St. Mary of Mount Carmel / Blessed Sacrament Parish
648 JAY ST., UTICA, NY 13501 – 315-735-1482
On a beautiful June day, I decided to pack up some snacks, my camera, a journal and drive to the St. Kateri Tekakwitha National Shrine and Historic Site in Fonda. It is a straight drive east on Route 5. A couple of months earlier, I visited Our Lady of the Martyrs Shrine in Auriesville and made it a goal to visit “the other shrine” in the near future
John Jones emerges every July. He’s the guy who knows everything about setting up for the festival. It’s a tough job, but John does it for the love of his parish.
If you attend the 4:30 Saturday Mass, you know this brother and sister. They are very dedicated to altar serving and participating in other ceremonies, They also help at the festival. Not bad for two people still in their early teens.
In our parish today there are dedicated people who participate in one or more of the many, sometimes unnoticed, ministries to help carry on the day-to-day functioning of the church. A group of nine women shares the chore of laundering of the altar linens and tend to the vestments used in daily and weekend Masses. […]
A few years ago, a well-known motel chain came up with a TV ad campaign that showed a porch light on and the words, “Come home to us, we’ll leave the light on for you.” It’s was an effective approach because it appealed to something so basic to most folks — returning home and being […]
Terry Reale, Mario Scalzo, Joe Furgol, Joe Briggs and Joe Siniscarco have been mainstays before, during and after the festival for decades. They are among a number of others — such as John Jones, Bill Thibault and Carmen D’Ambro — who are dedicated workers who combined have volunteered for more than two centuries!
From time immemorial, feasts, fests, festivals and carnivals have served various purposes in just about every community and culture in the world. The time of a festival promises so many good things for young and old — food, music, games the gathering of old and new friends and family reunions. A good festival can serve […]
Tony Laria is a modern man whose professional career is in technology. He is a bit old fashioned, however, continuing a long line of family members who serve our parish.
Shaelin Siniscarco is just 23 years old but has the wisdom of Solomon. She is a psychiatric nurse who has dedicated herself to helping those with their mental health, realizing that’s a major concern in the world today. Speaking of the world, she wants to help people in other countries deal with their challenges.
In this last of our series on local saints from Central New York and the Mohawk Valley, we present the “most local” of them all, St. Marianne Cope.