles. Together in 1989 we celebrated our 60th anniversary as a parish at this same location. So, celebrating this year’s UPP at Chateau Ritz will bring back fond memories for those present at that event. 

Although we’ll be at a different location, many things will remain the same. Once again, Stefani’s will cater a sit-down dinner with appetizers, the band “Spoken For” will again provide the entertainment, we will have the live-auction and raffle draw, and most especially, the familiar faces of friends and parishioners as well as those of new members of our parish who may be attending UPP for the first time will make for a great evening of friendship and fund-raising. And for those who just want to enjoy the evening without having to think about transportation, we will have shuttle buses going back and forth between the QAS parking lot and Chateau Ritz. 

In a couple of weeks you will receive your invitation to the splendid parish event that brings us together to acknowledge the past with gratitude, to be reminded of our present and to be encouraged to contribute to the future of our faith community. Please continue to support our one and only parish fund-raiser.

On another note, Ralph Meschewski, our head of maintenance for the last 17 years retired this past weekend. Many of you may not be able to put the name to a face but Ralph has been a faithful steward of Queen of All Saints, the place he loved to serve. We thank him and wish him the very best in his retirement years. 

We have appointed Ken Skokowski to serve as the new head of maintenance of QAS facilities. He has been on the QAS maintenance staff for five years and is a qualified electrician and an able leader. Ken is well received by the other members of our maintenance staff, Bobby Brooks, Jonathan Hernandez, Eric Martinez, Victor Miranda and Mike Pokorny, who is soon to be the newest addition to the maintenance staff. If you see them around, please let them know how much you appreciate them for all that they do to care for our parish facilities.

Finally, as we move forward in our Lenten journey, I invite you to take one of the crosses available in the basilica this weekend and carry it with you to remind you of the sufferings of Christ. May it encourage you to carry your own daily cross with joy and may it motivate you to help you lighten someone else’s burden by helping them carry their cross. In a special way, I invite you to take time next week to be a part of our parish mission led by Katie Davis-Crowder as she helps us to ‘walk alongside Jesus toward the abundant life’ he promises.

Looking forward to seeing you around.

Blessings!!