As we move toward the end of this year’s Lenten season, while there is a presumption that you have been engaging in some additional aesthetic practices as a necessary effort to prepare for the reception of Easter graces, it is not too difficult to notice a common thread in all three of this Sunday’s holy scripture readings, i.e. forget about the past, whether successes or failures, and concentrate on the future. Thus Isaiah: “Remember not the events of the past… see I am doing something new.” St. Paul to the Philippians: “… forgetting what lies behind but straining forward to what lies ahead.” And finally, Jesus to the woman caught in adultery: “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin anymore.” It is never too late to repent. But it is necessary to do so, if we want to share in the new creation. “I continue my pursuit toward the goal, the prize of God’s upward calling, in Christ Jesus.”

Faith Formation Grades 1-5: Class this Sunday, April 7 and final class April 14. Saturday, May 4, First Communion Retreat and First Communion at the 8:30AM Mass on Sunday, May 5. Junior High Youth Program: Next class is April 14 and April 28. Confirmation Preparation: Next class is April 14 and April 28.

God, our Father, Bless our Parish of the Sacred Heart. Help us to welcome all who come to worship, adore and praise You, the One true God and Father of us all. Jesus, be with us, as we celebrate your life, death and resurrection in Word and Sacrament. Holy Spirit, fill our parish family with your love. Help us to love one another in our parish and in our family. Guide us in your holy will for the present and the future of our Parish of Sacred Heart. Amen.

Divine Mercy Services will be held Sunday, April 28 at 2pm at St. Mary’s Church, Lodge and Pine Streets, Albany. There will be a Holy Hour, Rosary, Divine Mercy Chaplet, Confession and Mass. Father Jeffrey L’Arche, M.S. and Father Michael Flannery will be the celebrants. A good will offering will be collected. For information call 518-462-4108.

“They forgot the God who had saved them, who had done great deeds in Egypt” (Ps.106:21) Some thirty years ago I attended a lecture by an esteemed German Jewish historian, Pinchas Lapide. I recall an ominous warning he issued to his fellow Jews in America and Western Europe.” The greatest danger Jews face today”, he declared, “is not Antisemitism; it is religious indifference. Too many Jews have simply lost interest in their Jewish faith”. The 106th Psalm is generally classified as a Historical Psalm. It was likely composed during the Babylonian exile in the sixth century B.C. The Psalmist scolds the Chosen People for forgetting what God had done for them. No fewer than three times in this lengthy Psalm we are told that the people did not remember but rather had forgotten the meaning of their commitment and failed to live according to the covenant. Indeed, they suffered from a collective amnesia! It is abundantly clear that in the secular West, God is an afterthought and is largely forgotten. The divine commandments are ignored and places of worship are either closed or emptying. Idolatry has replaced genuine worship. “They exchanged their glory, for the image of a grass-eating bull” (Ps. 106:20). Clearly this disturbing trend does not bode well for the future of the West. May the memory of our Christian faith never fail us. Let the words of a contemporary hymn always inspire us to witness to our faith in Christ: “We remember, we celebrate, we believe.

The Lord of hosts is with us; our stronghold is the God of Jacob. Think of our US military. It’s the most powerful force in the world. Combined with our law enforcement and FBI officers (all those people Father Vaughn prays for every mass), they are constantly holding the forces of evil at bay. They are the warrior protectors of America. Now imagine if each one of them, in their oath to protect and serve, made their oath to protect and serve YOU, by name? “I do solemnly swear to support and defend [insert name], against all enemies…” Let me ask; if you knew you had a legion of protectors to call on at a moment’s notice whenever you were in trouble, would that change your life? Would you have anything to fear? Would you truly feel like a king, or a queen? Would you feel beloved? Reflect on today’s Psalm. See how our God, the God of the universe, chooses to reveal himself as the possession of mankind, as the supreme protector and guardian. Enter into this intimate reality, and experience how perfect Love casts out all fear.