76. Our Lady of Victory (Now the Parish of Our Lady of Victory and of St. Andrew)

NOTE: In 2015 this church merged with St. Andrew 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 is called the Parish of Our Lady of Victory and of St. Andrew.

(mass times & church info last updated 03/31/2016)
Address: 60 William St.
Phone: 212.422.5535
Weekend Mass Times: 
Sat: 5:15pm (English)
Sun: 7:30am, 10am, 12:15pm (all English)
Weekday Mass Times: 
Mon-Fri: 7:15am, 8am, 12:15pm, 1:05pm (in lower chapel), 5:15pm (all English)
Saturdays & Holidays: 7:30am (English)
Holy Days: 
Vigil: 4:30pm, 5:15pm (both English)

Holy Day: 7am, 7:30am, 8am, 8:30am, 9am, 11:30am, 12pm, 12:30pm, 1pm, 1:30pm, 4:30pm, 5:15pm (all English)

Confession: 
Mon-Fri: 8am-8:30am; 12:45pm-1:30pm; 5pm-5:30pm
DEVOTIONS (except for Holidays):
Miraculous Medal: Mondays 12:45pm

St. Anthony: Tuesdays 12:45pm

St. Jude: Wednesdays 12:45pm

The Holy Spirit Thursdays 12:45pm

The Rosary:
Mon-Fri: after the 8am Mass
Fridays 12:45pm (Except first Fridays and during Lent)

Sacred Heart Novena: First Fridays 12:45pm

Stations of the Cross: Fridays of Lent 12:45pm
Benediction & Exposition:
After all devotions until 5pm
Constructed: 1947
Links:
Official Website
About the Organ
Our Lady of Victory

I believe I have visited all the churches nearest me up to now on this journey so each weekend I now venture out further and further from my apartment to some distant neighborhood in Manhattan. Having recently tackled a huge amount of churches on the east side (there are a lot there) I think I now will be focusing on the many churches of the Lower East Side and downtown. This morning, I decided to go to Our Lady of Victory, one of Manhattan's most furthest south churches that I have left (though I believe Our Lady of the Rosary is the actually the southernmost Manhattan church,) because my roommate and I decided to set out from South Ferry this morning heading North, covering the distance of Manhattan lengthwise on foot.

Unfortunately, my camera battery had died so I was forced to use my Blackberry camera as backup (which is why these images of the church are such poor quality and blurred (stupid Blackberry!)) I went to the earliest Mass offered, 7:30am, of course running a little late, was completely tired as I had gone to bed late the night before, and continued being cloudy and slightly unfocused during the Mass as I've been the last few weeks.

Luckily, my roommate brought me a spare battery when meeting me at South Ferry, and then we began the journey, walking around the southern tip of the island up to the U.N., cutting across Central Park, and then on up the west side (the best side) through Riverside Park, past the G.W. bridge up to the furthest point north, coincidentally very near one of my favorite places, Indian Road Cafe, where we stopped in and had a few celebratory beers. Well deserved, and we enjoyed them.

Here's a few of the sites along the way...













additional photos...
(01/21/2011)

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...

 

  

  

 

 

  

  

  

 

 

 

18. St. Anthony of Padua

(mass times & church info last updated 04/03/2016) 

Address: 154 Sullivan St. @ Houston 
Phone: 212.777.2755

Weekend Mass Times:

Sat: 5pm (English)

Sun: 9am, 11am (both English)
Weekday Mass Times: 
Mon-Fri: 8am, 12:10pm (both English, in chapel)
Holy Days of Obligation:
8am, 12:10pm, 7pm (all English)
Confession: Saturdays: 4pm-4:45pm
St. Anthony Novena:
Tuesdays after daily Masses
Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal & St. Jude Novenas:
Wednesdays after daily Masses
Post-Church Brunch: Jane
Links:
Official Website
Catholic Encyclopedia: St. Anthony of Padua
Catholic Online: St. Anthony of Padua
Wikipedia: St. Anthony of Padua


THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT

Thoughts of mine, this third Sunday of the Lenten season:

If my social life and mindset is typically so framed by the consumption of alcohol, that which I have given up these forty days, and I find myself at a loss Friday and Saturday nights with what to do with myself, planning a major drink-a-thon come Easter day, so much as to go to bed the night before with a bottle of Jameson with which to wake up to, what really is the point of this sacrifice?


I feel tired without the drink - as if it offers me some other-worldly power and energy. I realize I don't need it for some of the things I feared I may require it for: being outgoingly social, growing steadily melancholy with self. However, I miss it dearly and know I do indeed need it for another thing. Deadening myself to the onslaught of the world.


In all past relationships, alcohol has offered me a way to anesthetize my mind and body so that the one I see before me becomes the one that I always wanted, when it fact, she is only the one before me. Now, sobriety forces me to drug myself in other ways. Lying to oneself is a remarkable feat of humanity, don't you think?


And I do not know what I am to expect from this life. Is it more than mere moments of joy and beauty and sadness and love? Is it more than 40 hours a week and friends and family? Tell me it's more than television and taxes and blogging...


I don't know why I can't just love her or the other one or all of them. I don't know why it's so hard to break away from her either - why I can't just walk away. I know there's biology and emotion and mentalness tied up into everything, but knowing she isn't the one, if there even is the one, should make it somewhat easier - but I am weak and average and normal. Certainly not the cop fighting the system. Not the politician offering hope. Not the saint doing what is before me.

I don't know what I am.

Despite these bleak outpourings, I must say, St. Anthony of Padua Church is one of the brightest in the city, and a perfect place to go to mass on a Sunday followed by brunch at any of the nearby cafes, restaurants and coffee shops with a dear sweet friend who is, just like myself, plagued with issues and conundrums.

additional photos...
(11/04/2012)

After a long hiatus I am trying once again for a big final push to finish taking nicer photographs of the churches I visited near the beginning of this journey. I have about 8 left after this. I visited this church for the third time today and it was a nice experience. My girlfriend who I've been with for over a year and a half went with me. A while back I let her in on the secret of this blog, and I commented to her today that it was nice that she was with me for the last part of this journey, that began as a search for God and for love.

St. Anthony of Padua is just one of the many locations in Manhattan that was affected by the recent Hurricane Sandy. They were without power all last week.  Today they had a second collection for the Diocese to assist with hurricane relief efforts. Contact them here if you want to find out how to assist them further or to ask what can be done.  Two other great organizations to donate to are New York Cares and the Red Cross. 

And finally, here's some better photos of this beautiful church...