Lord

The heart of the Christian community is our Triune Lord: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Geography, history, and numbers are not the heart, but probably I will type mostly on these topics. As the internet already provides many encouraging spiritual guides and discouraging contentious forums, I intend to offer neither.
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To find a parish, enter a keyword in the search box at the top left, or look through the labels and links down the right-hand column. The posts themselves follow the Blogger format of newest items on top.
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Monday, March 7, 2011

St. Aloysius, Great Neck

The patron state of this parish is St. Aloysius Gonzaga, who lived from 1588 to 1591, joining the Society of Jesus at age 17. At age 23, he died in Rome while caring for victims of a plague. A short biography is linked here.


St. Aloysius parish is located at 592 Middle Neck Road, Great Neck NY 11023, telephone 516-482-2770. The parish website is linked here. Note on the website that Mass is offered in Korean, Spanish, and English. Attendance on the recent Sexagesima Sunday was 777.
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According to the website, the present church was designed by Gustave Steinback and dedicated in 1915. Twenty years later, Mr. Steinback designed St. Agnes church, Rockville Centre.





A side altar honors St. Pius X, Giuseppe Sarto, 1935-1914.  Many thanks to a parishioner who identified the saint for me.  He added, "Msgr. Reel used to mention him at First Communions because he was the Pope who moved the age lower to receive First Communion."  


Above, the view east on Breuer Avenue towards Middle Neck Road.


Above is the former elementary school, Clicking on any photo will enlarge it. There are other parish buildings not shown in my photos, due to the angle of the afternoon sun.
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The parish was established in 1876. It is situated about a mile north of the Great Neck LIRR station, which opened in 1866. The parish is also about three miles north of the Long Island Expressway at Lakeville Road, Lake Success.




Saturday, March 5, 2011

North Hempstead deanery

The Diocese of Rockville Centre has seven deaneries in Nassau County.  The North Hempstead Deanery includes the following parishes, in order of foundation:
1863 -- St. Mary, Manhassset
1876 -- St. Aloysius, Great Neck.
1893 -- Holy Spirit, New Hyde Park.
1901 -- St. Peter of Alcantara, Port Washington
1901 -- Corpus Christi, Mineola.
1925 -- St. Aidan, Williston Park
1941 -- Notre Dame, New Hyde Park.
1948 -- Our Lady of Fatima, Manorhaven.
The North Hempstead deanery is not coterminous with the Town of North Hempstead.
Four of the eight parishes support a parish elementary school: St. Aidan (at about 600 students, maybe the sixth largest in the diocese), St. Mary, St. Peter of Alcantara, and Notre Dame.  St. Mary's parish, Manhasset, hosts a parish high school.