43. Our Lady of Lourdes

Address: 463 W. 142nd St. (East of Amsterdam)
Phone: 212.862.4380
Weekend Mass Times: Sun: 8am (Spanish), 10am (English), 12pm (Spanish), 2pm (Spanish)
Weekday Mass Times: Mon: 8:45am, 7:30pm (English); T-F: 8:45am, 7:30pm (Spanish)
Confession: Sat: 5:30pm-7pm;
Exposition: Sat: 4pm-7pm; 1st Friday of every month: 9am-12pm

Guide To New York City Landmarks

About the Organ

Our Lady of Lourdes School

Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto

LABOR DAY

"This Roman Catholic church, one of the oddest buildings in New York, is composed of pieces salvaged from three of the city's most prominent mid-19th-century landmarks and combined by Cornelius O'Reilly. Much of the High Victorian Gothic facade is a reconstruction of Peter B. Wright's famous National Academy of Design which stood at Fourth Avenue and East 23rd Street. The rear of the church consists of the original east end of James Renwick Jr.'s St. Patrick's Cathedral, which was replaced in 1901-06 by a new lady chapel. The stone pedestals that flank the front steps come from the A. T. Stewart mansion, which stood at Fifth Avenue and 34th Street."

- From the Guide to New York City Landmarks by Andrew Dolkart & Matthew A. Postal

Spanish Mass again today, but no intinction.

Why is it I always find the best churches to visit on these public holidays?

I wasn't able to visit the main church - I believe for these weekday masses they only open the basement chapel - but the chapel is quite an amazing place to be. It's like a cave down there - modeled after the Lourdes Grotto no doubt.

I entered this morning, descended the stairs and came into this darkened, ambient lit, holy place. Again - I could not follow the readings or priest, but I found the atmosphere to extremely lend itself to quiet introspective prayer. When it came time for Communion, the priest offered the Eucharist to me in English - do I really look like such a gringo?

I suppose I will come back here for Sunday Mass some weekend so that I may see the church, but I feel somehow it will not be as special to me as this basement grotto chapel - what I'll forever remember as the "underground cave chapel." It probably truly is one of the oddest buildings in New York, certainly one of the odder churches.

I highly suggest this one to you too - go to weekday Mass here, see the cave.