Photo Friday: Cathedral Basilica, St. Louis

One of our final stops in St. Louis was the Cathedral Basilica, a Catholic church known for its amazing mosaics. Really quite lovely.

Yes, I'm a Sunday School Teacher

I've rarely felt as old as I did when I taught my first Sunday School class.

When I agreed to become a Sunday School volunteer at our church at the beginning of the school year, I thought I would be helping the teacher. No, I was the teacher. That is, I rotate Sundays with three other adults. That means we each teach about once per month.

I say "teach" very loosely, which isn't a surprise with a roomful of three year olds. Much of the time is spent in free play, but we always have a story and craft set to a specific theme (which seem to correspond to the day's readings or current holiday). And, of course, there's Edith's favorite part: snack time.

We generally have about six kids in the class, and two sixth-graders as helpers. They're fun kids, and I enjoy my Sunday duties. Out of all of the parenting milestones, however, this feels like a big one. Being looked up to by multiple kids -- in a church setting nonetheless: that's definitely being a real, live, true adult.

Edith's Baptism

Our recent weeklong trip to Ohio was spurred by two occasions: my sister's baby shower (more about that next week) and my daughter's baptism. The baptism was Saturday and the baby shower was Sunday. It was a busy weekend.

Luckily, I was looking forward to both. And the baptism was made even more special by the dress my daughter, Edith, was wearing. It was first worn by my mother on the occasion of her own baptism, followed by her sister. Then I, my younger sister and then my aunt's daughter all wore it for our respective baptisms. My cousin -- the last to wear it -- is now a high school junior, so it hasn't seen much use lately.

After not a little bit of searching, Mom found and dusted off the gown for Edith. She was as pretty as a picture in the dress, and her behavior during the mass was almost as pristine. The loudest wails were cried before the service started and not when the holy water was poured over her head!

Where Religious Traditions Meet

After I put Wednesday's blog post about Borough Park to bed, I came across an interesting New York Times article about how the neighborhood changes as Passover approaches. There's even a shout-out to the kugel blade I had mentioned.

With Passover beginning Saturday, Easter on Sunday and Orthodox Easter the following weekend, I'm reminded once again about how much I didn't know that I didn't know about other religions before moving to New York. Actually, I knew that I didn't know quite a bit. In reality, I didn't know much, much more.

I've learned about Jewish holidays from both my own and Paul's co-workers. One co-worker of mine is Orthodox, so I've learned to say "Merry Christmas" to her one week late, and I've found out about her vegan Lenten diet.

At the same time, I think I've been able to explain a little bit about Catholicism. I've brought up at least once that Catholics are indeed Christian. And I've described exactly what and when Catholics can eat during Lent -- no meat on Fridays and Ash Wednesday, no eating between meals on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

I wrote about it last December, but the same thing still applies: Happy holidays, no matter what you celebrate.

Mass at St. Patrick's Old Cathedral

Everyone knows of St. Patrick's Cathedral, the behemoth near Rockefeller Center on Fifth Avenue between 50th and 51st streets. Less well-known, however, is St. Patrick's Old Cathedral, a comparatively small church in Soho that served as the New York diocese's first cathedral for 70 years in the 1800s.

We belong to a church in Bay Ridge, but we tend to go to mass based on whatever our plans are for the weekend. I long ago lost track of the number of different churches we've visited, but we've become repeat visitors at several because of their location and mass times -- particularly a church near Union Square that offers a 4 p.m. Saturday mass (the earliest I've found), and a church in the East Village that offers a 7 p.m. Saturday mass (the latest I've found, and perfect if we want to eat supper at one of the many yummy restaurants nearby).

But St. Patrick's Old Cathedral was new to us when we visited earlier this year. Had the name not given it away, I never would have looked into its history. It was a nice church; nothing fancy. Only two things were notable:

How cold the mass was. I know there was still snow on the ground outside, but I'd never before worn my gloves throughout a service.

How short the mass was! Perhaps it was only this one service, but there was no music. We were out of there in something like 35 minutes -- a Catholic record?

Churches, Death Masks & Sean Connery

Before I moved to New York I had a notion that the city's churches were few and far between. Sure, there was St. Patrick's for the Catholics and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine for the Episcopalians and ... well there must be a few other houses of worship hidden in the depths of the city for everyone else.

How little I knew.

We have at least three Catholic churches within walking distance of our apartment, and I regularly pass two or three other churches and a temple just doing normal neighborhood things like shopping and walking to the subway.

Manhattan is no different. About two or three times a month we attend a mass in the city depending on our plans for the weekend. When we are planning on visiting a certain museum, eating at a certain restaurant or exploring a certain neighborhood, I pop in the zip code at MassTimes.org and up pops a list of the three or four dozen closest Catholic churches.

We've seen some beautiful churches this way, and some very interesting artifacts instead. The church we went to near Lincoln Center last weekend had a glass cabinet displaying a death mask. The Catholic church closest to our apartment has a statue of a saint that looks exactly like Sean Connery circa "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade."

As for services, last night's was by far the most interesting. I found a Slovenian church near NYU, and lo and behold the mass was in a small chapel squeezed between apartments. The mass was in English, but I have a feeling the priest didn't speak much of the language. There was absolutely no homily and no music. Only 15 people -- 16 if you count the priest -- were there. The whole thing was over and done with in 30 minutes flat.

Which made me feel even guiltier that Paul and I walked in 10 minutes late. Yeah, there's a million jokes you could make about Catholic guilt right now, and they're probably all well-deserved.

Church, Bay Ridge-style

In honor of Easter this week, I'll talk about church.

St. Anselm's in Bay Ridge is the first I've ever attended that has a subway running underneath it. The first time we were there, I wondered what the rumble was every 10 minutes or so. I think I figured it out by the end of mass.

The train isn't loud, but it's definitely noticeable. It causes a slight vibration throughout the church too. I haven't quite gotten used to it, but it doesn't really bother me.

Also, the church has a statue of a saint that looks exactly like Sean Connery, circa "Indiana Jones." If you don't believe me, you really will have to pay me a visit. I'm not taking a picture, so don't even ask!