The Face of the Blessed Mother

Posted on December 31, 2025 by Rev. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.

Let’s face it. This is an important day. (January 1) Honoring the Blessed Mother with a clear vision because it’s 2026 time.

For a whole year, we heighten our vision. The way we look at things. The ways we perceive when perceptions are deceiving. The way we can judge others when there’s no trail. Be amazed either for the first time or the umpteenth time at the simplest of things. Go ahead and let your friends think that you’ve lost it.

Let’s face it. Shakespeare wrote, “God gave you one face, and you make yourself another.” Sin and mistakes can be wonderful events, only if we learn and live through them. So go ahead and fall flat on your face. Another quote says, “Falling on your face, at the very least, is a step forward.” Never giving up and doing an about-face but taking grace-filled next step forward. If not falling, then sometimes we all need a good slap in the …

The first face the child Jesus sees, the face of his mother. What kind of face is she making looking down at his face? Smiling? Relief? Wonder at this wonderful birth? Wonder about what kind of life this newborn will have?

How about our faces? Another quote says, “The face is more honest than the mouth will ever be.” They call them “tells.” You can tell if I’m lying to you if while speaking I touch my nose or look down. How many other “tells” that we’re not even aware of but detect in conversations. The face cannot lie.

Just observe the faces of older adults and you’ll see their whole life. Complete with wrinkles and lines that exhibit a fully lived life. Pity those botox folks who nip and tuck away their earned faces, as though they’re a cat with eight of them left.

The face of the Blessed Mother shows us all how to live our lives. It’s as plain as the nose on your face. She treasured all things in her heart. (Not her mind, mind you, but within her heart.) The pagan god of which January is named after has two faces, the past, and the future. When we say that “your two-faced,” it’s calling you a liar. When said about Mary, it means that all the significant past events of her life are kept safely stored away. And, always with an eye toward an unknown but trusting future.

At face value, what better way to begin a new year than with the face of Mary, as best as we can imagine her, guiding our steps and showing us the way to her Son, the God/Man.

Forget the words. I can tell by faces greeting people after Mass. “Nice sermon, Father.” I smile to myself because the deacon preached. It’s all captured in the face.

Another quote, “A face is like the outside of a house, and most faces, like most houses, give us an idea of what we can expect to find inside.”

She saw his promising face at birth and so few years later wept looking at his vacant face. The meeting of those two faces truly makes this day solemn and special.

Let’s face the facts. Please trust me on this, I’m not just another pretty face. (I couldn’t resist!) The Blessed Mother witnesses for us the faces of the world. She shows us how to look into the face of another person the way she looked into her son’s. To quote a Broadway play, “To love another person is to see the face of God.” With a clear 2026 vision may this year be guided for us by the continuing protection and console of Mary, the one we call Blessed Virgin.

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“Inbetween,” The Way It Was Meant To Be

Posted on December 27, 2025 by Rev. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.

My favorite time of the year is this between time between Christmas and New Years’. It’s a favorite because it describes a pet word of mine. Its meaning means what we all love …and… sometimes hate. “Inbetween.” I know that it’s two words, as it should be, because it combines the “now” and then the “then.” But the Church thinks of it as, truly, one word.

After December 25, when do we stop saying, “Merry Christmas?” Is it the 26 or does the 26 still count but not the 29? When do we begin to say “Happy New Year?” Is it December 27, or do we wait until New Years Day, 12:01 a.m., to call all our neighbors and friends? (I wouldn’t suggest that, by the way.)

The time that is “in between.” You find yourself grieving and anxious at the same time when you leave one job and anticipate another. “Maybe I should have stayed on just a few more years,” you think to yourself, “But this new job looks better.” So why not. If someone tells you that she’s “in between jobs” then it becomes an uncomfortable time. It means that the “in between” is twining (being joined together) waaaay too long. Her saying “in between jobs” is a polite way of not saying “unemployed.” You raise a family during this “in between” time, typically lasting around 18 years. But you find that that time gets longer and longer as you wake your 30-year-old son to get to work.

The doctor tells you “two weeks” for those test results, and you’ve now created for yourself the space that becomes those two words. A spouse or good friend passes away, and that dreadful space is again created between the death and periodic cemetery visits.

Our whole lives are an “in-between” time from our birth to our death. We live in this temporary world temporarily with always a Christian eye toward the eternal life that promises not to be “in between” anything. But we hardly have a clue what that is.
Jesus lived “in between” his birth and his ascension. In the gospels, what comprised His “in between” time is boiled down for us as three years. We continue to live those three years of His during our “in between’s.” His life destroyed time’s duration and erased all of our “in between’s.” And, on this feast day beginning a new year, who’s the humble but strong woman who lived the “in between” time of Jesus. I believe it’s the name that we honor as each new year begins to unfold. All under her guidance and protection.

St. Luke said it best, “Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, (“in between” time anyone?) and to be a sign that will be contradicted (Mary lived with the many of life’s contradictions) and you yourself a sword will pierce so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” A sword toward Mary breaks the difference between then and now. The Blessed Mother confirms the unity that her Son lived and died for.

Retirement can rightly be called an“in between time.” We’re “in between” whatever we did and what follows receiving that gold watch. What does time mean to a retired person? An extra cup of coffee with a good friend because time moves slower? Or, do you say to yourself at 11:00 p.m., “Ah, go ahead and finish the movie. I’ll sleep-in tomorrow morning.” Or, better yet, “I’d like to volunteer for something, but I’m not sure what.”

And for those who continue to work? That “in between time” from Friday night to Monday morning belong? How is that time spent and honored?
Well, so much for my “in between” behavior as though there is “this” (earth) and “that” (heaven). The two have been miraculously united. “On earth as it is in heaven,” anyone?

So, there you have it. I’ve been happy to be your spoken “in between guy” during Mass. I’m the guy sandwiched between the sacred scripture readings and the good part that happens at the altar. It’s the Masses’ ending part that joyfully offers us His Body to erase our “in between” times as He showed us how to do it.

So … do I wish you a “Merry Christmas,” or have you already thrown away your Christmas tree when it’s properly disposed of on February 2? Or … do I wish you a “Happy New Year” because I’m wearing that silly pointed cap with my noisemaker?” Or, should I say the elusively inclusive, “Happy Holidays?”

Or, from a Christian perspective, is it both/and all performed and lived at the same time?

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John the Baptist and Jesus Christ: best friends

Posted on December 11, 2025 by Rev. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.


We know them respectfully as John the Baptist and Jesus Christ. We honor them whenever the Mass calls for it.

But these two people were, indeed, people. Just like you and me. Their mysterious lives slowly unfold, just like ours. What was life like for these two cousins, one born of the Holy Spirit and the other born of who could have been his great-grandmother? Jesus and John.

Or, as they referred to each other as young boys, “Johnny and JC.” Johnny didn’t know what the “C” stood for, but it kinda sounded cool coupled with the letter “J.”

Wouldn’t Mary have yelled out, “Jesus, go see what your cousin is up to. You’ve been in the house reading all day.” “Oh, okay mom, just let me finish this chapter,” Jesus would reply. He’d see John (or now “Johnny”) by the seashore building a sand castle. Johnny called it “his kingdom” and Jesus (or now “JC”) would say, “But it’s only built of sand and won’t last the test of time. Let’s go for a run.” And the two of them, now being twelve or thirteen years old, would try to outrace each other from nowhere to whenever they lost their young steam. They’d both fall down laughing and wondering where to get a drink of desert water.

They didn’t live really close to each other but kept in touch as often as possible. Jesus’ parents allowed Jesus to spend the summers at John’s mother house (even though she looked more like his great-grandmother). They’d exchange books they both enjoyed and talk about their future lives, as teenagers do. JC wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps as most boys during those times did. Johnny wasn’t sure what his father did for a living, but ever since his father got his voice back John thought that he also spoke well, and perhaps a public speaking future was in his job.

It may only be a coincidence but both admitted an itch inside themselves, but they couldn’t quite identify what it was. It was an itch that couldn’t be scratched. JC thought it was that he hadn’t traveled much. His mom told him about their trip to Egypt, but JC didn’t remember anything about it. Johnny loved to talk, sometimes too much, but he knew he needed a message; to talk about something important. JC told Johnny that he didn’t want to talk, he wanted to proclaim. JC thought about it and wondered if it was about a better life for humanity, a hopeful future not built on sand but by God. “Wow, JC” Johnny said, “You’ve been reading waaay too much.”

Since video games weren’t invented yet, JC and Johnny had plenty of time to enjoy nature, each other’s company instead of sitting on a couch staring at the television and holding the controls in your hands to kill everything that moved on the screen. One summer, Johnny taught JC how to swim, since Johnny was six months older. He almost lost JC a couple of times which would have changed our faith-filled history. After learning to swim, then JC’s walking on water would be a cinch years later. They both thought of each other as brothers more than cousins since both were the only child in their families. When Labor Day rolled around, JC return to rabbinical school and John, the same.

Around 27 or 28 years old, those childhood names changed to their real names as maturity set in. John knew that Jesus was right. His verb was not talking, it was proclaim. Jesus was beginning to have signals of his own that taking over his father’s business wasn’t the right father. It was the work of the capitol “F” father.

John looked at Jesus’ feet for over twenty years and knew Jesus needed to put his own sandals on, John couldn’t do it. John could only tell us, I mean, proclaim it about him. John welcomed many into a kingdom not made of sand, but he just had water. Jesus had the Holy Spirit.

But the Spirit was within John as well, beginning with his great-grandmother’s birth to losing his head over his best friend, his cousin, his brother. The destiny of Jesus is well known as well.

They’re both in heaven now because they did their job as we must do ours. But there’s also fun up there. Now, it’s back to “Johnny” and “JC” because that’s how they loved each other.

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Senses 0 – Faith 100

Posted on December 6, 2025 by Rev. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.

“What our senses fail to fathom, let us grasp through faith’s consent,” written hundreds of years ago but as fresh as a winter’s morning.

As part of a hymn and prayer, its meaning takes on potency depending on where and what you are at a given moment of life. My moment is seven months passing to a revival, or should I say, even better an even better “me.” In the baseball of life, the Senses Team believes and think it has a winning time of life with its astute sharpening over and through the years. Adding up education, experiences, books read, and news programs watched and the Seneses run onto the field with the confidence of a peacock. Faith dutifully offers prayers in the quiet of the locker room and calmly walks faithfully onto the field.

I guess for me, to continue the metaphor, my seven months was the halftime. I haven’t written an article for that long. With Advent upon me and energy returning, it just felt right tonight.

I common phrase I’ve used at funerals is, “What we throw at life and what life throws at us.” I accomplished both in one blow. Alochol threw me for many, many years and sharpened what I thought was my senses – hence the number zero on the scoreboard. Prostrate cancer is what was thrown. I’m handling both very well. People ask how I’m feeling and I say, “What’s a better word than’wonderful’?”

We teach and glibly say that faith is a “gift.” That sounds like a box waiting to be opened. (Good for a children’s sermon but that’s about it.) Faith is the breathing heart that influences and informs the senses – all of them. Perhaps this game of life is best played when those two teams become one.

Failing to fathom, I love the descriptive word “grasp.” Holding tight without smothering. Knowing we have it with open hands. Even with a broken elbow for the rest of my life, both of my hands are open to its beauty and grace.

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Advent 2025

Posted on November 30, 2025 by Rev. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.
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Posted on November 30, 2025 by Rev. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.

What are your two favorite things to wear?

In the evening, it’s blue jeans, flannel sweatshirt, and Chuck Taylor, tennis shoes… And I am comfortable for the whole evening… Enjoying a movie and eating popcorn…

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happy Thanksgiving

Posted on November 25, 2025 by Rev. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.
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Posted on November 1, 2025 by Rev. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.

Is there an age or year of your life you would re-live?

Easy to answer… Sophomore year in high school… 1968… Seminary… The music was great. The bonding was even greater… One night we wanted to escape to Manitowoc Wisconsin… We went to the radio station WOMT and ask them to play the song we gotta get out of this place by the animals… We then went to big boy restaurant and with our transistor… We heard the song… And then hitchhiked back to the seminary… And it was only a year later… That I got a part-time job at that same radio station… 

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Posted on October 31, 2025 by Rev. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.

What historical event fascinates you the most?

My older sister, and I have always said if you weren’t alive when John F. Kennedy was assassinated then your opinion doesn’t matter… It sounds smug to say it, but it’s a historical event that has plagued anyone who lived through it and continues to think about it.

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Posted on October 20, 2025 by Rev. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.

What are you most proud of in your life?

I know being ordained a Catholic priest is a big deal, but what lingers in my mind as I get older is having a radio career beginning as a junior in high school and playing all the rock songs that all my peers were listening to.

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