22. St. Benedict the Moor (CLOSED)

NOTE: As of April 2016 I heard that this church closed about a year ago. I'm not sure if this was due in part to the Archdiocese of New York's great closings & mergers of 2015. If I am mistaken or you have any further information on St. Benedict the Moor church either continuing to be open or not, please let me know by leaving a comment in the comments section below. If you're looking for a similar nearby church to this one, check out Sacred Heart of Jesus parish.

(church info last updated 04/04/2016)
Address: W. 53rd St. (between 8th & 9th)
Phone: 212.265.5020 (Sacred Heart of Jesus' phone number)
Links:
St. Benedict the Moor
Catholic Online: St. Benedict the Moor
Wikipedia: St. Benedict the Moor
Hell's Kitchen History


If you call the number above you will reach the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church - again, I believe they are conjoined somehow - if anyone is out there you can post a comment and let us in on the tale - as always, I tire easily of research...


As far as I know there is one Mass offered here at St. Benedict the Moor each week and that is Sunday at 12:30pm in Spanish. This is a small, clean, simple church and one very easy to find peace within. It appears renovated and even though I did not understand the language of the Mass, of course I could follow along with the ritual of the service, and participated in Communion and stuck around and took some photos.


Once again, a very nice NYC church - especially one you should visit if you live in the area and speak Spanish.


Go ahead investigate, there may be weekday services too.

19. Sacred Heart of Jesus

(mass times & church info last updated 03/31/2016)
Address: 457 W. 51st St. (between 9th & 10th Aves.)
Phone: 212.265.5020

Weekend Mass Times: 

Sat: 5pm (English), 7pm (Spanish)
Sun: 9:30am (Family Mass, English), 11am (Spanish), 12:30pm (English)
Weekday Mass Times: 
Mon-Fri: 8:30am (English)
Sat: 9am (English)
Confession: Sat: 4pm-5pm
Adoration: First Thursdays 7pm
Links:
Official Website
About the Organ
Catholic Online: Sacred Heart of Jesus School
The Sacred Heart of Jesus
Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT

I went to Saturday mass today as I am forced to work tomorrow - on a Sunday! It's a terrible thing to miss one's weekend, one's peace time, one's respite.


I went to this church tonight thinking at first I was attending St. Benedict the Moor church - however I quickly realized it was Sacred Heart of Jesus Church. Quick research suggests St. Benedict the Moor church was once a larger parish that has since been taken over by the Church if the Sacred Heart of Jesus - I don't really know. Perhaps if you are reading this and have some knowledge on the matter you can post a comment. It seems St. Benedict the Moor church is still around, right around the corner on 53rd street - very small and now, I believe, offering only a 12:30pm Spanish mass. I may find myself there next week.

If you've been reading any of these posts then you know things are not well with me. What does it mean, a young man approaching thirty, church-going though he is, job and apartment in New York, all the beginnings of a good long life, but lost, seemingly free but stuck in many ways, desperate in others, drunk as often as he can be, fighting his notion of poverty but not very fiercely, and spending so many nights and days and moments of all this existence puzzled and perplexed and weeping?




I realize something over coffee alone, overhearing a somewhat dynamic conversation between a young woman and her pregnant friend about religion and family and sex and baby names.









Something just clicked, you know?








The pregnant friend never got up to use the restroom as I so willed her, pouring glass afer glass of water to persuade, so I never gained the chance I thought of to ask the other one out.





And so I walked out, alone into the cold, for a little while longer. And next week, church again...



*I feel obligated to include this next picture which appears on many internet searches of "Sacred Heart of Jesus". This is a picture which hangs in my family's home (and I'm sure in many Catholic homes across the world) and which when I see brings me back to my parent's hallway, the dim lights of a Saturday evening at home, comfort and safety.



(09/23/2010)
additional photos...
*Note: attended the 12:10pm Mass today in a small side chapel to the main church. this is a very nice church and i found myself more at peace today and joy than the first time i arrived here...

 

  

  

 

 

  

  

  

 

 

 

17. Church of the Holy Cross (New Parish Name TBD)

NOTE: In 2015 this church merged with St. John the Baptist Church as part of the Archdiocese of New York's great closings & mergers of 2015. Both churches will remain open for regular Masses and other events. This new combined parish name is currently TBD and a website for the church/parish is forthcoming.

(mass times & church info last updated 03/22/2016)
Address: 329 W. 42nd St. (between 8th and 9th)
Phone: 212.246.4732
Weekend Mass Times: 
Sat: 4:30pm
Sun: 8:30am, 10am, 11:30am
Weekday Mass Times: 
Mon-Fri: 7:30am, 12:15pm
Sat: 12:15pm
Post-Church Activity: Go to Ikea
Links:
Organ
Holy Cross: Wikipedia


SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT

Like a lot of buildings in this great city, the Church of the Holy Cross' exterior down in the Times Square neighborhood is covered with scaffolding. Upon entering one finds an old church, complete with organ and surrounding balcony. Those churches with that upstairs portion that hangs over the pews are always so dark inside.

Strange being in a house of faith and worship so near the corn and consumption of Times Square. The cantor of the mass was a gentleman with such a strong deep voice, I had to wonder if he was some kind of broadway performer. Then, during the mass, I begin to think of how funny it would be if the service turned out to be a musical with a name like "Church of the Holy Cross" - you enter in the theater district, no ticket but faith required and not always that - your admission is paid halfway through the production at a strange intermission where you don't arrise, but the ushers come to you with long poles holding baskets for your admission alms. I eventually focused my mind back on the service at hand and not some made up world that continues on in my mind always.

My Lenten non-drinking is ongoing and there's nothing that difficult about it, although Friday night when a friend came to town I was perplexed as to what to do with him. We actually did end up going to a bar, I was fine with drinking Coke and buying him shots, however when I realized the soft drink was going to cost me $3 I was pissed. What kind of bar...? I guess they need to make their money and have no room for free loaders, but come Easter and beyond I certainly won't go back there. To be a good bar, you gotta give your customers something...

Tonight, my friend Patrick came over. He and his wife have also given up booze for Lent. It was 6:30pm and we couldn't think of a damned thing to do that didn't involve drinking. It is such a heavy, ingrained part of our lives, to go out, enjoy libations, inundate our thoughts and heads with the drink and to see where we go from there. And now that option is gone to us and we don't know what to do with ourselves.

I had to go to Ikea today in Jersey by way of the free weekend Ikea bus that operates out of the Port Authority. That's part of the reason I chose this church on 42nd street. I woke early, rushed to church, arrived late, mass passed fast somehow, I took some pictures with my phone and then headed to the bus terminal, made it to the superstore, bought some things, got a ride back, made it home, started making furniture and then my day went on from there. The actual going to Mass part of the day had happened so quickly and was so uneventful that I had to keep reminding myself that I had gone to church already - and that got me to thinking. I felt great that I had been that morning and received Communion. Rather than making it the penultimate event of the day, I had just moved it to an important portion. That's exaclty what church and religion and faith should be - laid in one's life as a cornerstone that must exists and works as a foundation to all other things.



10/05/2010
(additional photos...)
(the scaffolding has come down!)