July
14, 2013
Church
of St. John the Baptist
210
West 31st Street
New
York, NY 10001
(212) 564-9070
www.padrepioshrine.com
This
post comes from an email I happen to write to my friends about my trip to Church of St. John the Baptist the day after I went. Fair
warning, this is a little rough around the edges.
* * *
I
used to hate going to church because it's an hour out of my Sunday during which
I could be doing basically anything else. But I kind of like going
now. Now I think of it as an hour out of my week that is just complete
peace. I've been going to different churches too, which makes it
interesting. You hear different priests do their homilies, and some are
just train wrecks, some are talking straight out of their asses, and some are
pretty good. Anyhow, I went to a church in the city last week and the
gospel reading was the Good Samaritan story. If I'm the priest, I'm
licking my chops over this sermon. This is one I can really sink my teeth
into. “Hot lunch,” I’m thinking. And there I am in the congregation,
and I'm saying, “Nice, this is going to be a tasty sermon, let's see what this
guy has got.” So when the time for the homily comes, you can imagine my
disappointment when a guest nun from the missions gets up to speak about what
she's doing and asking for our money. Good for her and all the hospitals
and good-doing she's doing in the toughest spots in the world (actually
embodying the Good Samaritan quite well), but fuck if I wasn't pissed I didn't
get my Good Samaritan homily.
* * *
That
email review out of the way, I have to say I liked the interior of this church. It was big, bright and uplifting. I’ll have to go back for some pictures.
For
the record, the nun was from The Society for the Propogation of the Faith,
Archdiocese of New York, 10011 First Avenue, New York, NY 10022. I didn’t skimp on the donation just because
she Bogarted the Good Samaritan story, but I will say I’ve definitely heard
more inspiring mission speakers.
No comments:
Post a Comment