Northern Points Parishes
of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany
Blessed Sacrament, Bolton Landing, St. Isaac Jogues, Chestertown
EVENTS/ANNOUNCEMENTS
- Bishop Mark O’Connell will be with us on Sunday, July 26th. Mass at St. Isaac Jogues will be celebrated at 8:30 am, and Blessed Sacrament will be at 11:00 am. We look forward to welcoming Bishop Mark and sharing this special day together as a faith community.
- The St. Anne Society: is hosting a bake sale fundraiser at St. Isaac Jogues on August 9th. Money raised is used for supplies and shipping costs for the care packages sent six times a year. Stop by to take home a delicious baked goods and donate to this wonderful ministry.
- St Isaac Jogues' Committee for Bishop Mark’s visit: will set up for the reception on Saturday, July 25th at 10:00 am. We will set up outside, in addition to the inside in case it rains.
- Blessed Sacrament's Committee for Bishop Mark’s visit: will meet on Monday, July 20th at 6:30 pm.
- Fall Frolic: will be held on Sunday, September 13th from 2:00 pm till 4:30 pm, at the North Warren Snowmobile Club on Knapp Hill. We are seeking donations of themed baskets or gift certificates that can be included in our basket raffle. Your generosity helps make this event a success and is greatly appreciated. Tickets for our 50/50 raffle are available before and after Masses. Thank you for your support!
- Please know that Fr. John or Barb Carlozzi are available to meet with anyone, most any time, at Blessed Sacrament. Simply call the parish office, and we will be happy to arrange a time to meet.
- Outreach Ministries: Please see below for the many outreach ministries taking place in our community to help those in need.
- 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!
- The St. Anne Society: is hosting a bake sale fundraiser at St. Isaac Jogues on August 9th. Money raised is used for supplies and shipping costs for the care packages sent six times a year. Stop by to take home a delicious baked goods and donate to this wonderful ministry.
- St Isaac Jogues' Committee for Bishop Mark’s visit: will set up for the reception on Saturday, July 25th at 10:00 am. We will set up outside, in addition to the inside in case it rains.
- Blessed Sacrament's Committee for Bishop Mark’s visit: will meet on Monday, July 20th at 6:30 pm.
- Fall Frolic: will be held on Sunday, September 13th from 2:00 pm till 4:30 pm, at the North Warren Snowmobile Club on Knapp Hill. We are seeking donations of themed baskets or gift certificates that can be included in our basket raffle. Your generosity helps make this event a success and is greatly appreciated. Tickets for our 50/50 raffle are available before and after Masses. Thank you for your support!
- Please know that Fr. John or Barb Carlozzi are available to meet with anyone, most any time, at Blessed Sacrament. Simply call the parish office, and we will be happy to arrange a time to meet.
- Outreach Ministries: Please see below for the many outreach ministries taking place in our community to help those in need.
- 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!
St. Isaac Jogues, Chestertown
- Please see below for outreach ministries talking place in our community. - Diocesan Assessment: We have reached our assessment. Thank you! - Mass Cards & Intentions: Please call the office 518-824-1176. |
Blessed Sacrament, Bolton Landing
- Please see below for outreach ministries talking place in our community. - Diocesan Appeal: Raised to date $17,450 with 35 gifts (93% of goal). That’s Awesome! Only $1,445 left to go. - Rosary: Tuesday’s at 9:00 am. - Mass Cards and Intentions: Please call Rita Whitney 518-338-6858. - Prayer Intentions: Please call Pat Nugent 518-668-2765 |
Ministry
How can you be a Missionary of Christ?
We need volunteers!
Greeters, Eucharistic Ministers, Lectors...
For St. Isaac Jogues contact Barb Carlozzi 518-824-1176 or [email protected]
For Blessed Sacrament contact Anne Marie Bell 518-644-3051 or [email protected]
How can you be a Missionary of Christ?
We need volunteers!
Greeters, Eucharistic Ministers, Lectors...
For St. Isaac Jogues contact Barb Carlozzi 518-824-1176 or [email protected]
For Blessed Sacrament contact Anne Marie Bell 518-644-3051 or [email protected]
St Patty's Day Parade
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Our 2025-2026 Diocesan Appeal has begun. The timing of this appeal allows us to ask our summer families to help with this huge undertaking. This appeal pays for schooling and training for our clergy, deacons, seminarian formation, hospitals, college chaplains, and many other operational support systems necessary to successfully perform all the tasks required by the Diocese. Opening this appeal early gives you the opportunity to spread the payments over a longer period of time.
The assessment for St. Isaac Jogues is $15,429. This is $88 more than last year. The assessment for Blessed Sacrament is $18,895. This represents a $2,147 decrease from last year. The calculation of the appeal in each parish is based on the parish's offertory for an average of 3 years. “With the light & strength of the Holy Spirit, let us build a Church founded on God’s love that proclaims the word and becomes a leaven of harmony for humanity.,” from Pope Leo.
To donate online the webpage is: https://thediocesanappeal.org/donate/
The assessment for St. Isaac Jogues is $15,429. This is $88 more than last year. The assessment for Blessed Sacrament is $18,895. This represents a $2,147 decrease from last year. The calculation of the appeal in each parish is based on the parish's offertory for an average of 3 years. “With the light & strength of the Holy Spirit, let us build a Church founded on God’s love that proclaims the word and becomes a leaven of harmony for humanity.,” from Pope Leo.
To donate online the webpage is: https://thediocesanappeal.org/donate/
OUTREACH MINISTRIES
North Country Ministry is seeking donations of men’s casual clothes. (jeans, flannel shirts & hoodies). In addition, children’s clothes and shoes! Women’s clothing is currently not needed. If you would like to donate clothes to NCM, please drop them off Monday & Tuesday from 9 am- Noon at the front Building located at 3933 Main Street, Warrensburg, NY 12885. No Volunteers Needed
Catholic Charities: “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.” If you would like to donate to Catholic Charities for the southern states that were hit by the hurricane, please go to https: www.catholiccharitiesusa.org Remember 100% goes to help those in need.
St. Anne Society: is a Catholic women’s organization focused on parish service and spiritual growth encompassing Blessed Sacrament and St. Isaac Jogues Churches. The group sends out care packages to our young adults in post-secondary education to let them know we care for them and pray for them.
“You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.” — 2 Corinthians 9:11
Catholic Charities: “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.” If you would like to donate to Catholic Charities for the southern states that were hit by the hurricane, please go to https: www.catholiccharitiesusa.org Remember 100% goes to help those in need.
St. Anne Society: is a Catholic women’s organization focused on parish service and spiritual growth encompassing Blessed Sacrament and St. Isaac Jogues Churches. The group sends out care packages to our young adults in post-secondary education to let them know we care for them and pray for them.
“You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.” — 2 Corinthians 9:11
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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