#4 Church of the Blessed Sacrament (152 W 71st St)

Thought we'd try the other side of the park this week.  Beautiful Saturday afternoon, walked across Central Park, stopped for an late lunch/early dinner at Harry's Burritos (Columbus and 72nd).  Very Yummy and relatively reasonable-- and nothing starts off a Saturday night mass like a beer and fish tacos (Jesus was a fisherman, people!) Pleasantly full, we trotted down the street for Mass. The church reminds me of a church we went to for Easter Sunday in Madrid. Big, with huge stone columns (columns which had giant speakers mounted on each one. Which made me wonder how they get the color to match perfectly -- I have seen other churches have the same speakers that almost blend into the columns -- is there a church catalog that has marble and stone colored speakers or maybe the speaker catalogs have a church section).      

                                                                                                                                                                  

I like this church...it is definitely old school. I asked where the restrooms were and one of the ushers took us behind the altar, through the sacristies where the priests were getting ready for mass (side note: the priests were negotiating about mass schedules...one of the priest agreed to trade masses with the other priest but he also got the guy to also promise to make dinner twice this week). It was fun to be back behind the scenes, reminded me of growing up and running around in church while my parents were setting up for bingo, ushering...etc...

The crowd was pretty mixed, lots of young couples with babies.The music was good, priest was funny, all in all a good mass. I also appreciated the second collection for the soup kitchen (Blessed Sacrament runs the shelter next door). And the priest's reminder "that just because you went away for the weekend, doesn't means the church's bills went away too".

Then, the treat to end all treats. Levain Bakery (www.levainbakery.com). Remember that name. Seriously, if you don't believe in God, you will after eating this cookie.  It really is that good. It is basically a small bowl of cookie dough cooked just enough to kill the salmonella.  It is heavenly.  You know a bakery knows what they are doing when then is a line outside the door, and not a one of them a tourist.  They have four kinds, Walnut Chocolate Chip, Oatmeal Raisin, Double Chocolate and one more kind that I can't even tell you because I had tunnel vision as soon as I saw my soul cookie. Feast your eyes on this baby....

I realize that you probably aren't reading this anymore because you can't tear your eyes away from that cookie. Just put yourself out of your misery and go get one!

Church #3 Our Lady of Peace (237 East 62nd Street)

First off, please let the record show that I was not only on time for Mass, but actually seven minutes early!!! Color me proud.

 Okay -- down to business: I LOVE this church. Seriously, this could be "my" church. I realize that it is early in the game, but the other 95 R.C. Churches in NYC have alot to live up to.  The bar was definitely set high. The block (between 2 & 3) that it sits on is beautiful -- full of the kind of townhouses and brownstones that make you wish you could knock on their front doors and ask the owners what kind of life choices they made so you can follow their lead and end up living in one of those houses too. I completely fantasize about having 4 or 5 full floors to decorate smack dab in the middle of New York. I am even willing to have an eccentric old guy with an ironclad rent control agreement living in the basement apartment as long as he isn't so weird that I am not comfortable sitting on my limestone front stoop, sipping a glass of chilled Pinot Grigo as I watch the sunset and chat with my wonderfully charming neighbors.

Anyways, considering that my chances to make the life choices that will make me a property owner on the Our Lady of Peace Church block are quickly dwindling, let's move on.  The Church is great -- I chose it today because 1) the name was similar to my childhood parish in Colorado, Queen of Peace and 2) it is only about a 10 minute walk from my non-brownstone 5th floor walk up apartment! The church is peaceful and simple, but with great paintings covering the ceilings and walls. Lots of Saint paintings and the artist was nice enough to paint the saint's names alongside which is always appreciated. I have a special place in my heart for martyrs with male-patterned baldness. The priest was fantastic...reminded me of Carlton Banks from Fresh Prince of Bel Air if Carlton grew up in Africa with a great accent and a terrific singing voice. He sang twice during his homily and tied together his brand new GPS with following your faith's journey ("recalculating"...."need to update your maps"). Loved him!  It also had a great 70s throw back wood carving above the baptismal font which I really liked (probably because Queen of Peace was a 70s era, upside down cupcake looking church).

 The choir was terrific...I don't know how many people were up in the choir loft, but it sounded like a lot.  Or just a few with very big voices. The congregation was on the older side (12:30 pm Sunday service), but got a kick out of the very elegant, older ladies who were so well put together. I hope they all had plans after church because they looked too lovely to just go home (unless it was to one of my coveted brownstones!). I even liked their bulletin. I told you this place set the tone for all the other churches.

After church, I couldn't really decide on a good treat -- plus I had gotten a mani/pedi before Mass which seemed like adding a cookie afterwards would be just greedy on the treat scale. Diva Nails on 1st between 64th and 65th. They aren't fantastic, but until I find a better place, they will have to do.The neighborhood around church seems pretty residential. I did check out one of the cutest grocery stores of all time, GOURMET GARAGE. Pretty pricey, but the produce etc.. was beautiful and I guess if you live in a $5,000,000 + brownstone, you aren't worried about overpaying for eggplant.

Finally ended up at this great little Middle Eastern shop, Melange -- 11188 First Avenue-- that sold meats, olives, and imported foods. Bought some garlic stuffed olives that were delish...

All in all, a terrific way to spend a couple of hours on a summer Sunday.

#2: St. Agnes (June 16th)

Oh Saint Agnes...I really wanted to like you. You have a cool name, you are close to the office and every time I mention this blog, your name always comes up. I even googled you the night before and read the your "appropriate for children" bio. As an aside, the appropriate for children label was a bit misleading...basically a Virginal Agnes is murdered by the King because she won't marry his son (or just sleep with his son...couldn't exactly understand her "crime" due to the child safety locks on the story).  Anyways I thought Agnes story was scary enough, even with all the vagueness, so decided that I would just stick with the "gentler' torture and murder of a young girl for her faith and thought it was best I didn't go read the full blown "adult" version.

The church itself is really pretty...smack dab in the middle of 43rd street (between Lex and 3rd). I was trying to attend the 12:35 mass, but was late (let's hope I am not late to every single of the 98 masses for this project). I fall into the NYC trap where everything is so close, so I think getting someplace will take me about half the time it really does.  I seriously have to work on that.

The inner church is big, open and air...with plain, pioneer-like pews. I am assuming the parish is very devout -- besides the Latin Masses -- there were at least six women at mass with their heads covered (and I haven't seen that many head coverings at one mass since 2nd grade at St. Teresa's in Colorado where the entire O'Toole family of five girls (three boys) attended daily mass with their parents before school. Mrs. O'Toole wasn't a fan of Vatican II obviously). Also, at least 10 people went to confession during mass...there was actually a line. There was also a giant painting above the altar of St. Agnes being welcome into Heaven...I think the side paintings depicted her non-child friendly torture and murder, but I wasn't close enough to be sure (I wanted to stay a resident of Vagueville).

Thanks Pushy Lady!

When mass was over, I tried to take a couple of pictures outside (there was another mass starting at 1:05 so I couldn't take any of the interior) but I couldn't get people to wait half a second to let me take a pic of the cool lion door handles.  Patience, people! We just left church...! So I only have one picture that works -- barely!)

Tried to get lunch on way back to office -- I remembered why I always told people I hate Midtown (which I am sure they find hilarious now that I not only work here, but live here too). Too many people, too little space. Just too hectic -- gives me heart palpitations.  I tried three places -- $0.99 pizza, a rice ball buffet and a dumpling bar but the lines were all out the door. I ended up back at work empty handed and finally bought soup from the work cafe. All in all, a pretty disappointing venture (sorry, St. Agnes).

Exploring Manhattan, one Catholic Church at a time....

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!