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

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!)