Reflection for Good Shepherd Sunday 2023

Lived Victory!

When He has driven out all His own, He walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow Him, because they recognize His voice.

Thank you for joining today as we continue in our Easter joy. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Lost, wandering, confused, despairing, angry, tired.

Considering our Good Shepherd, Jesus, has caused me to reflect on all those times in my life where I was lost and wandering. In different measure we all live through being lost, wandering, confusion, despair, anger, and tiredness.

One night of my life jumps right out at me. I was literally awake all night, that kind of awake where you know sleep will not come, that kind of awake where you cannot even close your eyes. My eyes were wide open, starring at the ceiling.

A lot had gone on – broken relationships, financial difficulties, job worries, my diabetes not in good control at all, a doctor who could only lecture – no help there. It all rushed through my mind, and it did not seem solutions were forthcoming. I couldn’t even despair.

As I mentioned, people go through times like that and if they have even an inkling of hope to overcome it, they start to actively seek a solution.

Now you might ask: ‘Where was your faith?’ On that, there was little of that left. I was away from the Church. I never rejected Jesus – but as I’ve told many people, that was a constant temptation.

So, what happened, how did I overcome? I’ll start with the fact that there was no miracle or amazing revelation. One day, thinking about my faith, I realized I never took it seriously. I never even memorized some of the most basic prayers beyond the Our Faith and Hail Mary.

I will ask you to consider this – that for the first time in my life I really heard the Good Shepherd’s voice and the message – Get serious! That’s what I did, I got serious.

Did my problems go away magically? No. Did I have to work hard? Yes. As I studied my faith, as I memorized those prayers, as I did the work necessary to overcome my troubles, as I went to church each week my life normalized. My week started right, and it made a huge difference to not just have God as an active part of my life, but to truly listen to His voice, to work at walking His path. To seat Him on the throne as God in my life.

Brothers and Sisters, is all solved? Of course not. What has changed is that I am no longer lost, wandering, confused, or despairing. Angry and tired – sometimes – must work more at that, but I know with absolute assurance that when I was at my lowest the Good Shepherd sought me out. He seeks all of us, calls to us, and we innately know His voice.

Wherever we are on the journey of life, wherever we came from, the Shepherd calls to us. Let us listen, not just to listen, but actively engage and follow for a real overcoming.

Reflection for the 3rd Sunday of Easter 2023

Lived Victory!

If you invoke as Father Him Who judges impartially according to each one’s works, conduct yourselves with reverence during the time of your sojourning, realizing that you were ransomed from your futile conduct with the precious blood of Christ.

Thank you for joining today as we continue in our Easter joy. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Let’s talk about faith. It seems recently I have received a lot of questions about faith, or encountered situations in which the answer to the struggle a person is undergoing is faith.

One would think that faith is an easy endeavor. Afterall, Jesus promised that those who believe in Him would have the best gift ever – victory and eternal life, but for some reason it isn’t all that easy.

A person may have all the good things in life – I mean look at HGTV. My wife and I like to watch “Love It or List It.” In the show a family gets the flaws in their current home fixed while they tour new homes. In the end they must decide whether they will love their remodeled home or list it and buy a new one with all the bells and whistles. Simple enough premise, except the people in these situations miss what they have and don’t really appreciate how lucky they are to have it, to be blessed in the ways they are even with the few flaws they may have around them. In their arrogance they miss the fact others have little to nothing – and are yet more grateful than they are.

That’s how faith works. Some see it, understand it, perceive it, and are grateful for it despite the flaws they may have in their lives. Others completely miss it.

This was the story for the disciples on the road to Emmaus. They were so caught up in their own perceptions and drama they forgot to see with eyes of faith. They did not perceive their hearts burning within them. They did not hear the women’s testimony with faith. Jesus was so astounded He would say, “Oh, how foolish you are!” Exclamation mark on purpose.

Now, not to make this too distant from us, think of the tragedy, destruction, horror, pain, and sadness these disciples had gone through. Can we blame them for not seeing with eyes of faith?

We go through those things as well at different times and in different measure. Perhaps it is a situation where everything does not turn out as we planned, when we receive an impossible diagnosis, or when we see that flaw in the place we live and just wish it would get taken care of. It is indeed about how we conduct ourselves during the time of our sojourning. The lesson of Emmaus is to see with eyes of faith, that go beyond the now and focus on our life in Jesus’ victory no matter how things are going or what our worries are.

Our blessings are abundant even in times that challenge because we have victory in Jesus, and we are continually called to live that victory by faith ransomed from our futile conduct with the precious blood of Christ.

Reflection for Low Sunday 2023

Lived Victory!

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading,

Thank you for joining today as we continue in our Easter joy. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

In our Epistle today we hear St. Peter speaking of our new birth, our living hope, and our inheritance that is eternal and indestructible. These words are wonderful, and they mark out how we are set apart.

Consider how last Sunday, on the Solemnity of the Resurrection, we saw Peter and John running to the tomb, encountering the victory of Jesus over death, and a bit confused. Remember that we heard the words: they did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead.

Now the tone has changed, there is confidence, a surety that this wonderful thing God accomplished was not just for Jesus, but for all of us. The disciples encounter with Jesus gave us a new perspective and  a wonderful possession – eternal life that we celebrate today.

Our confidence does not come from mere speculation or wishful thinking. It does not come from the fantasy visions of some religious person. It comes from a lived encounter with the resurrected Jesus.

When Jesus entered the place where the disciples were He offered the simple statement: “Peace be with you.” He established that peace by offering His disciples and us confidence – that as His followers we have entered a new Kingdom reality.

The living Jesus, the victor over death left us something precious, the community of faith described in today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles.

We often speak of our Holy Church as the full expression of the Pristine Catholic faith. 

The truth of that statement lies not just in the way we administer the Church, our democratic tradition (All who believed were together and had all things in common). It lies most importantly in the fact that we receive and live – really live – the teaching of the apostles, the communal life, the breaking of bread, and prayers.

Jesus did not want the disciples to go separate ways,  to abandon hope or to doubt and have no confidence. So, He left us powerful grace for our assurance, a communal life centered on Him, and His abiding presence. That allows us to live the resurrected promise of Jesus with vigorous faith because we have nothing to fear, we have nothing to doubt.

Let us then embrace confidence and live the victory we possess in perpetual Easter joy knowing that we fully share in living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Reflection for the Solemnity of the Resurrection 2023

Victory!

For they did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead.

Thank you for joining today as we share in Easter joy. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Jesus came to earth to win, to achieve the victory His Heavenly Father intended.

We might find the incredulity of the Apostles and disciples slightly odd. How could they arrive at the tomb and not understand?

Each of the gospel accounts show Jesus telling and indicating to His disciples that He must die and that He would rise – achieve victory. He told them this three times. Not just once, He repeated it.

In John 14:29 as part of the Last Supper narrative we hear Jesus say: And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe.

So, what happened? Here we are with those Apostles before the tomb, seeing the victory of Jesus over death and… we hear silence and see a lack of understanding.

Perhaps, the people of Jesus’ time had trouble recognizing true victory much in the same way as we misunderstand victory in our day.

Like us, the Jews of Jesus’ times engaged in games and sports. The Israelites played board games such as chess, checkers, and backgammon. Pieces of clay, parts of bones, or pebbles were used as game pieces. They also had athletic contests in wrestling, running, and discus throwing. They also understood victory on the battlefield – who is a winner and who was looser.

They, like us, viewed winning as a very personal thing. At most winning was achieved as part of a corporate body – a team or army. I won the game. We beat that team. I came in first. We won the battle. We can, as they could in Jesus’ day, say winner and victor in a thousand different ways but it was always personal and one sided.

Jesus came to earth to win, to achieve the victory His Heavenly Father intended. It was not our kind of victory; it was not within the scope of our understanding. How could this man Jesus sacrifice His life and die, not for His own sake, but so that all of us might win?

Jesus’ victory was not a one sided and personal victory – just for Himself, nor a victory for a small team, but victory for all of us, for all of humanity.

That is the glory of God! Jesus took on all our battles and removed all our obstacles. So, we are victorious in Him. We are in the winner’s circle. All the heavy and ugly things in our lives have been carried away in Jesus’ overcoming. Yes, even the challenge of death has been overcome for us. All praise to our victorious King Jesus! He won for us all.

April 2023 Newsletter – In All Things New Life

The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one

The short excerpt above is from John 17:22, part of the Last Supper narrative between Jesus and His disciples, near the end of it. Whereas in the other three gospels Jesus actually eats a passover meal before He dies, in John’s gospel He doesn’t. The Last Supper is actually eaten before the beginning of Passover. So, the sequence of events leading up to the actual crucifixion are very different in John’s gospel. John’s gospel account records Jesus’ extended teaching (see John 13– 17). Although John does not retell Jesus giving the bread and the cup and instituting the New Covenant in His blood, the symbols and words used in the Lord’s Supper are abundant in John’s Gospel. While Jesus does not mention the new covenant in His blood in John, He does give the new commandment centered in that covenant (John 13:34), “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”

Jesus’ teaching in this narrative are instructive to us as we move through our lives. As on Palm Sunday for Jesus, we experience times of glory and triumph. As on Maundy Thursday evening, we experience times of fellowship and bonding. As on that night and Good Friday we experience times of great sorrow and seeming defeat. Because Jesus fully understood and experienced our human condition, our joys, fellowship, pain and sadness, He wanted us to know what we have in Him.

Easter reminds us of the glory Jesus’ Father gave Him which He has now given us. This not just for the sake of having God’s glory, but so we may be one in that glory.

Easter reminds us of our new life in Jesus. It reminds us as our status as family to God and each other. We have an opportunity each day to live in this new life, so we see even our sufferings and trials in a much different way. They are not permanent. God’s love and life and our fellowship in Him overcomes even death forever. Happy Easter!

Welcome to our April 2023 Newsletter. We begin April in Holy Week and arrive quivckly at the Easter Season, reveling in the joy of Jesus’ resurrection which is also the promise of our resurrection. 

Join us throughout Holy Week and walk with Jesus through His passion, death, and burial so to arrive at His resurrection. One set of events cannot be understood without the other.

Our newsletter contains our full calendar of events, reminders of upcoming events, including the ever popular Basket Social on April 30th.

We look forward to seeing you.

Check out all that and more in our April 2023 Newsletter.

Holy Week and Easter Schedule 2023

The following is our Holy Week and Easter schedule:

  • April 2: Palm Sunday; Traditional Liturgy of the Palms and Holy Mass at 10am. Second Holy Mass at noon.
  • April 3: Holy Monday. Holy Mass at Noon.
  • April 5: Spy Wednesday: Holy Mass at Noon. Private Confessions until 2pm.
  • April 6: Maundy Thursday: Solemn Holy Mass with Reception of Oils, Procession, Reposition, and Striiping of the Altar at 7pm. Church open until 9pm for Private Adoration.
  • April 7: Good Friday: Church Opens at Noon. Last Words at 1pm. Bitter Lamentations/Gorzkie Zale at 2pm. Liturgy of the Pre-sanctified and Opening of the Tomb at 3pm.
  • April 8: Holy Saturday: Liturgy of New Fire, Renewal of Baptismal Vows, and Blessing of Baskets at 10am. Church open until 3pm for basket blessings and private devotion.
  • April 9: Solemnity of the Resurrection (Easter): Traditional Resurrection Liturgy, Procession, and Solemn High Holy Mass at 8am. Second Holy Mass at 10am.

For more information, call the parish at 518-372-1992 or visit our Facebook page.

Get Your 2023 Handmade Blessed Polish Easter Baskets

We Have Sold Out for 2023 – Thank you for your Patronage

The blessing of Polish Easter food baskets, the Święconka, is a beloved tradition that takes place on Holy Saturday when families bring a sampling of Easter foods to be blessed in church. This year you can order a pre-prepared blessed basket for pickup or delivery.

Our Easter food baskets will be blessed by Fr. Jim and have over twenty (20) imported and locally made items to eat and enjoy on Easter morning! Baskets are $50 each and include:

  • Kielbasa
  • Decorated Hard Boiled Eggs
  • Homemade Babka
  • Beet Horseradish 
  • Culinary Salt 
  • Homemade Butter Lamb
  • Tapered Candle
  • Babka Cytrynowa (Lemon Bundt Cake)
  • Dried Boxwood
  • Polish Candies
  • Chocolate
  • Homemade Soup
  • Fruits
  • Juice
  • Informational Booklet

You may pick up your pre-ordered basket on Saturday, April 8, 2023 between 11am to 3pm at Holy Name of Jesus Church, 1040 Pearl St, Schenectady

In the alternative, you can have your basket delivered to your home using contactless delivery. There is a $10 delivery fee for addresses in Albany, Schenectady, and Troy.

Important:

  • Pre-orders ONLY. 
  • No substitutions. 
  • Must pick-up on date/time specified.

Reflection for the 7th Sunday of Easter 2022

Urgent work.

The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” Let the hearer say, “Come.” Let the one who thirsts come forward, and the one who wants it receive the gift of life-giving water.

I am so thankful you have chosen to worship with us this Sunday as we declare: Christ is risen! He is truly risen! Alleluia!

Over the last two Sundays we discussed the intensity of love Jesus requires from us and the gifts of love and peace Jesus gives us. Jesus’ love and peace gives us the privilege of the Holy Spirit with us and teaching us; eternal life; and peace that removes all fear. Now we get to the urgent work of love, peace, and invitation.

Throughout the Easter Season we have read from the Book of Acts and Revelation. 

Both Acts and Revelation are a bit removed from the first-generation Church. Acts was likely written around 80 to 90AD. Revelation was written even later, around 99AD. Both are directed to Christians as reminders of what it means to be the Body of Christ, and the urgency of the work we must engage in.

Acts gives Christians the blueprint for who we are, how we are to live, love, sacrifice and forgive – as we are reminded today by Stephen’s witness, sacrifice and plea for forgiveness of his persecutors – and how we are to evangelize.

Revelation shows forth two things – letters from the Risen Jesus to His Churches reminding them of who they are to be – i.e., the Acts Church, and a reminder of our urgency of action. We hear about that today.

Jesus says: â€œBehold, I am coming quickly.” We can never miss the urgency in all Jesus says. His message is to always be ready. Ready does not mean just sitting and waiting. It means hard at work loving, sacrificing, forgiving, and evangelizing. If we are ready, we will have access to the reward Jesus will give according to our work.

To further express urgency, Jesus reminds us that He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last. Those words used earlier in Revelation applied to God and here to Jesus alone, crowning proof of Christ’s deity. If we really know and understand Who Jesus is, we will not have any trouble being urgent in our work and ready for His return.

Jesus reminds us that â€œThe Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” The Spirit is in us, the Church. We are the bride of Christ. The Spirit prompts us to call for Jesus’ speedy return and to work at evangelizing those who do not know Him so they too come to Jesus in faith. 

People cannot come to Jesus unless they hear. They will only hear by our work at love, sacrifice, forgiveness, and evangelism. So let us be reminded of what urgent work we must do as we await Him. The gift of life-giving water is available. It is an open invitation we are called to urgently offer.

Reflection for the 6th Sunday of Easter 2022

Love understood.

Jesus said to his disciples: “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.”

I am so thankful you have chosen to worship with us this Sunday as we declare: Christ is risen! He is truly risen! Alleluia!

Last Sunday we discussed the intensity of love Jesus requires from us. He doesn’t require it as a command without substance, for He lived out the very love He asks us to live. He modeled complete committed love for us and asks us to follow in His footsteps.

If you did your homework and read Revelation 3:14-21, you saw Jesus’ attitude toward those who stand at a distance and are lukewarm. We know that non-committal love is not sufficient for Jesus and is insufficient for us who follow Him.

By the grace of the Holy Spirit, we have been called to follow Jesus Who is the ultimate model of overwhelming love. Importantly, we hear today that following Jesus provides us with the incredibly beautiful promise Jesus speaks of. If we love Jesus and keep His word, the Heavenly Father holds us in His love and beautifully the Father, Son, and Spirit come to us and dwell with us: We will come to him and make Our dwelling with him.

Having God dwelling with us, and key here is that dwelling does not mean just hanging out for a bit, but rather living continually with us, gives us key privileges.

We hold the privilege of eternal life in the heavenly Jerusalem described in Revelation. As God dwells with us, so at the same time we dwell with Him not just now, but forever in the heavenly place of light and peace, of worship and praise.

We hold the privilege of God’s peace. It always fills my heart with joy when I hear people tell me that they find this place to be one of peace. The witness of so many of our parishioners and friends attests to the peace of God that is here as He dwells with us. Here with Jesus, we can let go of whatever it is that binds, worries, stresses, limits, or causes fear in our lives. We know that God is dwelling with us and no matter what fears the world may bring we overcome it. God’s peace is that which removes the weight of life which is the fear of what is next. We already know our next – eternal life.

We hold the privilege of the Holy Spirit. As we now start our approach to the Solemnity of Pentecost in these last two weeks of Easter, we are reminded of the Spirit’s presence in the Church which is in us. We know, as Jesus promised, the Holy Spirit is here to teach [us] everything and remind [us] of all that [Jesus] told [us].

With the privileges of God’s permeant presence and our presence with Him forever, peace that overcomes all things, and the Holy Spirit teaching us and reminding us, we come to understand and live the enormous love we are called to each day.

Reflection for the 5th Sunday of Easter 2022

Love understood.

“I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

I am so thankful you have chosen to worship with us this Sunday as we declare: Christ is risen! He is truly risen! Alleluia!

My dearest friends, I don’t have to tell you that love is hard, complex, difficult to grasp, and every so often so overpowering that it leaves us standing in awe. At times love is so powerful that it changes the direction of our lives.

Jesus speaks to us of that kind of love today. It is His call to us to engage in overpowering, awe inspiring, imitation calling, changing love, in the model He left us, a model of complete self-giving one-for-another.

Jesus wants us to be overpowered by His love, a love so intense, so powerful, so strong and dedicated that He offered His life for it. Jesus wants His love offering to change our life direction. He wants the intensity of His love to move us to the self-same way of loving.

His love took the weight of all our shortcomings and failings and placed it on His shoulders. He bore us broken so that we could rise with Him perfected in the happiness of freedom forever. So just as Jesus did, our love must raise others up.

Jesus calls to us to engage in overpowering, awe inspiring, imitation calling, changing love. We are to live in active love, to give our all, to sacrifice everything for love of each other.

We have much to face in the world. Hatred and antagonism are rampant. Fortresses of one against another are being built. The worldly are in love with death – the kind of death that negates sacrificial love – and calls for an end to love. We cannot let this just be, standing in silence, gathering in our little possessions, and think it cannot or will not touch me. It will. Instead, we must do as Christ’s disciples do – witness to the overpowering, awe inspiring, imitation calling, changing love of Jesus by doing as He did. It is the only antidote.

We must be those couples that love each other – not because of infatuation or for reasons of beauty – but because love calls us to give ourselves for the other – even if we get nothing in return. We must be those parents that love their children – not with stuff, or the adding up of cost, or giving in to cultural whims or the latest you must do this and that – but with an abiding love that says I am here and always will be no matter when, no matter what, for your good, so you know God and His love by my example. Similarly, we must be brother and sister and minister to each other and our community, giving our hearts and time. Standing at a distance and being lukewarm is not sufficient (cf. Rev. 3:14-21).

Jesus is the ultimate model of overwhelming love. We must love as He did for doing so will make the true meaning of love understood to us and in understanding we will have joy.