EVENTS/ANNOUNCEMENTS
Cluster Blessing of the Animals
St. Isaac Jogues
Sunday, October 6, 2024 @ 2 pm
Cluster Blessing of the Animals
St. Isaac Jogues
Sunday, October 6, 2024 @ 2 pm
- Father John's Vocation Story: Please see below.
- Register for Religious Education: Please call the office for a registration form for your child.
- St. Isaac Jogues Fall Frolic: (See below for photos). A Great Success! And the winners are: Linda Galusha, Ed Ciechon & Louise SanAntonio. They each won $3533.34. The church realized $10,600 and for the baskets, the church realized $2,210. Wow! Huge shout-out to all who made it such a huge success. The vibe was electric! The food, the company, the prizes, the music, the cooperation of so many was amazing. To all who contributed baskets, time and energy to make this event possible, thank you. Pizza Party for all who contributed to this fantastic day, Friday, October 4th at 4:30 pm. Salad will also be served
- St James Festival of Praise: A wonderful evening. See below for pictures.
- FALL INTO FALL: Blessed Sacrament is sponsoring 2 raffles that will culminate on Columbus Day Weekend. It is not too late to participate.
- Help Wanted: Blessed Sacrament is looking for volunteers. See below for more information.
- Re-igniting Our Faith: See our updates below.
- Flocknote: Please send us your email or mobile number, so that we may keep you updated in case of emergency. It is so important!
- Please leave a message: Messages left on the parish office answering machine are seen via email even if we are not in the office!
- Outreach Ministries: Please see below for the many outreach ministries taking place in our community to help those in need.
- Register for Religious Education: Please call the office for a registration form for your child.
- St. Isaac Jogues Fall Frolic: (See below for photos). A Great Success! And the winners are: Linda Galusha, Ed Ciechon & Louise SanAntonio. They each won $3533.34. The church realized $10,600 and for the baskets, the church realized $2,210. Wow! Huge shout-out to all who made it such a huge success. The vibe was electric! The food, the company, the prizes, the music, the cooperation of so many was amazing. To all who contributed baskets, time and energy to make this event possible, thank you. Pizza Party for all who contributed to this fantastic day, Friday, October 4th at 4:30 pm. Salad will also be served
- St James Festival of Praise: A wonderful evening. See below for pictures.
- FALL INTO FALL: Blessed Sacrament is sponsoring 2 raffles that will culminate on Columbus Day Weekend. It is not too late to participate.
- Help Wanted: Blessed Sacrament is looking for volunteers. See below for more information.
- Re-igniting Our Faith: See our updates below.
- Flocknote: Please send us your email or mobile number, so that we may keep you updated in case of emergency. It is so important!
- Please leave a message: Messages left on the parish office answering machine are seen via email even if we are not in the office!
- Outreach Ministries: Please see below for the many outreach ministries taking place in our community to help those in need.
St. Isaac Jogues, Chestertown
- Please see below for outreach ministries talking place in our community. - Fall Frolic Pizza Party for all who contributed to this fantastic day, Friday, October 4th at 4:30 pm. Salad will also be served - Church Parking: Please be aware of the driveways of our neighbors when you park on the street while attending a Mass or church function. A parking lot is available at the back of the church. - Mass Cards & Intentions: Please call Kathy DeBartolo 518-494-7873 |
Blessed Sacrament, Bolton Landing
- Please see below for outreach ministries talking place in our community. - Thank You Laraine Caldwell: for the beautiful Mums that she planted at the entrance of the Church. Stunning. - Help Wanted: Looking for 2-3 volunteers to assist with the Altar Linens. Please contact Anne Marie Senese 518-312-0015. - Help Wanted: Volunteers are needed to establish a Building & Grounds Committee. The purpose is to monitor and assess the physical assets of Blessed Sacrament Church. For additional information or to volunteer contact: Ann Marie Senese 518-312-0015. - Fall into Fall: Blessed Sacrament is sponsoring 2 raffles that will culminate on Columbus Day Weekend. It is not too late to participate. - Operation Clear Your Cupboard: Is ongoing. Incredible outreach to those in need. See below under Outreach Ministries for more information, - Mass Cards and Intentions: Please call Rita Whitney 518-338-6858. - Prayer Intentions: Please call Pat Nugent 518-668-2765 |
St. James, North Creek
- Please see below for outreach ministries talking place in our community. - Festival of Praise: A wonderful evening. See below for pictures. - Final Mass: . This Mass will be held on October 27th at 2 pm, and a reception will follow at the Adirondack Community Outreach Center. This will be the only Mass at St. James that weekend. - Mass Cards & Intentions: Please call Kathy DeBartolo 518-494-7873 |
St Isaac Jogues Fall Frolic
(click on photo for more photos)
(click on photo for more photos)
St. James Festival of Paise
(Click on photo for more photos)
(Click on photo for more photos)
Father John's Vocation Story
The Vocation office asked the priests of our diocese to share their vocation story for the weekends of September. In October all will have a chance to participate in the Call by Name. We will have cards during this time, and we would write the name of men who we feel to have a vocation to the priesthood. We will have an estimate of only 54 active priests, in our diocese under the age of 69. We currently have 126 parishes. We have gone through a process of merging, closing and consolidating parishes to survive in the present. In our cluster alone we have closed St. Theresa in Brant Lake in 2008 and last year we closed St. Isaac Jogues-Blessed Sacrament in Hague which acted as a mission, seasonable church. And sadly, we will be closing St. James, North Creek in the end of October that has been a parish for 140 years opening its doors in 1884 having missions in Pottersville, Wevertown and Chestertown. Chestertown being the only church that remained open throughout the years.
We must do it because we just don’t have the priests. As of other churches in diocese that will be closing. We are currently bringing back the Called By Name Program. We did something similar 10 years ago and 30 years ago my name was chosen from that process 30 years ago. For those of you who don’t know that I am from Long Island, Uniondale in Southern Nassau County. This explains why I am a Mets, Jets, Islanders, Nets fan. My parish was St. Martha in Uniondale New York where I was baptized and received Holy Communion. The church was always an important part of my family life. My parents were born and raised in NYC children of Irish immigrants. My father was a New York City Police Detective and my mother a housewife. I was the youngest of three children. I had two older sisters. I had two cousins from Ireland who were priests who came to live in our country. One left the priesthood to get married and the other was a priest and worked many years at St. John University in Jamaica Queens before he passed.
I became an altar server at St. Martha’s and always remember the young associate pastor who trained me who had long hair to his ears. This was the 70’s when we went from crew cuts to long hair. My two sisters were members of the parish folk group which helped found and I would later join this group five years later. I remember at an early age that my father would ask to me if I wanted to be a priest. And responded are you nuts! No way! I did not know at that time a seed was planted by that question. My mother was a great example for prayers to my sisters and me. They both recognized that I had a calling to the priesthood. Which might have been hard for him because I was his only son who could keep his namesake going. This didn’t matter especially to my father.
When I was younger I did not like going to church. My father did a lot of overtime as a detective with NYPD. At times I would not see him in days. He always try to ge home on Sunday morning for Mass. It would be 15 minutes before Mass time, and it did not look like we were going to Mass. I would get excited about this and miraculously my father would come through the front door saying, “Get in the car!”
I did not see any growth from that seed until about the six grade. My little league coach was a seminarian for the Diocese of Rockville Centre. He would later be an associate for the diocese and later be a Maryknoll priest in Guatemala. He would leave the priesthood and get married and raise a family. But as my little league coach he would have us pray before and after each game. Another thing he would have us do, that I thought was so cool, our baseball fields were on the property of a nursing home called Holly Patterson and he would have us wheel some residents over to watch our games. One day I and a couple of my other friends helped him move him to his seminary in Huntington. When I met him when he was going to Cathedral College in Douglaston Queens and he would start at their main seminary in Huntington LI. From those years I wanted to be a priest. But I also wanted to be a kid and fun too!
My father put his 20 years in and retire from the NYPD. He became a professor with Adirondack Community College and started their Criminal Justice program. So we moved to Glen Falls area, Queensbury when I was in the eighth grade. At this time, I would enjoy visiting churches and taking pictures and collecting bulletins of church I visited for the first time. I still collect bulletins. Moving here was hard in a sense. We went to Our Lady of the Annunciation in Queensbury and my new parish was not as active as my Long Island parish. I attended St. Mary’s Academy in Glens Falls and had four great years made a lot of friends and I expressed to them that I wanted to be a priest. Not one of them made fun of me for this. They made fun of me for other things but never for my vocation! I remember that I would be sitting in the study hall in school, up to no good. I did not want to study or do homework. The principal would come in and say “O’Kane since your not doing anything productive help move in the new priest.” “Sure,” it got me out of the school! I would help move in the new associates by taking boxes from Father’s car up the long staircase to the third floor where the new Associates. I would move in and move out the associate priests of St. Mary’s into the rectory on Warren Street in Glens Falls.
Although I had a vocation, I also wanted to be a kid too and struggle with being worthy of being a priest. The things that my friends and I would do would not be the things future priests would do. I would graduate from high school and go to Adirondack Community College and later graduate from SUNY Plattsburgh. But never felt I was holy enough to be a priest. After college I tried to find work in NYC where my two sisters were living in Brooklyn. I spoke to a priest about priesthood, but they felt I was immature. So, I lack the confidence necessary to be a priest.
Although I was not ready, I had the desire for service. So, I moved back home and worked 11 years with Warren Washington ARC. I first worked in a group home called Wing House in Ft. Edward. I first worked in the Supportive Living Program helping higher functioning folks to learn the skills they needed to live in an apartment in the community. I was active in church, but I did not have the confidence for priesthood. Finally, I had to address these feelings for priesthood that would never go away so I discerned and joined a diocesan discernment support group for men who felt they had a calling. The group was facilitated by the Associate Pastor in Blessed Sacrament in Albany and our first meeting was held in his suite which ironically would be my suite ten years later when I was ordained to priesthood.
After four years of discernment, I finally got off the fence or the pot as my home pastor would say and applied to the priesthood. I was accepted and I would study one year at Becket Hall in Rochester and would be part of the history of our great friendship with Rochester. I did four years at Sacred Heat School of Theology in Hales Corners, Wisconsin, ten miles south from Milwaukee. I loved SHST but living in Milwaukee was interesting. I loved going to Bucks, Brewers and Marquette games but they call soda a pop and they were big on bratwurst. Being originally from the NYC area I always thought there here was a hot dog and a sausage and there was no in between. As seminarian I had summer assignments at Our Lady Victory Troy, Holy Trinity in Johnstown, Blessed Sacrament in Albany. I did my summer hospital chaplaincy at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester living at Becket Hall. I did my pastoral year, working a full year at St. James in Albany. This is one during 9/11 so I glad I was home during this time.
I was ordained by Bishop Hubbard in 2004 and was associate pastor at Blessed Sacrament in Albany before being assigned up here in Chestertown, North Creek and Hague and later Bolton Landing. I have been a priest for over 20 years and never regretted my decision.
I have done many things that I think I couldn’t do in my early days. I have been blessed and privileged to be able to help folks during the most important part of their lives. I must admit it has not been easy many obstacles, but the spirit has helped shepherding all you during your pains and joys of your lives. I do not regret any day that I am a priest. I am honored to be a priest during this time.
It is an interesting time to be a priest. When I was ordained, our church had stability and now we are going back to early apostles as we are creating that new identity and please think and pray for others who could join me and our priests as we create that brand new identity. In the weeks to come I’ll talk about my joys and challenges.
(click below for a downloadable copy)
The Vocation office asked the priests of our diocese to share their vocation story for the weekends of September. In October all will have a chance to participate in the Call by Name. We will have cards during this time, and we would write the name of men who we feel to have a vocation to the priesthood. We will have an estimate of only 54 active priests, in our diocese under the age of 69. We currently have 126 parishes. We have gone through a process of merging, closing and consolidating parishes to survive in the present. In our cluster alone we have closed St. Theresa in Brant Lake in 2008 and last year we closed St. Isaac Jogues-Blessed Sacrament in Hague which acted as a mission, seasonable church. And sadly, we will be closing St. James, North Creek in the end of October that has been a parish for 140 years opening its doors in 1884 having missions in Pottersville, Wevertown and Chestertown. Chestertown being the only church that remained open throughout the years.
We must do it because we just don’t have the priests. As of other churches in diocese that will be closing. We are currently bringing back the Called By Name Program. We did something similar 10 years ago and 30 years ago my name was chosen from that process 30 years ago. For those of you who don’t know that I am from Long Island, Uniondale in Southern Nassau County. This explains why I am a Mets, Jets, Islanders, Nets fan. My parish was St. Martha in Uniondale New York where I was baptized and received Holy Communion. The church was always an important part of my family life. My parents were born and raised in NYC children of Irish immigrants. My father was a New York City Police Detective and my mother a housewife. I was the youngest of three children. I had two older sisters. I had two cousins from Ireland who were priests who came to live in our country. One left the priesthood to get married and the other was a priest and worked many years at St. John University in Jamaica Queens before he passed.
I became an altar server at St. Martha’s and always remember the young associate pastor who trained me who had long hair to his ears. This was the 70’s when we went from crew cuts to long hair. My two sisters were members of the parish folk group which helped found and I would later join this group five years later. I remember at an early age that my father would ask to me if I wanted to be a priest. And responded are you nuts! No way! I did not know at that time a seed was planted by that question. My mother was a great example for prayers to my sisters and me. They both recognized that I had a calling to the priesthood. Which might have been hard for him because I was his only son who could keep his namesake going. This didn’t matter especially to my father.
When I was younger I did not like going to church. My father did a lot of overtime as a detective with NYPD. At times I would not see him in days. He always try to ge home on Sunday morning for Mass. It would be 15 minutes before Mass time, and it did not look like we were going to Mass. I would get excited about this and miraculously my father would come through the front door saying, “Get in the car!”
I did not see any growth from that seed until about the six grade. My little league coach was a seminarian for the Diocese of Rockville Centre. He would later be an associate for the diocese and later be a Maryknoll priest in Guatemala. He would leave the priesthood and get married and raise a family. But as my little league coach he would have us pray before and after each game. Another thing he would have us do, that I thought was so cool, our baseball fields were on the property of a nursing home called Holly Patterson and he would have us wheel some residents over to watch our games. One day I and a couple of my other friends helped him move him to his seminary in Huntington. When I met him when he was going to Cathedral College in Douglaston Queens and he would start at their main seminary in Huntington LI. From those years I wanted to be a priest. But I also wanted to be a kid and fun too!
My father put his 20 years in and retire from the NYPD. He became a professor with Adirondack Community College and started their Criminal Justice program. So we moved to Glen Falls area, Queensbury when I was in the eighth grade. At this time, I would enjoy visiting churches and taking pictures and collecting bulletins of church I visited for the first time. I still collect bulletins. Moving here was hard in a sense. We went to Our Lady of the Annunciation in Queensbury and my new parish was not as active as my Long Island parish. I attended St. Mary’s Academy in Glens Falls and had four great years made a lot of friends and I expressed to them that I wanted to be a priest. Not one of them made fun of me for this. They made fun of me for other things but never for my vocation! I remember that I would be sitting in the study hall in school, up to no good. I did not want to study or do homework. The principal would come in and say “O’Kane since your not doing anything productive help move in the new priest.” “Sure,” it got me out of the school! I would help move in the new associates by taking boxes from Father’s car up the long staircase to the third floor where the new Associates. I would move in and move out the associate priests of St. Mary’s into the rectory on Warren Street in Glens Falls.
Although I had a vocation, I also wanted to be a kid too and struggle with being worthy of being a priest. The things that my friends and I would do would not be the things future priests would do. I would graduate from high school and go to Adirondack Community College and later graduate from SUNY Plattsburgh. But never felt I was holy enough to be a priest. After college I tried to find work in NYC where my two sisters were living in Brooklyn. I spoke to a priest about priesthood, but they felt I was immature. So, I lack the confidence necessary to be a priest.
Although I was not ready, I had the desire for service. So, I moved back home and worked 11 years with Warren Washington ARC. I first worked in a group home called Wing House in Ft. Edward. I first worked in the Supportive Living Program helping higher functioning folks to learn the skills they needed to live in an apartment in the community. I was active in church, but I did not have the confidence for priesthood. Finally, I had to address these feelings for priesthood that would never go away so I discerned and joined a diocesan discernment support group for men who felt they had a calling. The group was facilitated by the Associate Pastor in Blessed Sacrament in Albany and our first meeting was held in his suite which ironically would be my suite ten years later when I was ordained to priesthood.
After four years of discernment, I finally got off the fence or the pot as my home pastor would say and applied to the priesthood. I was accepted and I would study one year at Becket Hall in Rochester and would be part of the history of our great friendship with Rochester. I did four years at Sacred Heat School of Theology in Hales Corners, Wisconsin, ten miles south from Milwaukee. I loved SHST but living in Milwaukee was interesting. I loved going to Bucks, Brewers and Marquette games but they call soda a pop and they were big on bratwurst. Being originally from the NYC area I always thought there here was a hot dog and a sausage and there was no in between. As seminarian I had summer assignments at Our Lady Victory Troy, Holy Trinity in Johnstown, Blessed Sacrament in Albany. I did my summer hospital chaplaincy at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester living at Becket Hall. I did my pastoral year, working a full year at St. James in Albany. This is one during 9/11 so I glad I was home during this time.
I was ordained by Bishop Hubbard in 2004 and was associate pastor at Blessed Sacrament in Albany before being assigned up here in Chestertown, North Creek and Hague and later Bolton Landing. I have been a priest for over 20 years and never regretted my decision.
I have done many things that I think I couldn’t do in my early days. I have been blessed and privileged to be able to help folks during the most important part of their lives. I must admit it has not been easy many obstacles, but the spirit has helped shepherding all you during your pains and joys of your lives. I do not regret any day that I am a priest. I am honored to be a priest during this time.
It is an interesting time to be a priest. When I was ordained, our church had stability and now we are going back to early apostles as we are creating that new identity and please think and pray for others who could join me and our priests as we create that brand new identity. In the weeks to come I’ll talk about my joys and challenges.
(click below for a downloadable copy)
| vocation_story.pdf |
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St. Isaac Jogues First Holy Communion God Bless Vaughn Swartz, Joey Raymond, Adrian Garcia and Scarlette Smith who received First Holy Communion on May 19th at the 9:00 am Mass (click on photo for more photos) |
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St. James 3 Baptisms and 1 First Holy Communion Savannah Utley, Colton & Cooper Jordan received the Sacrament of Baptism and Connor Briggs received his 1st Communion on Saturday, April 6th at the 5:30 pm Mass. (click on photo for more photos) |
OUTREACH MINISTRIES
- Operation Clear Your Cupboard: Began August 4th, culminating on Columbus Weekend. Collecting food items for North Country Ministries Food Pantry. We are asking for a can good, any food item you can donate or possibly a Gift Card to a grocery store. This is an ideal time for those returning to their winter home, to clear items from their cupboards. We know all of our parishioners are feeling the challenges of increased food costs. For some this is difficult, but if you can donate, We ARE grateful for your gift..
- North Country Ministries is seeking donations of men’s, non-working clothes. (jeans, flannel shirts & hoodies), in addition to children’s clothes.
- Food Pantry: There is a bin at the entrance of the church. The need at the pantries has grown exponentially this year. Please consider giving weekly to those in need. This will be brought to the North Country Ministry. They are especially looking for items that have pull tabs (no can opener to use), shelf stable food, also, personal hygiene products, cleaning products & kid friendly foods.
- Thanksgiving Baskets: There are approximately 75 food baskets going to those in need in our area from North Country Ministries, to which we will add a $25 gift card to each one. (Price Chopper, Tops, or Grand Union.) In addition, their mobile mart is delivering 35 more baskets.
- Christmas Giving Tree: Tags will be provided for the Giving Tree for the weekend of November 23rd & 24th. Gifts will need to be returned no later than Sunday, December 15th.
- North Country Ministries is seeking donations of men’s, non-working clothes. (jeans, flannel shirts & hoodies), in addition to children’s clothes.
- Food Pantry: There is a bin at the entrance of the church. The need at the pantries has grown exponentially this year. Please consider giving weekly to those in need. This will be brought to the North Country Ministry. They are especially looking for items that have pull tabs (no can opener to use), shelf stable food, also, personal hygiene products, cleaning products & kid friendly foods.
- Thanksgiving Baskets: There are approximately 75 food baskets going to those in need in our area from North Country Ministries, to which we will add a $25 gift card to each one. (Price Chopper, Tops, or Grand Union.) In addition, their mobile mart is delivering 35 more baskets.
- Christmas Giving Tree: Tags will be provided for the Giving Tree for the weekend of November 23rd & 24th. Gifts will need to be returned no later than Sunday, December 15th.
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Re-Igniting our Faith Update
Blessed Sacrament: To date, we have updated our Sound System which cost $7,616. Currently we are replacing our aged Air Conditioners which will cost $51,000. We look forward to replacing the lighting in the Community room, shortly. Thanks to all who have made this happen. St. Isaac Joques: To date, we have updated our Sound System which cost $15,064. We have spent to date $109,460 on our stain glass windows Lastly, we replaced the steps to the entrance of the church for $14,850. Thanks to all who have made this happen. St. James: We replaced the furnace in the Church for $10,245. |
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CELEBRATING THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY
OF OUR SISTER CHURCH ST. ISAAC JOGUES, HAGUE What a magnificent milestone celebrating Hague’s 100th Anniversary. It is a beautiful testimony to our community to have so many clergy return for this celebration. I want to thank the Music Ministry from all 3 churches for the outstanding music. Thank you to the committee who helped pull it all together. Thank you to Hague’s sister churches for their support and prayers. And thank you to Fr. Joe Busch, our Episcopal Vicar, Fr. Tom Babiuch, Fr. Tom Curry, Fr. Matt Duclos, Fr. George Fleming, Fr. Steve Moore, Fr. Joe O’Brien, & Deacon Bob Wubbenhorst for joining us today. Shout out to Fr. Chris DeGiovine for joining us also. The Glory of God was felt by the congregation and parishioners from our sister churches who also participated in this amazing 100th Anniversary Mass. The fellowship following was absolutely amazing. |
(click photo for more pictures)
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Ministry
How can you be a Missionary of Christ?
We need volunteers!
Greeters, Eucharistic Ministers, Lectors...
For more information for St. James contact Ellen Schaefer 518-251-5451 or [email protected]
For St. Isaac Jogues contact Judi Gross 518-573-7616 or [email protected]
For Blessed Sacrament contact Anne Marie Bell 518-644-3051 or [email protected]
Or Anne Marie Sensese 518-240-6047 or [email protected]
How can you be a Missionary of Christ?
We need volunteers!
Greeters, Eucharistic Ministers, Lectors...
For more information for St. James contact Ellen Schaefer 518-251-5451 or [email protected]
For St. Isaac Jogues contact Judi Gross 518-573-7616 or [email protected]
For Blessed Sacrament contact Anne Marie Bell 518-644-3051 or [email protected]
Or Anne Marie Sensese 518-240-6047 or [email protected]
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