7001 South Park Ave., Tacoma, WA 98408
Phone #: (253) 475-6335

Sunday, March 24th 2024

Dear parishioners,

We had a blessed Fifth Sunday of Lent before we entered the Holy Week. We had a prayerful week of retreat at Pope Saint John XXIIIs main campus with Father Dat from the religious order and Father Vaiula is a retired priest from American Samoa, who is here with us while he receives treatment for his health, presented a retreat for us. In addition, we have Deacon Theman, who prepared a reflection each Thursday during the Forty Days of the Lenten Journey, and our schoolteachers organized a day of retreat at Queen of Heaven Parish to nurture their spiritual journey during Lent. We had Confirmation Candidates retreat at Pope Saint John XXIIIs main campus and the Elects and Candidates had their retreat at Saint John of the Woods Mission before they entered the Holy Week. We had all the priests attend the Chrism Mass at Saint James Cathedral to join with the Archbishop, Bishops, and other priests for the blessing of the Oil of Catechumen, Oil of the Sick and Oil of Chrism for parishes to use throughout the year.

We had the Parish Staff attend the Partner in the Gospel session to prepare us for the upcoming transition and they also attended the Annual Catholic Appeal training for this year. I am trying to meet with Candidates and their parents in different Faith Formation programs for their interview, and we had a good conversation about their preparation of the sacrament they are going to receive. It was a joyful time for me to meet with each Candidate and their family, and I learned how they dedicate their time to be in these programs. I congratulate them for taking the responsibility to fulfill the requirements of the program and that the parish is there to support them in their preparation.

We thank volunteers who assisted us prepare for Holy Week by cleaning the Church and the parish ground, so we can celebrate the most important Liturgy event of the year. You are cordially invited to join us for the Holy Week celebrations. We work with the post office to send out the invitation to all the people who live around the parish to join us in celebrating Holy Week. I would like to ask you to make them feel welcome if they respond to our invitation. I thank the core team members who spent a lot of time organizing this project. I am very proud of them for what they have done. We thank Confirmation Candidates who came to clean the inside of the Church and we thank parents of players of the sport team that use our baseball field for cleaning up the field and preparing the baseball field for different teams to practice. We have signed a lease for our baseball field to the sport team who use the field and we are very happy with the teams who are using our field. They take care of the field, and some of our students from our parish are also members of the sport team (they are very happy with their team).

We also thank the Volunteers Group at Pope Saint John XXIII main campus for what they had done and are doing to keep the Church and the parish ground look so beautiful for Holy Week. We thank the Knight of Columbus members who assisted us with soup night after the Stations of the Cross. We thank Saint Josephs Group for assisting us to clean up the ground and assisting with many different projects, such as moving the statues and repainting the wall behind the Crucifix with other parish volunteers. We congratulate Saint Joseph Mens Club for celebrating the Feast Day of Saint Joseph their Patron Saint! May they continue to be a good husband and good provider for their family. May they continue to find joy in their marriage vocation. We thank them for their devotion and dedication to their family and the parish.

We are very happy to receive the good news that we received the Rice Bowl grant for this year, after we sent the application in. We remind you to bring the Rice Bowl back to the Church on Good Friday so we can send those collections to the Rice Bowl Office. We thank you for helping the poor and needy, not only locally, but those throughout the world to provide food for them.

We thank you for attending Funeral Masses and Services for those families who celebrated the life of their loved ones. We had several Funeral Masses and Services in the Funeral Home. We thank you for joining these families to pray for them during their time of mourning. Your presence provides comfort to them, and I thank you for your love and care for these families. We have the Anointing Mass for the Senior and the Homebound before Holy Week. We thank the parishs Outreach Ministry who organized this event and for making appointments for those members, so a priest can come to visit them at their home and minister to them the sacrament that they need. I would like to remind you again, when you are sick, could you please call the Parish Office to let the outreach minister know, so we are able to arrange a Priest or a Homebound Minister to come to your home to visit or bring you communion. When you are in the hospital or nursing home, before you call us, please check with your doctors or nurses, to make sure this is possible. Some places do not allow any visitors or anyone to come because you need to rest. Many of your relatives call us when they know that you are in hospital, and they expect us to come, but we are not able to come because you have not communicated with them (i.e. doctors, nurses, and relatives etc.).

We thank the youth coordinator and faith formation program who organized the Synodal listening session at our parish for our youth program. We asked all the confirmation candidates to come to this meeting. We had few sessions at Saint John of the Woods Mission and another few sessions at Pope Saint John XXIII Main campus. We thank Andrew who represented from the Archdiocese youth office who came to facilitator of these sessions.

You are welcome to join us for Holy Week. You are cordially invited to join us for the Triduum celebrations. You do not want to miss this special celebration of the Triduum and to celebrate Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday. Please invite your family and friends to join us for this special event and join our parish and family!

Sincerely, Yours in Christ,

Fr. Tuan Nguyen, D. Min

Pastor