#10 The Church of St. Vincent Ferrer (869 Lexington Ave @65th) April 5, 2015

This church is unbelievable. Seriously. I can't get over the inside of this church. I can't even begin to tell you. This church has so much going on that when mass started, I couldn't find the lector. It took me a good 45 seconds to find out where the actual person was -- I could hear the voice but couldn't find the face. And when I finally did, it  the lectern was this huge, ornately wooden carved work of art that looked like something out of a Harry Potter movie. All's you could see was the woman's face sitting at the top of the podium, you couldn't see her neck or any other part of her. It looked like a magical talking podium. I so wish it wasn't disrespectful to take pictures in mass....I am not doing this sight justice at all. You might have to go visit.

The church is almost all stained glasses windows and the altar has been brought up closer to the pews. However, there is half a football field behind the altar to the tabernacle. I thought the assisting priest was going to have to take a water break halfway there. I am going to have to go back and take more pictures...I attended the 530 pm mass and then tried to wait for everyone to leave before I started playing Ansel Adams. But they turn off the lights, so you really couldn't see anything.

One thing that was fascinating about this mass was the dating rituals that was happening with the elderly set.  There were three very dapper men who have already celebrated their 80th (and probably 85th) birthdays. And about seven very chic woman of a very certain age, all exquisitely dressed in their Chanel suits...and let me tell you, both groups were highly aware of the other group.

My sister-in-law went to this high school -- and her parents met in the church basement - so I definitely have some built in fondness for this place.

After Mass treat -- a giant martini!  2nd Ave at 78th Street.

Photo credit -- Hi Life website because after one of their martinis, your pictures aren't fit for public viewing.

I'm bbaaaaaaacccccckkkkkk!!! #9 St. Stephen of Hungary (82nd and 1st Ave) March 29, 2015

Stop whining..it hasn't even been four years yet. Geeze Louise...you are so demanding!

Honestly, I am shocked my last post was in 2011 -- it seems like maybe a only year has passed. But regardless, it is really time to gear up this project...especially since nine parishes are being closed this summer. I kept telling people I am visiting all 98 Catholic Churches in Manhattan, so I need to stick to that before the list starts dwindling.

This morning I visited St. Stephen of Hungary's for Palm Sunday Mass. I just noticed it the other day while heading to Patsy's on 117th -- there is also a St. Elizabeth of Hungary just two block away. Unfortunately, both are scheduled to close this year (well, the official term is "merge" but just like "laid off" basically means fired....merged in this instance means closed). St. Stephen's has a K-8 school that looks adorable -- I was looking in all the windows before I realized it was creepy (especially as my child is basically a "grown man"....the words are his, the quotes are mine because he is not "quite" grown, in my humble (and correct) opinion).



Okay -- back to the church...the outside is old school NYC Catholic Church -- bonus points for the GIRLS and BOYS separate entrances.  But inside, I was surprised. It was beautiful, but on the more modern side -- clean with non fussy architecture. It felt very calming and I wish I wasn't so lazy because I am curious if the interior is original -- or if it was updated at some point after it opened in 1902.

 

The church wasn't crowded but wasn't empty either. I was happy to see little kids at the Mass -- I didn't realize until this morning that you don't see little kids at Mass that often (or at least the masses I have been going to -- but both churches that I have been attending most often have older populations, so it makes sense). It seemed like a good community -- people seemed to know each other and were chatting after Mass.

Afterwards, I stopped at Annelise's on 1st avenue -- coffee and rugelach. Every Catholic Mass should end with Jewish pastries. It was delicious and I appreciated the rack of magazines to read while you drank your coffee. I promise it won't be as long for the next post...but that bar was set pretty low! 
NOTE: I am an idiot. I was just reading some of my back posts after I published this and I already used Annelise's coffee shop when I visited St. Monica's almost 4 years ago! And I even commented on the magazines. I am pathetic...and need to get out more. 

St. Patrick"s -- Place holder

I have to get back to this...

#8 St. John the Evangelist (348 East 55th Street) August 7, 2011

You know those girls in high school that were nondescript? Blandly pretty, decent grades, not popular but not an outcast, had a tight group of other nondescript friends. Maybe she was the treasurer of the Spanish Club and participated in the Walk-a-Thon every year, but that was the extent of her high school involvement. However, she did have a boyfriend who was absolutely crazy about her -- thought she set the moon. She ends up marrying him after college and lives a very nondescript but content life with their two equally bland children, the American Dream -- but a boring version. (At first I was picturing Brenda Walsh from 90201 -- but only the first season, because then she got CRAAZY...and was most certainly not nondescript).

Okay -- total detour, but I googled "bland family" to find a picture to use to illustrate my completely snarky description and came across this decidedly NOT Bland family. They are a southern gospel family band that travels around the U.S. in their tour bus giving church concerts.

I am sorry, this picture still has me laughing...it is from their album cover, but it looks like the evil ring leader from the Children of the Corn movie's grown up family Christmas photo -- but his wife refused to take yet another family picture in a corn field, so they changed it up this year to a wildflower field. And why is the little kid not dressed in the same color scheme as the rest of the family? Did he throw a tantrum and refuse the black button down? Or is he even in the family? Or is he the farmer's kid (hence the overalls) and just wandered into the picture? The whole thing is just weird...but still cracks me up.

Okay, back to the blog....

Well, if you were to use the characteristics of a high school girl "type" to describe a Catholic Church (which, of course, I am), Saint John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Midtown East would be that girl.  Nice enough, does the job, but isn't setting the world on fire.....(gawd, I was not a mean girl in High School but I certainly am now. I am sure my mother is soo proud!); but the one thing that makes me feel better about my bitchy assessment is that just like Bland HS Girl has her over-the-moon boyfriend, I am sure that St. John the Evange has parishioners who are just crazy about the place.

Full disclosure, this church is very close to my house and it has been my "default" church so I have attended mass here several times before starting this project (and had the same bland experience every time).  In addition, I am totally annoyed with myself for having to pull this church out so early in the process. I planned to keep this one in my pocket and only use when I really needed a quick church to stay on track. Now, I don't have a back up church which probably serves me right for being such a church snob and a really horrible planner.

The Church itself is on the first floor of a much larger building that houses both the Archdiocese of New York headquarters and Cathedral High school. It looks very different from most of the churches I have visited so far, both internally as well as externally. The inside is sleek and modern, with minimalist pews that surround the open altar. I do love the hidden space under the seats to tuck the missalettes -- little secret places make me happy.

The mass was fine...lots of cute, old couples who still hold hands, which I love.  The church has this not sure of the word for it baptismal font that looks like a meteor. If it was actually made out of a meteor it would be the coolest font ever and I might have another child just to have them baptised there. You have to admit that is a pretty cool design.

 

I do like the open floor plan and layout out of the church.  And I really like that they have the church open all day as a place of peaceful reflection.  Again, this church is totally fine...but for  me, it needs something else...a little punch, a little spice, I am not sure what. 

Afterwards, we attended a street fair on Lexington. It didn't seem like there was any particular reason to have the street fair other than to sell junk food, cheap jewelry and touristy t - shirts. There was an unexpected celebrity sighting...Mr. Peanut! How cool is that?

He arrived in the peanut mobile but I was so excited that I forgot to take a picture.  He was just as taken with me as I was with him, proven by the gift of a free t-shirt. We also had chicken kebabs and sat on the some steps and people watched.  Good day....made even better with kettle corn (which I inhaled too fast to take a picture).

Church of St. Monica (413 E. 79th St) July 31, 2011

Again, with the last minute mass (I really need to plan better). I did a search and found St. Monica's had a mass starting in 15 minutes. Mad dash to the M15 bus stop! The church is almost right on the corner of 79th and 1st (and only about 1/2 a mile north of the church from last week). I thought that I might be in for another lonely mass, but the mass was well-attended.  No air conditioning, but they had electric fans at the end of every pew, so the temp was comfortable.  The church itself is beautiful. I feel like many of the churches lately all have blue ceilings -- but they were all built roughly the same time, so maybe that is the reason. I loved all the stained glass windows -- and often, I think of stained glass windows as dark, but this church was bright and well light.  There are stained glass windows everywhere you look at St. Monica's -- it is a really exquisite structure.

The best part of the mass was that one of the deacons looked just like Andy Warhol, circa 1970. He had a great voice too --- and led most of the singing. One of the other cool things that I noticed was that one of the altar "boys" was actually an African-American woman in her 50s. When I was in Ireland (and also in Spain, but that was Easter so don't know if that is standard), I noticed that most of the altar boys were actually men. Whenever I think about altar boys, I think of my brothers serving at mass a very long time ago, so I should probably change that mental picture.

I was at mass alone, so just went around the corner to a pastry shop, Anneliese's.  It is just north of 79th on 1st. Very cute....old fashioned. I ordered an almond croissant and ordered coffee. The croissant was fine, but the coffee was delicious. Piping hot and terrific flavor. I do wish they had real coffee cups, since I was eating in, I prefer real china and silverware rather than paper.  The very BEST thing about this place is that they have current magazines available.  I really enjoyed my alone time with my coffee and a new Marie Claire.  The whole experience was nice and relaxing. A perfect way to spend some time after mass.

St. John Nepomucene (Corner of 66th and 1st) July 24, 2011

Okay, this mass made me a little depressed. This was a last minute choice, went to the last mass on Sunday morning (I believe it was the 12:30 pm). While the church itself is pretty, there were only 25 people attending mass. In a large church, a small number of people just makes it feel lonely.  I hope the church is crowded at other masses -- there was a Slovak language mass before our mass, so I hope that one is well attended. The priest was on the younger side, but unfortunately I couldn't hear him very well. The sound system was pretty bad. Afterwards, an elderly lady was telling the priest that she wasn't sure if she was going to be able to afford the air conditioning this month due to the heat wave, so she had been spending a lot of time at the Irish bar down the street. Which was both funny and sad at the same time.

Afterwards, we first went to Java Girl. A coffee shop on 66th street. It was adorable, but the minute we walked in my companion made a face, said "we can't stay here" and walked out. I hurried out after him expecting he saw something terrible, like racist literature or dead rats behind the counter, but no....the reason why we had to flee the coffee house was because it SMELLED LIKE COFFEE!!!! Seriously, that is what I am working with. I don't know what else to say to that except I apologize to Java Girl and promise that I will try it again, sans cranky coffee smell hating companion. Next we tried Bagel Works on 1st Avenue, but there was no place to sit. This Godhattan session was shaping up to be an epic fail. Then we ventured into a Mexican restaurant, Aprovecho (http://www.aprovechomexican.com/) with me totally expecting a loud declaration of a sudden allergy to guacamole or South America or something similarly ridiculous, but a quick glance at the menu passed muster and we sat down.  The place is cute, very colorful with friendly service. Quite simply, the food was cheap and delicious....to start we ordered a plate of The Works Nachos....I appreciate that they come in small and large. We ordered the small for $5.95 and they were perfect. There is nothing worse then getting nachos and after you get through the first layer of cheese, there is nothing but naked, dry chips. Not this batch...every single chip had stuff on it, cheese, sour cream, guacamole, onions, etc... really, really good. Next up, a chicken tamale and a steak taco platter. All was really yummy, good portions and fresh. Topped off with an ice cold corona (and a lime soda for Mr. Stick-in-the-Mud). We left very comfortably full and only cost about $30 for the two of us.

St. Cecilia (125 E. 105th St) July 10, 2011

Oh Cecilia! By far one of our favorite churches so far, hands down. Even though our visit was a couple of weeks ago (I switched to a new camera, that I don't know how to upload the pictures, which has delayed the blog a bit), every time I think about it, I still smile. Just a terrific place. And quite frankly, any church that has a sign as soon as you walk in the door that says, "If you are suffering from AIDS or love someone who is, you are welcome here" is a church that I am happy exists. In my opinion, that is true Christianity in a nutshell right there.

So we thought we would try something different, and we were up in the Bronx for a basketball tournament, so it made sense to hit Mass on the way back home. I looked up Sunday evening masses in northeasten Manhattan and chose St. Cecilia's. Cecilia is a special name for my family, it was my paternal Grandmother's name (who grew up in the Bronx incidently), my confirmation name and my newest niece's name -- and I have never been to Spanish Harlem, so I thought this parish would be a good choice.

When we showed up, there was a street fair going on in front of the Church. It was at the tail end of the fair, but you could tell there had been some really good food served earlier. There was a young man wearing a bright yellow T-shirt, imprinted with FATHER PETER on the back, who was being bossed around by several old church ladies. We went into the church which was pretty, on the plainer side, but open and calm. Just as an aside, we sat in the side pews -- I have NEVER seen such leg room in a pew before.  Literally, when you stood up, you had to take two steps to get to the pew in front of you.  If NBA players are ever looking for a church, this is the place for them. It was really remarkable. And I wish I knew the story behind why the pews were placed that that.

Father Peter came in, now dressed in his robes and said mass. He apologized that due to the street fair (which was a fund raiser for a new roof) there would be no music today but we could use the sounds of the street fair outside as our background music. Father Peter is lively and gives a great sermon. But my favorite part was at the end of the mass when he gave the announcements and asked if anyone was new to the church. One woman raised her hand and the whole church burst out in applause. He then asked if it was anyone's birthday...but no one raised their hand. He asked again, but still no takers (and for the record, I had a birthday boy (on the 12th) but he had just left to head to the restroom.  After mass, we walked around to take some pictures and then stopped to say hello to Father Peter (it is obviously a close knit parish, so visitors were noticed and I thought we should say thank you). He might be the most adorable priest of all times. Father Peter is from Tanzania and my son and he were immediate fast friends. They talked about our visit to Africa, the Masai warriors and how high they could jump, the NBA, Le Bron James, the history of St. Cecilia's, Harrison Ford, the leaking roof and how many movies have been filmed on the street in front of the church. All in about 10 minutes. He was hilarious when he found out that my son's birthday was that week and told us that he LOVES when it is people's birthdays because the entire church will sign Happy Birthday.  So fun...and very welcoming. We will definitely be back (and I mailed Fr. Peter a donation for the church roof fund. I just really loved this place).

Afterwards, two of the church ladies pointed us in the direction of some street murals.  Pretty impressive. We stopped at the Harlem coffee shop and had a light dinner. I did see a couple of other places I really want to try out, so we will most definitely be visiting the area (and St. Cecilia's) again.