#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).

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.

#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.

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!