70. Church of the Epiphany

(mass times & church info last updated 03/09/2016)
Address: 239 E. 21st St.
Phone: 212.475.1966
Weekend Mass Times: 
Sat: 4pm (English)
Sun: 8am (English), 10am (English / Family Mass), 12pm (English / Adult Choir), 7:30pm (English / Adult Contemporary)
Weekday Mass Times: 
M-F: 8am, 12:10pm (both English)
Sat: 8am (English)
Confession: Sat: 3pm-4pm, and by appt.
Rosary:
Every Wed: Following the OLPH Novena
First Monday: After the 8am Mass
First Saturday: 3pm
Exposition: Sat: 3-3:45pm
Miraculous Medal Novena: Monday after each daily Mass
Our Lady of Perpetual Help Novena: Wednesdays after 12:10pm Mass
Constructed: 1967
Links:
Official Website
Greenwich Times article about the church
Article About the Church's Consecration: NY Times 1887
About the Organ
The Epiphany

After a bit of a summer break - palate cleanser if you will - I am back in the city, heading back out into it, constant thoughts fighting each other and rattling around in my big stupid head, yet I am mostly at a loss of where to begin, what to write down.

There is so much to write, but perhaps, this time, it is best to be direct, exact, and save some of the heavier mumbo-jumbo (self absorbed hogwash!) for another entry to come.

"What can God do for us?"

The priest asked the congregation this question at Epiphany Church this week. I attended the 4pm Mass (such a convenient Mass to have in the middle of a Sunday! Late enough to do your Sunday morning thing, but not too late,) and was slightly distracted throughout the experience: for one thing I had stayed out quite late last night for a friend's last night in town - she's off to Divinity school, a place I often wonder if I should end up - and my head was fuzzy because of little good sleep and the way the night ended - a long story for another or never time. In addition to this, I was seated next to a child and his parents and the mother was so rough and manic in her disciplining (unwarranted, unkind, unknowing methods) that I just couldn't truly focus on the celebration happening on the altar.

I kind of floated through the Mass, not wholly present - unfortunately, because I found Church of the Epiphany to be a gorgeous modern church, constructed of a beautiful ashen gray brick, the design outstanding, reminiscent of St. John the Evangelist to me for some reason, perhaps because it is another modern east side church. The parish has been around since the 19th century, but (I learned from one of the links above,) a five-alarm fire destroyed the original building in 1963; this new building was completed in 1967.

The priest was terrific. He was African. He sang the Gospel, in a soft sweet off key, and his message was good.

The general meaning of the answer to his stated question can be found in the readings of the day when one questions themselves and therefore the answer is the same and yet different for each of us. Part of it for me, when I think upon it, at this point in my journey: everything imaginable.

51. Our Lady Queen of Martyrs

(mass times & church info last updated 03/31/2016)
Address: 91 Arden St.
Phone: 212.567.2637
Weekend Mass Times: 
Sat: 6:30pm (Spanish)
Sun: 8:30am (English), 10am (Spanish), 11:30am (Spanish), 1pm (English)
Weekday Mass Times: 
Mon-Fri: 7:30pm (Spanish)
Confession: Sat: 4pm-5pm
Links:
Our Lady Queen of Martyrs School
The Cult of the Virgin Mary in NYC

EPIPHANY OF THE LORD

With audacity and change in the air this upcoming year, I brave the city again (traffic, weather, the bezigness of life) to visit the rest of the NYC Roman Catholic churches. Will I complete this quest before year's end? I want to see them all and continue this experience. Some call me "church-hopper" or indecisive. Really, I am thirsty and, as of now, unfulfilled - and I journey onward praying to find that which I am looking for or to have my eyes opened to discover I have already found it.

Having finished my own move, I have now helped my girlfriend move into her own new place in the wonderful neighborhood of "Little Haifa" up in the 180's, meeting most of her family in the process. I have to say I like them quite a lot. My roommate and I were talking last night how there is typically a direct inverse correlation between how much you like a girl and how well you get along with her parents. This specific situation appears to be the exception to the rule as I like her quite a bit and got along splendidly with her mom and dad. The entire family is very sweet and if I allow my mind to wander too far into the future I catch glimpses of asking her to be part of my family and can see myself fitting easily within her own.

She and I visited Queen of Martyrs this weekend as we were interested in finding some of the churches around her neighborhood (which of the churches I've already visited include St. Elizabeth, and Church of the Incarnation.)

It's another smaller basement church found below a school. I've been to several but I think it's one of her firsts and she remarked to me how even though it wasn't as "exceptional" in architectural design or decor as some others out there in the city, it is beautiful in other ways - the readings and sermon were real and tangible, and there is a certain spirit and sense of community one feels when being here.

During the Mass, a man came and sat behind us, a man with a deep gravelly voice, a loud voice, unafraid of singing and at first this voice distracted me, taking me away from my "experience" until I realized this voice was part of that experience. I began thinking what if this is the voice of God, always there but seldom listened to? What if, for the first time, I was finally hearing it? I believe the priest then told the story, a story I have since heard again from the unlikeliest of sources, of the monks at a monastery who receive a visitor who tells them the Messiah is among them - and the monks soon act differently towards each other and themselves, a heightening respect and admiration for all. It all made me think of how when I exit this church I need to, in the realest sense, walk out with the voice of God with me and the respect for all whom I encounter.

The Mass ended and my girlfriend and I eventually walked out into the brightness of the cold January day hand in hand - this thought with me then as it is now.