Mass Times:
Monday: 12:10 pm
Tuesday: 7:00 am
Wednesday: 7:00 am
Thursday: 12:10 pm
Friday: 7:00 am
Saturday 4:30 pm
Sunday: 8:30 am
Sunday: 10:30 am
Sacrament of Reconciliation:
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WELCOME TO IMMACULATE CONCEPTION PARISH!
We are a Roman Catholic Church located at 113 N. Geneva Street in Ithaca, NY. Whether you are a long-time parishioner or a first time visitor, we’re glad you are here. This is where we gather to meet as brothers and sisters to worship and encounter our Lord, Jesus Christ. We strive to make our parish a community of God’s love, and communion of hearts. Please join us!
Immaculate Conception Catholic Church celebrates the Eucharist and proclaims the gospel—in worship through our love of God and for each other and with our ministry to the marginalized. We journey together in our faith, united by our trust in Christ’s love and mercy and the powerful intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace.
Instructions: Click or tap on the title in each row to expand the information.
Opportunities for additional prayer during Lent are available on this page.
As a reminder, we are offering a new Cornell Community Mass celebrated by Fr. McMullin on Sundays at 1:00pm. While this may involve more Cornell and Ithaca College students, this Mass is open to everyone wishing to attend. You will be required to pre-register for this Mass. Please register here.
The Parish Center (Office) is Closed on Fridays, which is also Fr. Chumo’s day off. Please try to conduct your business with the office Monday— Thursday.
Welcome to our new website template! This template is designed to reflect and revolve around the four main goals of the parish: Outreach, vibrant youth and family ministries, abundant spiritual opportunities, and financial stability. Everything we do from prayer to programming flows from these goals and our website will now intentionally reflect this as well. We hope this new website will help strengthen our community, and provide unique ways to participate in our faith during the COVID Pandemic, and beyond.
Please take some time to visit the different pages and try the various interactions. A video tutorial is provided at the top of this page.
See if you can find:
You can get to everything on the website from 3 main places:
We hope you enjoy the revisions to our website! We will continue to evolve the site as ideas are generated. Please send us an idea or a comment about the new layout here.
Every Thursday there will be Lenten Holy Hour with Adoration at 11:00am, weekly through March 26th. Stations of the Cross will take place every Friday at 6:00pm. Stations will be led by groups, but within COVID guidelines. The church will be open for private prayers and Stations for anyone during this Lenten season until 6:00pm. Let’s make these 40 days a sacred time of prayer and a time for spiritual renewal.
LENTEN COLLECTION BAGS
Our annual tradition during Lent is to distribute collection bags to benefit Catholic Charities. These bags are located at the side entrances and the main entrances to church. Please take one home and collect your spare change and cash over the Lenten season. We will have a return station set up prior to Holy Week. Thanks for your support!
YOUNG ADULT OPPORTUNITIES
There are upcoming events for Young Adults beginning with a Lenten Holy Hour every Friday from 7:00—8:00 PM in the Church. This is a wonderful
opportunity to find some inner peace amid these days of upheaval and let God into your heart.
We continue with our Monthly Cleaning and Sanitizing of the church on the 2nd Saturday of each Month at 9:00am. Next opportunity is on March 13th. Cleaning supplies provided.
We are delighted to resume our ongoing zoomed Catechesis. This time we will journey through the Gospel of Mark beginning on February 24 through March 24. We encourage many participants. Kindly sign up by emailing sparrow.jen@gmail.com In the meantime read the text. Mark has only 16 chapters, the shortest Gospel.
Additional resources will be available on this page as the study occurs.
Open the Diocesan Newsletter here.
If you wish to contribute ($10) toward the purchase of Easter Flowers & Decorations in memory of a loved one, please contact the Parish Office, 273-6121, or fill out and return the special marked blue envelopes now available in the rear of church. These do not automatically renew, so you must contact the office if you wish to have your intention included. Deadline: March 25, 2021.
If there is a Winter Weather Warning, the office will be CLOSED. 7:00am masses will be cancelled, but 12:10pm masses will still be held. Check the MyParish app as all updates will be listed. You can download the parish app by going to the app store on your cell phone and search for MyParish App. Once it is loaded, search for Immaculate Conception Church, Ithaca. Click on the parish and you are all set.
Respect life resources are available on this page.
40 Days for Life—a Lenten opportunity Ash Wednesday—Palm Sunday (2/17-3/28). An hour each week at “The Prayer Chapel”, the sidewalk across the street from 620 W. Seneca St. during Lent is a special opportunity to pray, fast and love. Consider yourself as a life-affirming resource to those seeking answers about an unplanned pregnancy. Visit www.40daysforlife.com/ithaca to sign-up & explore the many prolife resources.
Notre Dame Retreat House is offering “Lenten Desert Days” (5151 Foster Rd. Canandaigua, NY 14424)
This Lent we invite you to take time out of everyday life and spend some time reviewing your relationship with God. This past year has been challenging. What better way to put life in perspective than to seek God’s guidance through reading, reflecting, and praying. We will provide material or you may bring your own. The day is yours to spend alone with God. We are offering six dates to make a retreat.
Space is limited, so registration is required. (In order to address social distancing requirements and needs, at this time we are limiting attendance on each date to fifteen (15) people.)
For specifics on dates, retreat format, cost and how to register, please visit: www.notredameretreat.org Other inquiries, please contact us at 585-394-5700 or email ndretreat@rochester.rr.com
The St. Joseph Novena starts on Wednesday, March 10th and will be offered for the intentions of “the domestic church’ as a basis of strengthening the local and the Universal Church.
We are furthering our efforts to celebrate the Year of St. Joseph. Parishioners are urged to pray the St. Joseph Novena— booklets are available at the Parish Office. For those wishing a more in-depth study, Consecration to St. Joseph Books are available at the Parish Office. There is a limited supply and books will need to be signed out. These are primarily for those who are serious and will follow the 33-day consecration. St. Joseph novena candles should be arriving soon.
Thank you so much for those who have contributed to this appeal. We kindly appeal to those who are yet to make a contribution to do so. It would be wonderful to make our goal during Lent.
If you did not get your envelope for this Catholic Ministries Appeal (CMA) kindly call the parish office (607-273-6121) for assistance. We thank you in advance for your support.
We sat down with Father Chumo for a Lenten conversation about suffering and hope…
The goal of our conversation is to acknowledge the bad experiences of a global magnitude. The Covid-19 pandemic has hit all peoples, cultures, and classes, and the poor have been hit hard.
This is a question in people’s minds. There are all levels of suffering—spiritual, social, economic, emotional, physical affecting us all right now. Besides the pandemic there are added catastrophes—blizzards, severe cold, people with no electricity or water. We say it’s like scratching healing wounds.
First of all, we are finite creatures, subject to anything that affects living creatures, and we don’t have the power to overcome suffering. God alone can eliminate suffering through Christ. Jesus the Lamb of God takes away the sins of the world and he did that through suffering on the cross. We must turn our eyes and hearts toward Jesus. He alone is the answer to what afflicts humanity.
We can minimize the effects of suffering if we pull together. We have scientists who work on technology and medical breakthroughs, philanthropists who have compassion, organizations that are moved to help, good governments that take care of people.
It’s a puzzle. God never intended us to suffer. All he created was good. Suffering came as a result of sin, specifically the fall of our first parents. We have to follow Jesus and his approach in addressing human suffering. When asked, Jesus never explained why suffering exists, he only responded with mercy and compassion to human suffering. Jesus immersed himself in the heart of human situation with all of its complexities. He was never aloof, and he went beyond what he did in life, he died for us.
Never underestimate the power of prayer to transform suffering. Through prayer we gain the power of Christ and his generosity, the power to stand in solidarity with those suffering, to share the warmth and comfort of His love and compassion. In John (16:20) Jesus says,
“Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices; you will grieve, but your grief will become joy.”
This is what Easter promises. This is where our hope lies. We can rely on the words of Scripture for hope in the face of suffering. We must remain confident:
I believe I shall see the Lord’s goodness in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord, take courage; be stouthearted, wait for the Lord! (Psalm 27:13-14).
No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:37-39).
The role of the Christian community is to comfort those afflicted. St. Paul puts it very clearly:
Let us give thanks to the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the merciful Father the God from whom all helps comes! He helps us in all our troubles, so that we are able to help others who have all kinds of troubles using the help that we ourselves have received from God. Just as we have a share in Christ’s many sufferings, so also through Christ we share in God’s great help (1 Corinthians 1:3-5).
Jesus didn’t teach us to perform miracles, he taught us to love. True love can work miracles We respond to human suffering following the example of Christ.
Our parish has not been paralyzed in this pandemic. We have faith and a robust outreach. We have been drawn to prayer and the participation in the care of our church. Our church has been a refuge for those who want to meet Jesus in the face of suffering. Parishioners have been faithful to the Lord, and to the pandemic guidelines and have been renewing their vitality each day. They have responded so generously to goodness. They have given to those affected by the pandemic materially and financially—through the food pantry, the caring ministry, and the prayer chain. The message is that suffering can be defeated if we pull together. We can neutralize its sting. Lent is the time to reflect on the suffering of Christ that brought us salvation, and to join Christ in his passion and emerge victorious.
For those who have lost family/friends, take comfort in the powerful intercession of Immaculate Mary and her spouse, Blessed Joseph.
Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you. See, upon the palms of my hands I have engraved you, your walls are ever before me (Isaiah 49:15-16).
We’re not yet through the pandemic, but we want to encourage you to continue praying to St. Joseph during Lent in this “Year of St. Joseph.” It’s not just the sentiment of Fr. Chumo, but it echoes what all the parish feels and hopes. Faithfulness to God is not an option during trying times. So many good things happened in the midst of the pandemic, we erected a shrine in the backyard, a place of comfort, solace and Mary’s love. Thanks to the parishioners who helped in this endeavor. Let’s keep doing that which enhances hope. In the midst of the pandemic, it has never grown the worst of us.
Our church is open daily, and more people are coming for prayer. The church is open daily until 6:00 pm for private prayer and Stations of the Cross.
The Gospel starts with withdrawing to the mountain with three of his disciples; the same disciples who witnessed his agony in the garden of Gethsemane. Whenever the great masters of that time wanted to reveal something important to their disciples, they used to withdraw to a remote place and there in secret, would reveal his teaching. What Jesus wanted to teach his disciples was extremely important. The high mountain stands for a place where God manifests himself. God spoke to Moses from the mountain. On the mountain He revealed Himself to Elijah, the very two persons we find in the Gospel. The white clothes are a manifestation of identity of Jesus. The white color symbolized the world of God and was a sign of joy and happiness. Elijah and Moses are great personalities of the Old Testament.
The story of the Transfiguration is at the Centre of Marks Gospel. The Disciples from the very beginning had begun asking themselves who Jesus was. Their ideas were still very confused. Like the rest of the people, they expected a glorious messiah. Peter who suggests that they make tents was convinced that with the messiah coming, it was no longer necessary to die. They did not know yet that the only way to glory is the way of the cross that leads to the resurrection.
The driving of the traders from the temple is related in all four gospels and this underlines the importance the writers attached to it. The gospel shows us Jesus arriving at the temple at the time of the Easter feast. We do not know what he felt when he saw what was going on, but we can understand what his feelings may have been. He does not say a word. He only ties together pieces of rope to bind the animals and then begins to force everyone out. We are surprised. We should never have thought him capable of such violence. We have always thought of him as calm and peaceful. What does it mean?
He reminds his listeners of Zachariah’s prophecy that when the Messiah comes there will be no traders in the temple of Yahweh. By purifying the temple of traders, Jesus declares that the kingdom of the Messiah has begun and he condemns every combination and confusion between religion and economic interests. Religion is often used to hide things that have nothing to do with the gospel. The existence of such since must not be denied. We as Christians should aim to be irreproachable on this point, otherwise the point we are trying to bring will lose credibility.
Secondly, Jesus says “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up” He is now speaking of a new temple and a beginning of a new cult. He was speaking of his body, a temple that will be built in three days– that is the Easter story. Everything Jesus did was pointing to the great event of Easter.
Thursdays: 11:00am Holy Hour with Adoration
Fridays: 6:00pm Stations of the Cross
Fridays: 7:00pm Young Adult Holy Hour
In receiving the body of Christ we are strengthened to be the body of Christ in the world.
The Blessed Mother, Mary. is our parish patroness and the true model of faith. We honor her through prayers of intercession.
Our mission includes striving to be a community of God's love and service in our community and the world.
Father Chumo hears confessions each Saturday from 2:30pm - 4:00pm. This is a healing sacrament enjoyed by many, so come early!
21 beautiful stained glass windows of the Saints are visible around our church building.
You'll find a vibrant faith community where ideas are welcome and many hands help to bring them to fruition.
113 N Geneva Street Ithaca, NY | 607-273-6121 | Office Hours: Monday - Thursday 8:00am - 4:00pm
Please call 607-273-6121 if you or a loved one is hospitalized, and/or would like to receive the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick (Last Rites).