Because some of the coolest people I know come from there (including a brother in law) I decided I needed a mini vacation in Long Island, coupled with a work exercise to assist a good friend. I discovered why some of the coolest people come from there.
There is a church in Merrick, Southern part of the Island, called Cure of Ars. It is in a mini castle like building with several chapels that has an aura of sanctity when you enter immediately. It is palpable.
I found myself gravitating toward a corner chapel where I discovered a photo of the incorrupt heart of Saint John Vianny, the Cure of Ars, a famous french priest known for his confessional brilliance at directing souls upward. Upon closer look I discovered an actual relic of a tiny piece of his incorrupt heart. I always wondered why, if God sought to save something incorrupt why men want to cut it up in pieces.
OMG! as they say. But still it evoked a minute or two of prayer.
There is also a Saint Faustina relic in the chapel of Divine Mercy.
And a more authentic picture of Jesus than the cartoonish one on posters that make him look almost like a teenage girl. In the more authentic one he looks as he should like a Jewish man around 30 years old- because that is what he was.
Merrick in Long Island is a largely or at least half Jewish town. It is appropriate that Jesus
looks Jewish in the portrait in the Cure of Ars church. Jesus as Jew is something that needs to be better grasped by Catholics who sometimes I get the sense think he is a cross between Saint Nicholas, Santa Claus' Irish grandfather and a Renaissance cupidesque angel. Jesus was a Jewish man. And on Long Island Jesus looks Jewish as he should be.
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