• Home
  • Events
    • Parish Calendar of Events
    • Vacation Bible Camp
    • Middle School Mission
    • Annual Golf Classic
  • Multimedia
    • Videos
    • Photo Gallery
    • 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 & Registration Form
    • 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; Worship Aids & Liturgy of the Word texts
    • Finance Committee
    • E-Giving (EFT)
  • Contact

Hosanna in the highest at the beginning of the week……. Crucify him at the end.

March 26, 2018 by

This Holy Week is a contrast of emotions.   We who have so much are told to be slaves and wash another’s feet.  We are filled with joy at the coming of the Messiah; but filled with dread when we must proclaim our faith to others.  We must confront the apostle Peter in ourselves and realize we have the potential to deny Jesus.  Sadly, we all must see the Judas in us; that part of us that will betray Jesus and others because of our selfish motivations.  This week is seeing in the Passover Meal, not the sacrifice of a bull on Sinai or a Lamb roasted and bread made in a hurry to flee, we are to see that the Lamb is Jesus himself who offers himself for our sake.  He  commands us to enter into this sacrificial mystery every time we gather and take bread that becomes His Body and share a cup that is His Blood.  Such simple realities become the Divine Mystery; a Meal celebrating the freedom of a people from slavery becomes the Meal that is the memorial of what Jesus did to free us from the slavery of death; a share in the  Sacrifice that frees us from the slavery that Adam and Eve trapped us in because of their disobedience in the garden of Eden.

This week we climb a hill, not to see a glorious Christ, but a suffering and Crucified Lord.  In Him, we see not a criminal or outcast, but every poor person who is suffering, every abused child who cries for safety, every victim of addiction, every one enslaved in human trafficking, everyone in a prison, the person trapped in a mental illness, every suffering person in the world…..on that hill, all humanity is drawn to Him and freed….every human person is washed with the love that poured from His side as blood and water.

However, if Golgotha was the end of the story, then this week would not be a Holy Week.  We go to the Upper Room, the Garden, the trial, Golgotha, and the tomb that was sealed knowing the end of the story:  Early on the first day of the week, the holy women went and found that all suffering and pain ends in hope, all sin that is confessed and admitted ends in forgiveness, the death itself is destroyed and life restored. 

         May this Holy Week be an encounter with our crucified and risen Lord.

Filed Under: Fr. Tom's Blog

Project H2O

Imagine what your life would be like if you awoke tomorrow morning and found that there was no water coming into your home. What would you do? Probably you'd get a few gallons of bottled water, and feel a bit grungy and inconvenienced until the water came back on. Other than that, things would really be OK. But what if the water never came back on? And what if the stores ran out of bottled water? What if the nearest drainage ditch became the only place we could get any water at all? … Help The Thirsty

Quick Links

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

Recent Updates

  • Fourth Sunday of Lent
  • Bulletin – March 19, 2023
  • Third Sunday of Lent
  • Bulletin – March 12, 2023
  • Second Sunday of Lent

March 2023

Thursday March 23

5:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Reconciliation in the Chapel
Recurs weekly

Saturday March 25

9:00 am – 10:00 am
Saturday Morning Miracles Group
Recurs weekly

Sunday March 26

8:00 am – 9:00 am
Mass at St. Mary
Recurs weekly
11:00 am – 12:00 pm
Mass At St. Mary's
Recurs weekly

Monday March 27

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Eucharistic Adoration
Recurs weekly

Wednesday March 29

5:45 pm – 7:45 pm
Full Message Group of N.A.
Recurs weekly
6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
Smart Recovery Group
Recurs weekly
7:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Friends & Family Meeting
Recurs weekly
View Full Calendar

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!

Download our app on the Google Play Store
Download our app on the App Store

Serving Since

Copyright ProspectGenius and Church of St. Mary at Clinton Heights 2023