Please come and join us for Free Lunch on Sunday, this Sunday, September 29th, from 11:30am till 1:30pm. This event is always free and open to all. Enjoy family friendly foods, dessert, coffee/drinks, and more. Free Lunch on Sunday is held at Holy Name of Jesus in our parish hall located at 1040 Pearl St., Schenectady (CDTA Route 353 – Pearl Street stop).
Yesterday, Saturday, September 21st, we welcomed Emjai Rose into the family of Christ through the sacrament of baptism. It was a wonderful occasion made extra special by the presence of family who were in town. In baptism Emjai joins us in living God’s compelling over-arching story – a story in which we love, honor, serve, and sacrifice, supporting each other in living the life, the story, God calls us to live. God bless you Emjai.
Please come and join us for Soup on Sunday, this Sunday, June 30th, from 11:30am till 1:30pm. Soup on Sunday is always free and open to all. Enjoy soup, sandwiches, special food for kids, dessert, coffee, and more. Soup on Sunday is held at Holy Name of Jesus in our parish hall located at 1040 Pearl St., Schenectady (CDTA Route 353 – Pearl Street stop).
Jesus, Bread of Life
BLESS OUR ADVOCACY AND OUR COMMITMENTAs your love has called us
LET US PRAY WITH CONFIDENCEAs your love has held us
LET US ACT WITH COURAGEAs your love has blessed us
LET US UNITE WITH HOPE
THAT NO ONE MAY GO HUNGRY.
AMENPrayer (c) Kathy Galloway, Christian Aid
My children must be
…righteous before the Lord.
We acknowledge that what makes a man righteous is not obedience to the Law, but faith in Jesus Christ.
What is righteousness? It is an attribute implying that a person’s actions are justified, that the person has been “judged” or “reckoned” as leading a life that is pleasing to God. Some of the attributes of righteousness are being upright, just, straight, innocent, true, and sincere.
The Jewish teachers instructed that righteousness was equivalent to following the Law very strictly. The Jewish people have to work at righteousness by carrying out tasks.
St. Paul shows us that righteousness is more than mere acts, even if they are right acts. It comes from faith. Faith in Jesus leads us to performing right and proper acts, but those actions do not come first. Rather those acts derive from faith.
Jesus offers us the salvation He has won for us. Belief and faith in His coming, life, suffering, death, resurrection, ascension, and second coming provides the benefits of that salvation. In our act of faith in Him, in the waters of regeneration, in accepting the gift of the Holy Spirit, and our membership in the community of faith we are changed to a people who do for the right reason, Jesus.
As changed people we walk in faith and have – already own – what has been won for us through God’s righteousness.
The good and righteous fathers among us have instilled this lesson in us. We are most aware of this when we consider WHY we do what we do.
Our dads showed us the way to go – teaching that we must do things for the right reason. That reason should never be simple adherence to a law or rule. Simple obedience out of fear, or just because, is never a good enough reason. We have to look and consider more deeply the “why†behind what we do.
As those with faith in Jesus Christ we do right, not because society says so or imposes penalties for doing wrong, but because doing right flows from faith. By faith we understand, by faith we live, by faith we walk in His footsteps. We are a people whose first instinct is to love, to do right, to live with integrity, to forgive – all coming from faith.
Simon the leper didn’t get the kind of righteousness faith demands. He wondered why Jesus showed love toward the sinful woman who was anointing His feet. Simon relied on the law in determining what should be done (while forgetting the laws of hospitality). Jesus showed him that her faith was the way to righteousness.
Let our lives and our reasons for doing be based on faith; pleasing to God, pleasing as precious ointment.
On Sunday, April 21st we welcomed Alexander Joseph Oravsky to the Holy Church through the waters of regeneration. May God bless you always and grant you confidence in all things through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out – Acts 3:19
Next Sunday, December 16th, we observe the Third Sunday of Advent, the lighting of the Third Advent Candle. On this Sunday we traditionally add to our Advent preparations during Holy Mass with a special Advent Penitential Service.
Proper Advent preparation requires that we free ourselves of sin. This is our opportunity. In this special preparatory moment we are better able to examine our conscience and put forth our best effort to make things right with God and our neighbor. These special penitential services occur only twice a year – so it is vitally important that we attend, participate, and celebrate together.
Following Holy Mass we will take time to enjoy fellowship, our Youth Christmas presentation, and join in preparing all those wonderful meatless dishes we will share with each other at our Vigil Dinner starting at 11:30am.
To allow sufficient time for our Penitential Service, Holy Mass, our Youth Presentation, and our Vigil Dinner we will begin at 8:45am with the lighting of the Advent Wreath immediately followed by our Penitential Service, receipt of the Sacrament of Penance, and Holy Mass. We are pleased to have Fr. Rafał Dadiełło from Holy Spirit Parish in Little Falls join us to administer the Sacrament of Penance and to offer Holy Mass.
St. Paul reminds us: All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation — 2 Corinthians 5:18. God gave His Holy Church the power to loose us of our sins -– come and be made free once again in the love of God who has reconciled all things to Himself in Christ Jesus. Then free, join in celebrating the coming season with each other.
Our December 2012 newsletter and calendar is complete and now available. Advent, Christmas, tons of events, everything you’d ever want to know, all in one place. You may view and download a copy right from this website.
As the days of October pass the days grow shorter, the colors of autumn take hold, and our thoughts turn to the Commemoration of All Souls. The Holy Church sets aside the month of November to commemorate those who have preceded us in holy death.
As Christians we recognize that death is not an ending, but rather a change. We pass through death into everlasting life. We remain joined with all those who have died. We rely on them for their intercession on our behalf. They rely on our prayers and intercession to ease their transition, their journey into the glory of heaven.
We will remember our dearly departed during the month of November according to age old Catholic custom of commemoration and prayer…a custom known as “wypominki.â€
If you would like the souls of loved ones to be remembered during the Commemoration of All Souls and at all services throughout the entire month of November, please send the names of these loved ones to Deacon Jim by Sunday, October 28th. Alternately, you can E-mail the names of those you wish commemorated by E-mail to Deacon Jim.
We will celebrate the Solemnity of All Saints on Thursday, November 1st at 7:30pm followed by the the reading of the names of all the faithful departed.
Our October 2012 newsletter and calendar has finally been completed and is now available. You may view and download a copy right from this website.
Hey, you look just like…
God.
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it”
We’ve all heard the old adage – everyone has a twin somewhere.
Followers of the television show Lost discuss an imaginary French Mathematician named Marseille Roussau putting forward a theory – referred to as Roussau’s genetic mirror theory. Roussau’s theory says that everyone in the world has an exact twin somewhere, however according to the theory you never encounter this person by laws of probability and other natural occurring phenomena. In these discussions, Roussau uses a series of numbers to explain his theory. Of course that’s television.
Now look at the biblical passage from Genesis above. There it is, right there at the very start of the bible, the reality. Everyone looks like – God. Our twin is God, and by His creation each and every person is our twin.
It is wonderful to consider isn’t it. We all bear the image of God. As we celebrate our Church’s unique and special celebration in honor of the Christian Family – we should consider this hallmark of our faith. We are not just natural families, by birth and genetics, with perhaps a twin out there somewhere, but something much greater. We are linked together as images of the Heavenly Father – bearing the image of Jesus in us.
As images of Jesus we have one Father. We share in one heritage. We are born into one family. We are promised one inheritance, not divided up, but given to each in full.
The Hartford Institute for Religious Research’s National Congregations Study tells us median church in the U.S. has 75 regular participants worshiping on Sunday mornings. For statisticians the median is important because it factors out the influence very large churches.
Visit almost any of the parishes in our Holy Church and you will find exactly that – a small congregation – but a congregation that is family. We look after each other, care for each other, work together, pray for each other (look at our prayer list), worry when someone isn’t in church on Sunday, and of course welcome newcomers into our family (hey, they’re our twins).
As we reflect today and in the week ahead let’s pray for our twins, our Christian family. Let’s thank our Heavenly Father for giving us such a loving family. Let us also seek His help in growing the family. Then, take a few minutes to reach out to a family member we haven’t seen in a while to show your personal care for your twin.