So I recently moved to the city (have worked here for the past two years, but was bridge and tunnel which horrified me) and while I love wandering around, wanted to figure out a way to make sure I see all parts of Manhattan. During a google search to find masses close to my midtown office, I saw that there are 98 Catholic Churches in Manhattan and decided it be cool to attend mass at every one.
Last year, I found out that I surprisingly LOVE attending weekday masses at noon. They are usually very short, yet very refreshing and peaceful. There is something about popping out of the office and taking about 20 minutes to sit quietly in prayer and meditation. It calms me down and resets my stress level to managable. And it makes me feel close to my father who often attended daily mass while he was alive. Sometimes during summer vacation, I would wake up very early to attend early morning mass with him. It was a great way to get some one-on-one time with him...and it usually ended up with a trip to get a donut (bonus!) before dropping me off at home before he headed to work.
Full disclosure...I am not particularly pious...actually I am probably the worst Catholic in my immediate family; however, I am absolutely Catholic and always will be. This blog won't be necessarily a religious blog and I don't care to argue the merits of the Catholic Church (let's just get this out of the way....while I don't agree with everything the Church says and does, I am not leaving. To me, it is the same as I don't agree with every decision the government makes, but I am not going to renounce my U.S. citizenship). For me, being Irish Catholic is a huge part of who I am, and I can't separate my religion out of my identity any more than I could separate my name from who I believe I am.
That being said, I am really looking forward to this project. My plan is pretty simple...attend mass at every Catholic Church in Manhattan. I am going to try to not attend the same church more than once (in order to force me to branch out and keep exploring -- but I am not making any promises). No rules...we will just see how it goes. It might be a daily mass or it might be a Sunday mass. There will probably be a treat after every Sunday mass...a extra bonus may be me hitting nearly every bakery in Manhattan; hopefully, calories consumed right after hearing the Word of God are less fattening. Probably not, but I can always ask God to consider that!
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