7. St. Andrew Church

(mass times & church info last updated 09/21/2010)
Address: 20 Cardinal Hayes Place
Phone: 212.962.3972
Email: churchofsaintandrewnyc@verizon.net
Weekend Mass Times:
Sat: 5pm
Sun: 9am, 12pm, 5pm
Weekday Mass Times:
12:10pm, 1:05pm
St. Margaret's Saturday Mass: 3:45pm
Confession: 15 minutes before each Mass
Adoration: Daily 1:30pm-5pm
Rosary: After the 12:10pm & 1:05pm Masses
Architecture
Wikipedia about Saint Andrew
Sister Church of St. Jean Baptiste
I got lost on my way to this church. Heading downtown on the A train, the weekend schedule had disrupted my direct path (as I feared it may and knew it would) around W. 4th street. I sprang up from the stairwell and was greeted by a smoke shop. I proceeded down 6th avenue. Around Church and Reade and Duane and Centre I misplaced myself for a few minutes until my barings and my Blackberry eventually set me straight. When I finally found it I realized I should have known it as that big church just kind of set near city hall.

I entered and knew almost immediately there was a good feeling of being in there.

I was about 10 minutes early - which is rare because I usually enter just as it begins or, shamefully, a few minutes after. I sat near the front. The priest - I'm not sure which of the parish priests it was: Fr. Hayes or Fr. Addai - insisted on presenting his homily in the midst of the congegration - asking direct questions to parishioners that he knew by name and involving everyone sitting there listening.

The Feast of that day was Christ the King. The priest prepared us for next week's first week of Advent - and instructed us over and over again that we should be prepared this season for anything to happen - because things will come from the left and right...

x
(09/21/2010)
additional photos...
Note: I attended the 12:10pm daily Mass today and was struck again by how beautiful this church is. I had kind of forgotten because I hadn't been back since my original visit and all I had to go on were these photos above which do it no justice whatsoever.  It's dark, quiet and the art is well lit.  It is like entering another world in the middle of the work day.  There were about 20 or so in the congregation, I assume all as happy and pleased as I to be there.  The priest must have been a music teacher in another life because before he began, he instructed all of us on how to sing the opening song, verse by verse - and then we sang...

6. All Saints Church

(mass times & church info last updated 08/08/2012) 

Address: 47 East 129th @ Madison Ave.
Phone: 212.534.3535, 212.534.7957

Weekend Mass Times:
Sunday: 10am Gospel Mass (English), 11:30am (Spanish)

Weekday Mass Times:

Mon-Thu: 730am, 7pm

Friday: 7:30pm

Confession: 

Mon-Sat: 5-6pm

Post-Church Activity: conversation

About the Organ

Harlem Site
Encyclopedia Britannica
Landmark Conservancy
Dance
There is only one Weekend Mass at this Harlem Roman Catholic Church and it is at 10am on Sundays and I highly suggest you attend it if ever you have the chance. It is a Gospel Mass - and the singing is outstanding.

The only sad depression of note, which you may find for yourself if you attend, is a lack of congregation.

I envisioned a loud church, a filled-to-capacity-psuedo-cathedral in the midst of Harlem. But, as always the case in most Masses I go to these days, the congregation was sparse, absent, gone. There were maybe 30 in attendance and because it is another old, big, classic church it just seemed strangely empty to me.

That in itself didn't really stop me from enjoying the Mass and the celebration and getting a lot from it, however. There was singing and clapping and during Peace time - when everyone is sharing a handshake and a "Peace be with you," with each other - which lasted about 10 minutes, everyone was so nice and outgoing. A stranger to the city wouldn't of known it was New York.

At the end of the Mass, so many people greeted my friend and I and told us to come back. There was such immense joy and gladness in everyone's eye. My hour and a half at this church in Harlem couldn't help but remind me of Africa and all the wonderful and kind people I met there.

If you've happened upon this blog and are at all interested in attending any of these churches I've written about - you should definately attend this one, this 10am Mass, and greet the people that side for me.

Another note of interest - my friend who attended is a young pretty Catholic girl and of course, if you're getting to know me at all, I couldn't help but to continue to think of her after we spent the rest of the day together, enjoying each other's company very much and agreeing that we should get together again very soon...

5. Church of the Holy Agony

(mass times & church info last updated 08/08/2012) 

Address: 1834 3rd Ave. @ 101st St.

Phone: 212.289.5589
Weekend Mass Times:

Sat: 7:15pm (Spanish)

Sun: (Spanish) 8am, 11am, 12:30pm

Sun: (English, from September-May) 9:30am

Weekday Mass Times:

Mon-Fri: (Spanish): 9am, 7:15pm
Sat: (Spanish): 9am

Post-Church Activity: 
(I had to go to work today - blech!)
- - -
This church on the edge of Spanish Harlem and the Upper East side is small and simplistic. It is a mostly Spanish speaking community it serves and this morning attending the 9:30am Sunday English mass I wondered if I would have been having a more energetic spiritual experience if I had chosen to attend one of the many Spanish speaking masses it offers. I've attended Spanish churches before and though I speak barely any Spanish, there is still such a strong sense of why one is there during the praise and festiveness of a Spanish Mass. On that note, I've also observed that English language Masses at these Spanish churches are always somewhat subdued and very very mellow. I guess the root of all this is language barriers.

This is the smallest and most bare church I've attended in New York City - the decor is standard and certainly no where near the ornateness of St. Paul the Apostle or St. Francis Xavier. As I sat there it did strike me that a lesson could certainly be learned in this. This small square structure up on 101st street, with it's simple Stations of the Cross and standard Catholic statues and stained glass windows practices the same things that go on each week in those other churches I've been to - same rituals, readings, format and celebration of the Eucharist - just without all the grandeur I saw in the others. What does all that mean to a worshipper?

I know on many instances of walking into a church I am just so happy and thankful to be there at all, feeling the peace and presence that accompanies it. Other times it feels really great to be in a beautiful and grand structure - almost as if one feels God so much more because of the grandness. And isn't that why churches were once built so immense and inspiring - to glorify and praise God? But isn't a simple room with nothing more than prayer just as good?

Today I realize (if I hadn't before) that the New York City stratosphere of status and wealth is exemplified in all these churches just as it infiltrates every other aspect of life here.

4. Our Lady of Good Counsel

(mass times & church info last updated 10/10/2010)
Address: 230 E. 90th St. (Between 2nd & 3rd Ave.)
Phone: 212.289.1742
Email: olgcoffice@verizon.net
Weekend Mass Times:
Sat: 5:30pm
Sun: 8:30am, 10am (Spanish), 11:15am (Choir), 12:30pm, 6pm

Weekday Mass Times: 

M-F: 9am, 12pm, 6pm (no 6pm in July/Aug, Nat'l holidays)
Sat: 9am, 12pm
Confession:
M-F: 11:45am in Chapel Sacristy
Sat: 4:30pm-5:15pm
Adoration: First Fridays after 9am Mass to 12pm
Post-Church Activity: Watching the New York Marathon runners enter Central Park (once a year!) and/or stopping by the Guggenheim
About the Organ
About the Image of Our Lady of Good Counsel
About the Painting of Our Lady of Good Counsel
About the Feast of Our Lady of Good Counsel
Wikipedia about Our Lady of Good Counsel


"I've been talkin' drunken jibberish. Fallin' in and out of bars. Tryin' to get some explanation here. For the way some people are." - David Gray

On the first Saturday of each month, Catholic Underground holds a big free entertainment event in the basement of this church. Catholic Underground is a gathering of young New York Catholics coming together to have some fun, share their faith and praise the way one would typically witness and expect those ever-more active Protestant religious to practice. I realize this immediately comes across as kind of an anti-Protestant remark, but it's not. I just mean to say that when I discovered Catholic Underground, I was surprised that such a great many young Catholics were taking the time out of their Saturday nights to go to church. The events typically consist of live music and prayer - but both in moderation and high value. Last month a wonderful Celtic group performed. Last night a film was shown that was produced by Grassroots Films. Having attended these events twice I must say they are not intrusive into one's private faith or worship; allow one to maintain an intense one-on-one peace with God; and are certainly not detractive from everything solemn and holy about Catholicism - and absolutely not annoying or over the top. These events are brought together in part by the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, a monastic order broken off from the Capuchin order. I have spent some time speaking with the brothers and priests of this order and they are amazing. Their alternative ascetic lifestyle at first reminded me of my time in the hippie households of Austin, Texas' university co-op apartments, where young men and women live in seeming harmony with each other, a vegetarian diet and the nature of the world - except I soon realized these brothers practice it for real and for life, as opposed to four years of coming of age (or rather coming to terms with "the real world".) These Friars of the Renewal live in nothing but the real world, caring for the poor and homeless, begging for everything they have, sleeping on mats and resisting the temptations this world thrusts into each of our faces. If any of this sounds interesting you should definately check them out. This order and the Underground are both strong supporters of the new award and critically-acclaimed film Bella, which you should definately go and see.

Living on the West side of the island, it's a great walk through Central Park or around it to get to this great church. Just refer to the above links for better pics or history - I enjoyed the Mass, but obviously other things are running through my mind this week.

Will my dreams ever be reality?

"People always told me, that bars are dark and lonely and talk is all cheap and filled with air."- My Morning Jacket

(10/09/10)
additional photos...