Church of Our Saviour

A picture of the "Takeshi" family dog, Curly. (A very good dog--didn't bark much, quiet, and friendly.)

On Sunday morning I said my good-byes to Pete and Bort, and headed back into the city for Mass at the Church of Our Saviour, located just south of Grand Central Terminal on Park Avenue. (59 Park Ave. at 38th St., to be exact.)

The interior is just goregeous--look at the icons and the baldacchino:


Many of the icons are copies from famous icons, as far as I can tell--especially the huge icon of Christ, which is taken from the Christ Pantocrator Icon at St. Catherine's Monastery at Mount Sinai (the oldest known surviving icon).

My pictures of Fr. Rutler came out fuzzy; maybe I can go to the church with someone else and ask that person to take a picture of him and me. I heard him give a talk at Our Lady of Peace many years ago. His programs on EWTN are among my favorite, though I haven't watched any for a long time.

There is an icon of St. Andrew Kim Taegon:

More on Andrew Kim Taegon, Paul Chong Hasang and Companions.

Plus an icon of St. Augustin Zhao Rong, early martyr bishop of China. Unfortunately I don't know which of the following two it is, I only learned of it by reading through the Sunday bulletin.


I definitely should return to Our Saviour, with a tripod if possible. I don't know if the flash will work for all of the icons, but it's probably better than not using it. Look how dark the photos are, and too many came out fuzzy.

The main point of Fr. Rutler's homily--that we not take God for granted, nor close ourselves off to Him because we are too familiar with Him, or familiar in the wrong way, as the natives of Naraeth were, dismissing Christ. Much of the Mass was chanted in Latin and it should be no surprise at how much reverence was shown, nor the solemnity of the celebration since it is Fr. Rutler who is the pastor. If I lived in Manhattan I'd definitely go to Our Saviour regularly, or make it my parish, rather than St. Francis or St. Paul, though Watcher has pointed out what the advantages are of going to either of those two parishes...

The church's website.