We Share - Direct and Online Donations
Your continued generosity is important to help our parish maintain financial stability and services during these unprecedented times. Please consider signing up for online donations at https://stjohnalden.weshareonline.org If you are having difficulty with this link, or you would prefer to set up your donation directly, please email Kate Wypij at [email protected]
Donations (checks only, please do not send cash through regular mail) may also be mailed or dropped off to the office at 2021 Sandridge Rd, Alden, NY 14004.
Thank you!
Welcome
St. John the Baptist family of parishioners is a faith-filled Catholic Christian community which believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, in His Church and its teachings, under the direction of our spiritual leaders. We watch and pray as we follow His call to love, life, fellowship and holiness.
Mass Schedule
Weekend Masses have resumed and are being held inside at 4pm Saturdays and 8:00, 9:30, and 11:00 am Sundays. All weekend Masses are available via Live Stream and On Demand for playback at your convenience. Come pray with us by visiting our Live Stream Portal. Or, you can Like our Facebook page and see it there ... click this link St. John the Baptist Church Facebook page.
Daily Morning Mass at 8:30am has resumed.
Please check the Reopening Plans tab for further information.
Office hours
9:00 am until 2:00 pm
The emergency line is still available and will be checked regularly. All staff members can be reached via email. We apologize for any confusion during these trying times and encourage everyone to stay safe, stay home and pray.
(716) 937-6959
Spring Sweepstakes Winners
Our first ever Drive-thru Chicken BBQ and Plant Sale were a huge success! Thank you EVERYONE who made this day soooo great!
Congratulations to the WINNERS of the Spring Sweepstakes Drawing...
$4000 Laurie Coccionitti
$1000 Ron Mayer
$500 Marie Bieniek
$500 WNY Asset Management (Donated back to St. John's)
$250 Rick Szymanski
$250 Mike Was
$100 Judy Fleming
$100 WNY Asset Management (Donated back to St. John's)
$100 Ellen Faucett
$100 Joan Sommer
$100 Rocky Kotas
$50 Marie Strauss
$50 Tracey Golding
$50 Mike Boling
$50 Barbara Galina
$50 Marie Bieniek
$50 Jena Caparrelli
$50 Jeff Zaleski
$50 Jeff Zaleski
$50 Margaret Trembley
$50 Mark Krysczak
Upcoming Events
Fall Fest Brought to you by St. John’s School: We are hosting a huge Theme Basket Raffle at St. John’s during our Fall Festival October 2nd through 4th ! HSA needs your help and support as we are currently looking for donations of theme baskets and gift cards valued at $25 or more. We hope that you might consider donating one from your family or business for this event! Please reach out to us here, via Facebook Messenger, or at 716-870-1035 with questions or if you can help. Much thanks! Michelle and Jeff
St. John’s Fall Cash Raffle: It’s that magical time of the year again! Tickets for the annual raffle are now available for a $20 donation. If you would like us to mail you a ticket, please call the rectory at 937-6959 or email us at [email protected] Tickets are also available at the school, in the rectory entryway, or in the side entryway of the church.
Parish Town Hall Meeting: Our scheduled Town Hall Meeting has been postponed. We will publish the new date when known.
Mass Intentiond and Sanctuary Light: We have started taking Mass Intention and Sanctuary Light requests again. If you would like a Mass requested
Be A Part of St. John’s History! In honor of our 170th anniversary, we are publishing an amazing cookbook full of a variety of delicious recipes from our amazing parishioners! There is still time to add your special touch with your very own recipes. We need all contributions by September 25, 2020 please. Multiple recipes from all parishioners are gratefully accepted and thank you to all who have already contributed. Cookbooks will be $12 each, so if you would like to order one, please contact the rectory or pick up a pink pre-order sheet from either entrances of the church. All books will be ready for Christmas time.
PARISH CALENDAR - Please note that all ministries must let us know if they would like to use any of the buildings for meetings for safety reason and anything used must be cleaned up. If you would like to schedule a meeting, please contact the rectory.
Staff
- Deborah Brown, Pastoral Administrator
- Rev. Msgr. Vincent Becker, Priest Moderator
- Rev. James Walter, Sacramental Minister
- Rev. Richard DiGuilio, Weekend Assistant
- Deacon Marc Leaderstorf, Permanent Deacon
- Deacon Peter Donnelly, Permanent Deacon
- Jonna Johnson, St. John's School Principal
- Jennifer Golinski, Family Faith Formation Director
- Katherine (Kate) Wypij, Business Manager
PrayerForce One Blog
Forgiveness
Posted in PrayerForce One Blog on 09/18/20
The readings of the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time are about forgiveness. Forgiveness is ... Read More »
"I" is a four-letter word
Posted in PrayerForce One Blog on 07/07/20
Homily - 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time (July 5, 2020)
I begin with a ... Read More »
Trinity Today
Posted in PrayerForce One Blog on 06/06/20
I've struggled with writing today about what should be a joyous celebration of the ... Read More »
St. John's Herald
Virtual Live Adoration
Regulations for Using the School
Please follow this link to see the guidlines set for use of St. John's School after hours
*Please remember that no one is allowed into the building during regular school hours*
Daily Mass Readings
Saturday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
09/19/20 5:30 am
Friday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
09/18/20 5:30 am
Thursday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
09/17/20 5:30 am
Debbie Brown Liturgical Corner
Our first reading this week (Isaiah 55:6-9) exhorts us to “Seek the Lord while he may be found, call on him while he is still near.” As I reflected on this I wondered about it a bit. When is God ever far from us for I believe he is always near? Then I remembered a cross stitch that hung on the stair well landing at my parish in Gasport many years ago. It said simply: “If you don’t feel close to God, guess who moved.” Then I got it – God is close when we reach out. So in that moment when you are aware of God whether it is the result of Eucharist, prayer, reading the Bible, or maybe Eucharistic Adoration, you should reach out to him. And what do we ask God? Isaiah is clear: “let us turn to the Lord for mercy; to our God, who is generous in forgiving.” The passage ends with this image of God: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways and my thoughts above your thoughts.” God calls us beyond our selfish, human self to a lofty life of love and grace. The Responsorial Psalm (Ps 145: 2-3,8-9,17-18) affirms this thinking: “The Lord is near to all who call upon him.”
The Gospel (Matthew 20:1-16a) contains a parable about laborers who start at different times of the day but end up getting paid the same wage. It is a difficult one to understand, but it is an illustration of how God’s ways are above our ways. The human way of thinking is one of reciprocity. I work, you pay me. I want to buy this item, it costs $ X. Tit for tat. This is called an exchange economy and is very familiar to us. It is about debt and obligation. Now think in God’s perspective. God’s economy is one of mercy and grace. As Psalm 145 says: “The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness.” God’s economy is an unconditional one with superabundant love and mercy. We can only understand this parable if we see the contrast between God’s view and a human view. God’s economy does not make sense to us, especially if we feel we have not gotten the “compensation” or “recognition” we deserve. Instead of being upset, we need to see that God is loving and generous to all. This should lead us to be grateful for all that God has done and happy that we all get a share in God’s love. We should rejoice for each other instead of being petty and jealous.
In the end, God’s generosity is clearly demonstrated in many ways, not the least of which is the sending of a Son to redeem us. This prompts us to become ever more aware that our own sins are forgiven and that we ourselves are beneficiaries of God’s unconditional love and mercy. How can we not treat others the same way? The Lord is near to all who call upon him.
Parish & School Calendar
Prayer for a New Bishop
Merciful Father, you gave us shepherds as successors of the apostles to guide and govern your church.
We implore your Holy Spirit to guide the selection process as a new bishop is chosen to lead our diocese.
May he be a pastor filled with holiness and compassion who will foster healing and a greater love of your name.
Allow our hearts to be open to the candidate of your choosing so that, together as disciples of Jesus, we may continue to build your kingdom. Amen.
"Let us ask God to help us set out on a path of true conversion. Let us leave behind our selfishness and self-absorption, and turn to Jesus’ Pasch. Let us stand beside our brothers and sisters in need, sharing our spiritual and material goods with them. In this way, by concretely welcoming Christ’s victory over sin and death into our lives, we will also radiate its transforming power to all of creation." Pope Francis, October 4, 2018
Bible Search
Message from Debbie
How difficult is your life right now? There is so much strain on everyone in so many ways. We are fearful of the virus, fearful of our economic future, struggling with our relationships and, all the while, wondering when life will get back to normal. Father Jim Walter suggested an reflection, entitled “Fever” by Ronald Rolheiser, written May 4, 2020 because it gives some good emotional and spiritual insights that we can use right now. Here is an excerpt that I hope you find helpful. At the end is the link to the whole article.
"I recall, too, as a graduate student sitting in on a series of lectures by the renowned Polish psychiatrist, Kasmir Dabrowski, who had written a number of books around a concept he termed, “positive disintegration”. His essential thesis was that it is only by falling apart that we ever grow to higher levels of maturity and wisdom. Once, during a lecture, he was asked: Why do we grow through the disintegrating experiences such as falling ill, falling apart, or being humiliated? Would it not be more logical to grow through the positive experiences of being loved, being affirmed, being successful, being healthy, and being admired? Shouldn’t that fire gratitude inside us and, acting out of that gratitude, we should become more generous and wise?"
He gave this response: "Ideally, maturity and wisdom should grow out of experiences of strength and success; and maybe in some instances they do. However, as a psychiatrist, all I can say is that in forty years of clinical practice I have never seen it. I have only seen people transformed to higher levels of maturity through the experience of breaking down."
Jesus, it would seem, agrees. Take, for example, the incident in the Gospels, where James and John come and ask whether they might be given the seats at his right hand and left hand when he comes into his glory. It is significant that he takes their question seriously. He does not (in this instance) chide them for seeking their own glory; what he does instead is redefine glory and the route to it. He asks them: “Can you drink the cup?” They, naïve as to what is being asked of them, responded: “Yes, we can!” Jesus then tells them something to which they are even more naïve. He assures them that they will drink the cup, since eventually everyone will, but tells them that they still might not receive the glory because being seated in glory is still contingent upon something else.
What? What is “the cup”? How is drinking it the route to glory? And why might we not receive the glory even if we do drink the cup? The cup, as is revealed later, is the cup of suffering and humiliation, the one Jesus has to drink during his passion and dying, the cup he asks his Father to spare him from when in Gethsemane he prays in agony: “Let this cup pass from me!”
In essence, what Jesus is telling James and John is this: There is no route to Easter Sunday except through Good Friday. There is no route to depth and wisdom except through suffering and humiliation. The connection is intrinsic, like the pain and groans of a woman are necessary to her when giving birth to a child. Further still, Jesus is also saying that deep suffering will not automatically bring wisdom. Why not? Because, while there is an intrinsic connection between deep suffering and greater depth in our lives, the catch is that bitter suffering can make us deep in bitterness, anger, envy, and hatred just as easily as it can make us deep in compassion, forgiveness, empathy, and wisdom. We can have the pain, and not get the wisdom.
Read the full article here.
You are in my thoughts and prayers as you go through these difficult times. May you know the love and care and guidance of Christ as you go. May you grow in the way of Christ not the way of bitterness.
In my deepest faith, hope, and love for all,
Debbie
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