Church of St. Mary

at Clinton Heights

  • Home
  • Events
    • Parish Calendar of Events
    • Vacation Bible Camp
    • Annual Gala & Auction
    • Annual Golf Classic
  • Multimedia
    • Photo Gallery
    • Video
    • Fr. Tom’s Blog
    • Bulletin
    • Newsletter
    • Presiders’ Portal
  • Liturgy
    • Mass Times & Sacramental Notes
    • Mass Readings
    • Children’s Liturgy of the Word
    • Liturgies of Christian Death
  • Sacraments
    • Baptism
    • First Communion
    • Reconciliation
    • Confirmation
    • Marriage
  • Growth in Faith
    • RCIA
    • Faith Formation Schedule
    • Elementary K – 5th grade
    • Middle School 6th – 8th grade
    • High School 9th – 12th grade
    • Family Formation
    • Young Adult and Adult
  • Ministries
    • Ministry Schedules
    • Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion
    • Altar Server
    • Pastoral Council
    • Stewardship
    • Administrative Ministries
    • Outreach Ministries
    • Cantors, Various Choirs, & Instrumentalists
    • Finance Committee
    • E-Giving (EFT)
  • Contact

Archives for November 2013

Bulletin November 24 2013

November 24, 2013 by timk

To view the bulletin, or to print your own copy, please click here.

Filed Under: Bulletin

JFK – RIP

November 22, 2013 by david

JFK

Today November 22, 2013 our nation remembers the tragic event of fifty years ago when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Catholics remember him as the only Catholic to have held the office of President of the United States.

During the month of November, it is the custom of the Church to remember in a special way the souls of the departed. In so doing we are reminded that burying and praying for the dead is a work of mercy.

Eternal Rest grant unto him O Lord and let Perpetual Light shine upon him. May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the Mercy of God, Rest in Peace. Amen

Filed Under: Fr. David's Blog

Bulletin November 17 2013

November 17, 2013 by timk

To view the bulletin, or to print your own copy, please click here.

Filed Under: Bulletin

Above Beavers & Tulips: A Higher Calling

November 12, 2013 by david

Again, from Fr. Kevin, our resident…resident:

My native place is an old city, Albany N.Y., where in grade school and through subsequent civic efforts we learned our local history through symbols, horticulture, and artifacts.  Albany took off as a settlement of Dutchmen who were seeking the wealth of the new world. Their coveted sources of wealth were the hides of native beaver.

I have never seen a living beaver in or around Albany though their memory is preserved. The city seal has long included a beaver felling a tree and one of the city’s former names, Beverwyck, calls the rodent to mind.  At the height of hunting in the mid-seventeenth century tens of thousands of beaver pelts were sent annually from Albany to the Netherlands for the production of hats and coats. Far from the days of trapping, my grandmother once gave my sister a synthetically furred Bucky Beaver stuffed animal, a reward from a local bank’s Christmas Club.

Along with beaver, the Dutch of seventeenth century Netherlands were going crazy over another export of Turkish origin, the tulip. Rare bulbs were being purchased for small fortunes amidst fierce competition by the Dutch. Albany sponsors an annual Tulip Festival complete with a Tulip Queen. Beaver hats and tulips, beauties known to a season, are reminders too of fashion and the pursuit of wealth.

There were two artifacts of note drawn to our attention. Both artifacts belong to the Dutch Reformed Church in downtown Albany. First there is the preacher’s pulpit, the oldest pulpit in all of North America. Second, the oldest weathervane in the United States, dating to 1656, stood atop the original church and was damaged by a bullet in the French and Indian War. This weathervane was imported from the Netherlands and paid for in beaver pelts.

roosterFor most of my life I had not thought much about that weathervane, which is in the form of a rooster, thus its more precise name– weathercock.  I thought only of the bird that greets the day and so there he was, on a high perch, always ready to see and call. The rooster, in another setting, e.g. a Good Friday procession, would remind me of St. Peter and the Passion, but on top of an old protestant church it seemed simply agrarian. The fullness of this artifact and its placement above the tulips and beavers has a longer history, perhaps unknown to the Dutch of 1656.

My little bit of weathervane rooster research began unintentionally with my reading, probably in a doctor’s office, of a June 2012 Smithsonian magazine article: How the Chicken Conquered the World.  In the ninth century, Pope St. Leo IV had a rooster image placed atop the old St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The rooster was a symbol of St. Peter, of the preacher, of vigilance but also of the Christian in general. Later, Pope St. Nicholas the Great, who had been ordained deacon by Leo IV, decreed that a rooster emblem should be placed atop every church in recognition of its universal application to the Christian life. The eleventh century Bayeux Tapestry includes depiction of a church with a mounted rooster decoration.

Like St. Peter, all Christians are called back to the Lord consistently; to the renewal of the Day that began in baptism. The voice of the rooster crowing reminded Peter of the Lord’s providential voice–the voice that knows and loves that cares and recalls, pursues while going ahead, beyond our denial and anticipating our repentance. As the rooster’s distinct voice pierces darkness and awakens hope in the approaching dawn, so Peter recognized again the voice of the Lord as that which speaks efficaciously to our darkness  “the words of eternal life” and so… “To whom shall we go?” The dawn from on high has broken upon us.

Filed Under: Fr. David's Blog

Bulletin November 10 2013

November 10, 2013 by timk

To view the bulletin, or to print your own copy, please click here.

Filed Under: Bulletin

  • 1
  • 2
  • Next Page »

Welcome!

A Message from the Pastor: Greetings friends! On behalf of the one thousand parishioners who call the Church of St. Mary their home, welcome! St. Mary's is located in the town of East Greenbush and was founded in 1927 as a mission church of St. John's Church in the city of Rensselaer. In 1961, the small mission church burned while the building of the new parish school was underway. As a result, the gymnasium of the school became the new temporary worship space. We are still in this same space but it has truly become a wonderfully prayerful environment for our worship. St. Mary's is a … read more

Project H2O

Imagine what your life would be like if you awoke tomorrow morning and found that there was no water … help the thirsty

Quick Links

  • Mass Times
  • Bulletin
  • Photos
  • Videos
  • Fr. Tom's Blog
  • Upcoming Events
  • Ministry Schedules
  • Gala & Auction

Recent Updates

  • A Holy Moment
  • Bulletin February 17, 2019
  • Bulletin February 10, 2019
  • We need some prophets…..are you ready?
  • Bulletin February 3, 2019

Search

Contact Us!

Church of St. Mary at Clinton Heights
163 Columbia Turnpike
Rensselaer, NY 12144-3521
(518) 449-2232

Connect with us!

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Get Our App!

Copyright © 2019 · Outreach Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in