52. Holy Trinity Church

(mass times & church info last updated 03/20/2016)
Address: 213 W. 82nd (between Broadway & Amsterdam)
Phone: 212.787.0634
Weekend Mass Times: 
Sat: 5:30pm (English organ & cantor)
Sun: 7:30am (English), 9:30am (English organ & cantor), 11:15am (English choir), 12:30pm (Spanish), 5:30pm (English contemporary)
Weekday Mass Times: 
Mon-Fri: 9am, 5:30pm (both English)
Thu: 7pm (Spanish)
Confession: Weekdays: 5pm-5:30pm
Nocturnal Adoration: Last Saturdays after the 5:30pm Mass (in church)
Links:
Official Website
Medieval New York
About the Organ
The Blessed Trinity

THE FEAST OF THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD

"Dating back to 1898, the Holy Trinity Church of New York City's Upper West Side...[is] one of the finest examples of Byzantine and Romanesque architecture in New York City, the Church was loosely based on the Hagia Sophia of Istanbul, Turkey. Stunning architecture makes this one of New York's most extraordinary churches. "

- Found on the Nile Guide website

I attended Holy Trinity with my old roommate who I have not seen all that much recently - a trend I've noticed with other friends lately as well. As we all grow older and apart and into marriages and relationships and careers and mundanities it seems we find less and less time to spend with one another. At least though, for today, we managed to go to Mass and then have brunch at the Emerald Inn.

One thing that spoke to me during Mass was the first reading, (Isaiah 55:1-11):

"Thus says the LORD:
All you who are thirsty,
come to the water!
You who have no money,
come, receive grain and eat;
come, without paying and without cost,
drink wine and milk!
Why spend your money for what is not bread,
your wages for what fails to satisfy?
Heed me, and you shall eat well,
you shall delight in rich fare.
Come to me heedfully,
listen, that you may have life...

Seek the LORD while he may be found,
call him while he is near.
Let the scoundrel forsake his way,
and the wicked man his thoughts;
let him turn to the LORD for mercy;
to our God, who is generous in forgiving.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.
As high as the heavens are above the earth
so high are my ways above your ways
and my thoughts above your thoughts.

For just as from the heavens
the rain and snow come down
and do not return there
till they have watered the earth,
making it fertile and fruitful,
giving seed to the one who sows
and bread to the one who eats,
so shall my word be
that goes forth from my mouth;
my word shall not return to me void,
but shall do my will,
achieving the end for which I sent it."

As I look into my finances of the past year and reflect on what junk I have bought up with what little money I have to begin with, and what little value it all has on a spiritual level, I wonder why have I done it all to begin with - filling my place and my room and my life with perverse items (ranging from any of Ikea's disintegrating particle&dust-made items we've purchased to an ongoing series of overindulging restaurants experiences and bar-hops.) Nothing in line whatsoever with what I want my life to be, somehow lead by and to the Divine.

The music played at the 12:30pm Mass was outstanding. I can think of no better word to describe the song played during the offertory than trippy. Beautiful, to be sure, and otherworldly and mystical, as well - but it was also just plain trippy. As I knelt there in the pews of this extraordinary church, my mind carried off into the cosmos as well into the most inner chambers of my soul - and what I saw in both places was the same.

A lot of that, BS to be sure, but the point being is that this church in it's design and concert helped my experience this week to view the Almighty and my life in quite a different way than I have before. Go visit this place and have your own experience.

"...Oh when I got it I just spend it, If I save it, then I get fat, And I don't really want to change it, 'Cause I like it just like that..."

-Bobby Conn