Supplemental: Christmas at Home

It was over Thanksgiving and now this visit home at Christmas that I begin to realize how much I dislike the parish and church I attended while growing up. I'm not sure precisely when it was constructed - maybe 1970 - but it's one of those bland modern buildings that feels soulless and cold. Having visited and experienced these 50+ Manhattan churches (old and modern alike) with their beautiful architecture and wonderful sculptures and divine stained glass images and artwork, my old church on these visits home leaves me with such an emptiness inside after attending Mass here. Of course, I attend with my family and this is always a welcome change to my journeys alone in the city; and the priests at my old church often have good things to say; but as I look around in the middle of the service and am greeted with blank beige brick walls, ugly red carpeting, stucco-esque ceilings and two statues buried back in the recesses of the church, I feel deflated and soon enough drab and bland and blank all over.

Is it some kind of vibrancy I've found in these city churches that attracts me so, compared to the bleakness of these other holy houses buried in the suburbs of the rest of the country; or is there something exceptionally bad about the church I grew up with? Or is psychology somehow more involved and I just relate the first 20 years of my life, Catholicism shoved down my throat, with this building, and thus harbor no good will towards it. Soon after I left home, and escaped the bonds of my church's monotony, did I happen to wander into exceptional churches, or were they just "not" my old church?

The little Catholic hogan on the Navajo reservation, with it's scent of burning sage and wood, and the Jesuit priest from Chicago - that was a very special church. But then again, there was St. Joseph's in the middle of the western suburbs of Chicago that I loved - that place was certainly suburbia church bliss at it's finest. The church I found in Africa, where I tried to attend once a month, a lone white man among a family of Indian Catholics - that was certainly a great experience. Finding myself away from home and family I always feel more intensely bonded with the Catholic services that I attend and am sometimes inundated with the desire to return home and experience these feelings with my family at our parish church - but always returning there for holidays or special occasions or months-at-a-time long sabbaticals from my life I can never appreciate any of the good things my church offers, only it's uninspiredness - it's blah factor.

The emptiness of the church decor is sometimes reflected in it's parishioners. And there's such a whiteness about them too. I hate to be an asshole here, but as a friend and I were reflecting on it the other night, the church doesn't offer a single Spanish Mass - and I'm from a city that's more than 30% Hispanic! It's a mystery to me about my church, but I can only think this mystery exists in so many other towns around the country.

My best friend in NYC, who comes from my same hometown, calls the place Krypton, and vows never to return here, minus the occasional funeral he must attend. I, myself, have always tried to think about the best parts this place offers, yet this time around I'm finding it a harder and harder feat to accomplish.

My hometown leaves me feeling this emptiness and I desire to return to the city and my life there to see where it leads me. Surely, the best part of my old town and the only reason I return is my family's presence - I grieve when I am away from them and I am saddened I cannot take them with me.

The Sunday after Christmas we attended a different church in town than we usually do - this one resembling a more traditional, classic church decor - and one I have become familiar with in NYC. I felt more at home here than I ever did in my old church and the priest was quick and brilliant. As it was the Feast of the Holy Family, he drew everyone's attention to a stain glass at the back of the church - Jesus in the temple with Mary and Joseph looking on. He made a point about families and values - meal times together, respect for one another, togetherness, etc. And I stared at it and loved it and got what he was talking about.

As I leave my family in a few days and go back to my life I carry them and all they mean to me with me. I will remember what this priest said, using the Holy Family as my model for what I want to have one day in the future and what I want to become.

29. St. Vincent Ferrer (Now the Parish of St. Vincent Ferrer and St. Catherine of Siena)

NOTE: In 2015 this church merged with the church of St. Catherine of Siena 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 is called the Parish of St. Vincent Ferrer and St. Catherine of Siena.

(mass times & church info last updated 04/04/2016)
Address: 869 Lexington Ave. @ 65th St.
Phone: 212.744.2080
Weekend Mass Times: 
Sat: 5:30pm (English)
Sun: 8am, 10am, 12pm, 5:30pm (all English)
Weekday Mass Times: 
Mon-Fri: 8am, 12:10pm, 6pm (all English)
Saturday: 8am (English)
Confession:
Sat: 4:30pm-5:20pm
Mon-Fri: 5:20pm-5:50pm
Wed: 7:45pm-8:30pm
Liturgy of the Hours (sung/chanted by the Dominican Fathers & Brothers):
Morning Prayer: Mon-Fri at 7:40am
Office of Readings and Evening Prayers: Mon-Fri at 5:30pm
Adoration:
Wednesdays: 7:30pm-9pm (Compline at 8:30pm)
Links:
Official Website
St. Vincent Ferrer's old website
Wikipedia Entry about the Church
About the Architecture
More Architecture
About the Organ
About St. Vincent Ferrer
Dominican Friars Blog
Dominican Foundation Website

MEMORIAL DAY

I love this city in the early morning on public holidays. There are less people around, it is quieter, there is more a sense of peace and less the sense of hectic city. Once, in fact I believe it was last year on Memorial Day, I woke up around 5am and decided to walk in Central Park - I literally did not encounter a single other person for maybe half an hour. It was the single strangest and most wonderful occurrence I've experienced here. It was even a little frightening - after spending nonstop time around so many others for so long, to finally find oneself alone in some woods in the middle of a metropolis - it was other worldly in many ways.

I decided to go to daily Mass this morning at St. Vincent Ferrer because it had recently been suggested, and also upon looking at the church's website I learned that daily Lauds and Vespers could be attended. Morning Lauds begin at 7:45am and I arrived a few minutes before. From the main church you can hear the Dominican Friars engaged in the prayer - I found it beautiful but slightly difficult to hear. I wonder if it is possible to get closer so you can see them - but I figure no. Once again I am stunned that there is another huge gorgeous church in the city - how many more are out there? It really is amazing. This church - Gothic and Romanesque - is like walking into a different world, or a different time altogether.

It was good for me to be there, receive the Eucharist and sit in some further quiet reflection. After Mass, I walked around, took some pictures and lit a candle in front of a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary (she holds a rosary) and made 3 petitions.

I highly suggest you visit here. My list of favorite churches is in constant flux, and I am rarely disappointed as I stumble upon and discover these holy places.

There is nothing better than a three day weekend (especially when the extra day is a Monday.) You have so much to look forward to the week preceding, and once the holiday weekend is done, you're granted a four-day work week. The three days are always so refreshing, so relaxing, so sustaining.

Web 2.0 is in my thoughts a lot lately. When I arrived back from my volunteer time in Africa about two years ago I was struck with subtle differences between the America I came back to and the one I had left behind. It was only two years of being away - yet a lot of change had taken place. The biggest that had struck me was this new Web 2.0 social networking connectedness everyone was so involved with. I was out for drinks with a friend and some others at a favorite English pub in my hometown and when the bar closed down we were invited to someone's house. I fully expected to sit around the stereo or tv and have a few late night beers, but instead we were lead to this person's computer room and we all sat around his computer watching clip after clip of stuff on his monitor and all I could think about was how much this dude was addicted to his computer and it all made me kind of so sick - the obsession with technology and computers.

Now, about two years later I find myself in the same position as that guy. This machine in front of me which I type away on right this minute has become an obsession - or in the very least a daily practice to rival any sort of religious patronage I partake in. How does one combat this? Do I border on breaking the first Commandment with how often I am on this device and look to it for answers, info, entertainment - everything? I have gone from someone who shied from the mania of the web to someone who now writes this blog, submits videos to Youtube, participates in internet dating, shops online, reads online, watches everything there is to watch online. I am no Ludite at heart or anything like that, I realize this is all part of the natural progression of technology and I see how the rapid transit of information from person to person is a good thing - but there's got to be something wrong with the obsession we all have and which grows in me day to day.

I just don't know.

There's something wrong when I am out meeting friends and I feel a sudden compulsion come over me to get home in front of my computer to "check" in on everything I've been doing webwise. Isn't there? There's got to be something wrong with us all.

And it can only worsen - the more we shy from reality and people and place ourselves in front of these screens, practicing a new kind of worship, placing a new faith in what technology delivers to us, in what it can offer and bestow to us. We should not forget the many things it can never deliver to us, those things which it makes so easy to forget about.

Providence. Grace. Forgiveness. Life itself. And the life beyond this one.

26. Our Lady of the Rosary / Shrine of Elizabeth Ann Seton (Now St. Peter-Our Lady of the Rosary Parish)

NOTE: In 2015 this church merged with the Church of St. Peter and St. Joseph's Chapel as part of the Archdiocese of New York's great closings & mergers of 2015. All three churches will remain open for regular Masses and other events. This new combined parish is called St. Peter-Our Lady of the Rosary Parish.

(mass times & church info last updated 03/31/2016)
Address: 7 State Street
Phone: 212.269.6865
Weekend Mass Times: Sun: 11am (English)
Weekday Mass Times: 
Mon - Fri: 8:05am, 12:15pm (both English)
Confession:
Mon-Fri: 12pm-12:15pm
Links:
Official Website
About the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary
Great Pictures
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

I try to pray the rosary every day on the subway on my way to work. I must admit sometimes I'm too tired or become too distracted with other things playing on my mind or I'm a little hungover or I may strike up a conversation with someone who shares my commute. But on the days I've woken up with time enough for one or two cups of coffee, and I've plenty of time, and the Times or (worse) the AMNY hasn't sucked me into their front pages, I'm typically successful saying the Mystery of that day. I count the prayers and Hail Marys out on my fingers rather than pull out my rosary (which I actually do not carry with me - is this bad I wonder?) and say the prayers quietly to myself. I really enjoy Thursday - the Luminous Mysteries. A few years ago when I first heard about these "new" Mysteries, I was a little bit offended that the Church was altering something so ancient and traditional. I've come to realize their beauty and transcendence though - and each one of these - The Baptism at the Jordan, The Miracle at Cana, The Proclamation of the Gospel, The Transfiguration, and the Presentation of the Eucharist all illuminate my Thursday morning. Sometimes I find it difficult to get through the Sorrowful, not necessarily because it deals with the sadder Mysteries, but because each Mystery is so concentrated...

The Agony in the Garden is such a strong title of a Mystery. It is at once sad and beautiful. It is a paradox as it combines suffering with natural splendor. And it was such a time in the life of Christ. He prayed so as not to suffer his fate, the fate of humanity's weakness. That the cup should pass. He yearned for a different path, but this could not be. This Man endured duress both emotional and physical and in the end fatal - it could be no other way.

The Carrying of the Cross also strikes me. As Christians (and non-Christians) we say of day to day things, it is my cross to bear. But is it? A cross bearer - much like a ring bearer - carries a great responsibility, burden, weight, duty. But a cross bearer goes to their deaths. In the end, the cross ends in life's end. That is a cross to bear. It is no journey to relish. It is no light thing. It is an ultimate duty that brings one upon their bane.

This church - another chapel, I suppose - is simple and small, steeped in history and a really great place to go for Sunday 11am mass. There is a bunch of literature available at the church (or of course, online) for one to learn more of the devoted life Elizabeth Ann Seton lived and what all she did for social justice, as well as the history of the church.

You may want to go on the historic church walking tour suggested on the website that gives you an overview of the neighborhood and the many old and beautiful nearby churches.

"The Rosary has many times been proposed by my predecessors and myself as a prayer for peace...to rediscover the Rosary means to immerse oneself in contemplation of the mystery of Christ who 'is our peace'...one cannot recite the Rosary without feeling caught up in a clear commitment to advancing peace..."

- Pope John Paul II (Rosarium Virginis Mariae - On the Most Holy Rosary)

10. St. Joseph of the Holy Family (Harlem)

NOTE: In 2015 this church was part of a list of churches in danger of merging with other churches or closing altogether as part of the Archdiocese of New York's great closings & mergers of 2015. This doesn't seem to have happened and this church remains open for regular Masses and other events. If you have any news about this merger or lack thereof please feel free to write in the comments section at the bottom of this post.

(mass times & church info last updated 04/24/2016) 

Address: 405 W. 125th St. @ Morningside Ave.
Phone: 212.662.9125

Weekend Mass Times:
Sat: 5:30pm (English)
Sun: 8:30am (English, Family Mass), 10am (English, Gospel Mass), 12pm (Spanish)

Weekday Mass Times:

Mon-Sat: 9am (English)
Tue: 7pm (Spanish)

Fri: 7pm (Spanish)

Confession: 

Sat: 5-5:30pm (Or any time by contacting the rectory)
Adoration: 
Fri: 9:30am-6:45pm (Benediction at 6:45pm in Spanish)
Links:
Official Website

St. Joseph of the Holy Family School
St. Joseph, Protector of the Holy Family
Novena Prayer to St. Joseph
Prayers to St. Joseph
Catholic Encyclopedia
Wikipedia
St. Joseph's Day Altars
Link to a painting of a beardless Joseph by Raphael
Wikipedia: Advent
Wikipedia: Advent Wreath
St. Joseph (Battery Park City)
St. Joseph (Chinatown)
St. Joseph (Greenwich Village)
St. Joseph (Yorkville)

THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT

I chose this church for this third Sunday of Advent because last week at St. Jean Baptiste, the priest said that along with the four weeks of Advent, there are four main persons in the Gospel that are important to the whole idea of Advent: Jesus (of course), John the Baptist, Mary and Joseph.

A group of my friends threw a Christmas Party last night - we are the remnants of our two years in Africa. Some of us, landing in New York city after our "tour", maintain contact and friendship and decided it is important that even though we represent a kind of dysfunctional family - in that we are a group of people bound together from a common fate and decision, who do not always get along or see eye to eye but in the end what we have is each other - we should continue getting together at least once a year at Christmas. So we got together and celebrated and gave gifts and pretty much tied one on. And this morning, hungover as I am, I still drag myself to church because I feel I must - regardless of the "Catholicness" of me and any rules or rites or rituals that tell me it must be so that I attend church once a week, this New York city experience and the 96 churches laid out before me is my "must". It's my goal now, and sometimes it's all I have. And if you think that's sad then you've never been where I am before - a crossroads that you've lead yourself to be at from decisions that you always felt with your heart should be made, but now, looking down the next three paths you wonder if it's time to finally let regret begin sinking into your heart.

I walk into St. Joseph of the Holy Family church, just off the M60 bus - the ground is snow and slush covered, it's cold and brittle out and frankly feels fine. My head is full of fuzz and every part of my body is tired and screams for sleep. I slink into a pew and wait - I have about 10 minutes before service begins. Despite my drunken ailments, it is peaceful in here and I am glad to be here. There are several St. Joseph churches in the city - of course, he is a special Saint in the Catholic mythology. He took on a lot of brave responsibility, didn't he?


I kneel for a few moments and the ringing of the bells begins and though I know I've heard bells ring from churches on Sunday mornings in this city before, I don't quite remember it being like this - like that Poe poem - bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells.

They just keep ringing and ringing and I'm pretty sure it's not my head but outside - in that cold brittle air, from atop the church, a great ringing, a pronouncement, a presence in the neighborhood. The ringing goes on and on until the beginning of the service - bells bells bells bells bells bells bells.

The priest - who I think must have been Fr. Kelly - is once again, a dynamic speaker who walks amongst the congregation really involving them. At one point he even asks a young girl to spit out her gum and jokingly admonishes a few nuns sitting nearby for not assisting.

This is just one of the hundred parishes in Manhattan - but truly there is a special feeling here. This is a nice little church sitting up in Harlem, easy to get to by car or public transportation, kind of a gem sitting right on 125th street.


(08/23/2014)
Additional Photos...

Attended 9am Saturday Mass this morning and again I heard the bells, bells, bells, bells, bells!

For some reason I've always liked this church a lot, even before the first time I wrote about it for this blog. I think I had found it previously, if I recollect correctly, and to me it's always seemed peaceful — a respite away from the regular hustle and bustle of 125th street.

Only one strong thought strikes me today: Like Joseph of the New Testament and for whom this church is named, I have been having very intense and powerful dreams of late; very vivid and detailed. But no visits from angels yet, I think.

 

6. All Saints Church

(mass times & church info last updated 03/07/2016) 

Address: 47 East 129th @ Madison Ave.
Phone: 212.534.3535, 212.534.7957

Weekend Mass Times:
Sunday: 10am (English)

Weekday Mass Times:

Wed, Thu: 7pm

Sat: 9am (Morning Prayer and Mass)

Confession: 

Sat: 6pm or 6:30pm-7pm (or by appointment)

Devotions: 

Rosary: Wednesday 6pm (English)
Rosary: Thursday 6pm (Spanish)
Adoration: Wed & Thu after Mass (English)

Post-Church Activity: conversation
Links: 

Official Website
About the Organ
Harlem Site
Encyclopedia Britannica
Landmark Conservancy
Dance

There is only one Weekend Mass at this Harlem Roman Catholic Church and it is at 10am on Sundays and I highly suggest you attend it if ever you have the chance. It is a Gospel Mass - and the singing is outstanding.

The only sad depression of note, which you may find for yourself if you attend, is a lack of congregation.

I envisioned a loud church, a filled-to-capacity-psuedo-cathedral in the midst of Harlem. But, as always the case in most Masses I go to these days, the congregation was sparse, absent, gone. There were maybe 30 in attendance and because it is another old, big, classic church it just seemed strangely empty to me.

That in itself didn't really stop me from enjoying the Mass and the celebration and getting a lot from it, however. There was singing and clapping and during Peace time - when everyone is sharing a handshake and a "Peace be with you," with each other - which lasted about 10 minutes, everyone was so nice and outgoing. A stranger to the city wouldn't of known it was New York.

At the end of the Mass, so many people greeted my friend and I and told us to come back. There was such immense joy and gladness in everyone's eye. My hour and a half at this church in Harlem couldn't help but remind me of Africa and all the wonderful and kind people I met there.

If you've happened upon this blog and are at all interested in attending any of these churches I've written about - you should definately attend this one, this 10am Mass, and greet the people that side for me.

Another note of interest - my friend who attended is a young pretty Catholic girl and of course, if you're getting to know me at all, I couldn't help but to continue to think of her after we spent the rest of the day together, enjoying each other's company very much and agreeing that we should get together again very soon...


(08/20/2014)
Additional Photos...

Just went here for Wednesday evening Mass that was supposed to start at 7pm. By 7:15pm when no priest had shown up I decided to leave, but not before walking around the strangely lit sanctuary to take some photos and dropping a donation into the box.

(By the way, there are some big discrepancies currently between the bulletin I picked up at the front of the church and the website. For instance, the website says there are daily Masses everyday of the week, but the bulletin only says Wednesday and Thursday. The Mass times listed above are taken from the bulletin, but I highly suggest any visitors call the parish before heading to this big, beautiful church.)

Speaking of which, All Saints church was so much bigger and more beautiful than I remember it being (7 years ago!) and I still stand by my initial assessment: you should go visit this church and take in the grandeur of it, however aging it is.

While I waited for the Mass to begin that never would (which I believe would have taken place in the small side chapel area pictured below in the last photo), I believe I was sitting down in or around the same pew as my friend and I did years before. I began reflecting how strange it would be if I could reach back in time and talk to my (7 years) younger self. I wonder, since the Almighty knows no bounds of time, if God ever reaches back in time to speak to us, or into the future — telling us it will all, eventually, be all right.

It was funny sitting with my female friend 7 years ago, who I was obviously a little bit attracted too; who eventually became my Confirmation sponsor; who I now no longer speak to or have any contact with — not because we had a falling out or anything, but simply because that's what happens over time.

My life, in so many ways, is so much better now than it was back then and I am grateful. I'm happy to say, I am now married, having found the perfect mate to share my life with. Not perfect in any sense or list I would have designed 7 years ago, but perfect in a real, well-matched in reality, honest, sincere, loving and true way.

Thanks be to God!