Sacred Heart, North Merrick

Sacred Heart parish is located at 720 Merrick Avenue, Merrick, NY 11566, telephone 516-379-1356. The parish website is linked here. The church and school are on the east side of Merrick Avenue immediately south of Exit 24 of the Southern State Parkway. They are about two miles north of the Merrick railroad station at Sunrise Highway.

The church was probably finished about 2009, and it replaced (if memory is correct) a smaller wooden building.  The parish itself dates from 1952, when Archbishop Molloy split it from Curé of Ars, two miles south.  In 1961, the Sisters of St. Joseph began to staff the parish school.  From a building fund drive mentioned in the bulletin, it seems that the parish continues to pay off a construction debt.

Inside, the church is a square, with the side pews at an angle.  This view of the north wall shows six stations of the cross in stained glass windows with devotional statues and vigil lights between the windows.

 Above is the Ninth Station on the south wall.

Statuary abounds outside and inside the church.  Here, St. Florian, patron of firefighters, is honored to the left of the main entrance.  To the right are St. Michael, patron of police officers, and St. John Vianney.

Above, St. Francis of Assisi.


The address for Sacred Heart School is 730 Merrick Avenue, Merrick NY 11566, telephone 516-378-5797. The school website is linked here.  Sad to relate, the Bishop of Rockville Centre has decreed the closure of Sacred Heart school in June, 2012.  Please see his announcement, linked here.
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Regarding the prayer for peace in the photo below: A similar pole may be found at Immaculate Heart of Mary parish in Kensington, Brooklyn.

Curé of Ars

Any photo may be enlarged by clicking on it.

The parish of Curé of Ars is located at 2323 Merrick Avenue, one block south of Sunrise Highway and the Long Island Rail Road Merrick station. It is adjacent to the Merrick library.

The parish telephone number is 516-623-1400, and its website is linked here.

Both walls have stained glass windows in pairs, but I was unable to determine the theme or order of windows. In several cases, a brief identification is given of the saint commemorated. In the photo above, St. Therese of Lisieux (1873-1897) is paired with the mother of Mary.

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The parish school has been closed since 1992, and the building is now shared by a parish center and a Montessori school, with the hall available for rent. Cure of Ars parish supports St. Elisabeth Ann Seton Regional School in Bellmore.

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The bishop of Brooklyn established this parish in 1926, and it was named after St. John Vianney, canonized in 1925, who was pastor or curé of Ars, France, from about 1815 to 1859.

Our Lady of Hope, Carle Place

The mailing address for the parish of Our Lady of Hope is 534 Broadway, Carle Place, NY 11514, telephone 516-334-6248. The parish website is linked here.

The above view shows the church on the southeast corner of Cherry Lane (at the right) and Broadway (at the left).

It seems that the more convenient entrance is from the parking lot, where the red awning is. Interior stairs lead to the front pews of the church. This view is southwest from the Broadway entrance to the parking lot. Clicking on any photo will enlarge it.

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The parish shares the sponsorship of St. Brigid - Our Lady of Hope regional Catholic elementary school.

Book: Nassau County synagogues

The other day I came across a very interesting book at a Massapequa library: "That I May Dwell among Them," A Synagogue History of Nassau County, published in 1991. This volume of 172 pages describes more than a hundred synagogues or temples. The editors are Tobie Newman and Sylvia Landow, but the individual articles were submitted by each congregation. Because of my interest in Nassau County parishes, this makes for thought-provoking reading. For sure, the Nassau County synagogues are constituted differently from our parishes, with no bishop ("overseer") supervising things religious or mundane.

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Our parishes and the Jewish congregations reflect demographic changes. There is some resemblance to the decisions this year regarding parishes in Elmont, Cedarhurst, and Inwood. Believers arrive in a neighborhood, a congregation is formed, and sometimes many move away. In the two decades since the book's publication, some congregations have sought mergers. Other smaller orthodox congregations have arisen adjacent to larger reformist synagogues. In at least one place, a "For Sale" sign has long been posted at a temple.

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The book's title is full of meaning: "That I May Dwell among Them."

St. Boniface, Elmont

Any photo may be enlarged by clicking on it.

The mailing address of St. Boniface Parish is 631 Elmont Road, Elmont NY 11003, telephone 516-354-0715. The parish website is linked HERE, and it is current as of March, 2019.
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The church, rectory, and graveyard are on the northeast corner of Elmont Road and Dutch Broadway. When the parish was established in the 1850's, this location was known as Foster's Meadow, in the Town of Hempstead, within Queens County, as Nassau County came into existence in 1899. The Catholics were mostly farmers, mostly of German heritage. St. Boniface himself was born in England and became an apostle to the Germans. He lived from about 672 to 754. A bas-relief of Boniface stands to the right of the main door of the church, built in 1963.

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An article printed 6.23.2011 in the Franklin Square/Elmont Herald says that the church was first named the Nativity of Our Lord. "In 1857, the building was rededicated and called St. Boniface." The diocesan website gives 1858 as the date of the establishment of the parish.

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Please do not confuse this parish with St. Boniface Martyr, Sea Cliff. That parish is younger, and the patron is a different Boniface.

Stained glass windows surround the pews. Quite a few present extraordinary topics. Above is the martyrdom of St. Boniface in Frisia, now the Friesland, Netherlands. The year was 754.

St. James the Less does not have a Catholic parish on Long Island, so here he is in Elmont, writing a letter. The Bible has a epistle with his name.

I find it difficult to take good photos of stained glass windows; exposure fools me. This window depicts Pope John XXIII welcoming Bishop Walter Kellenberg to the Second Vatican Council. The council opened in October, 1962. John died the next June. The cornerstone of St. Boniface church is dated 1963. In 1976, Bishop Kellenberg retired.

St. Rose of Lima, Massapequa

St. Rose of Lima church, on the southeast corner of Merrick Road and Bayview Avenue, has the mailing address 2 Bayview Avenue, Massapequa NY 11758, telephone 516-798-4992.  The parish website is linked here.

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The mailing address of the parish elementary school is 4704 Merrick Road, Massapequa NY 11758, telephone 516-541-1546.  The school website is linked here.

Looking east from the church, one sees the school auditorium and classrooms.

The church is capacious.

St. Rose of Lima lived in Peru from 1586 to 1617.  At age 20, she joined the third order of the followers of St. Dominic, known as Dominicans.  This parish was founded under her patronage in 1952, and when the large church you see here was built in the 1960's, it included ten stained-glass windows depicting her life. However, the window shown above must be a metaphor of her spirituality rather than an actual event. 
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According to a parish history, Rose was the name of the mother of the first priest assigned as pastor in 1952, Rev. John Fagan. However, he became ill before he could start his assignment.

In Nassau County, St. Dominic (1170-1221) and his followers are patron saints of five parishes: St. Dominic (Oyster Bay), St. Hyacinth (Glen Head), St. Rose of Lima (Massapequa), St. Catherine of Siena (Franklin Square), and St. Raymond (East Rockaway).  It seems that no Dominican priests work in Nassau County, but for more than a century Sisters of St. Dominic (that is, Dominican Sisters) have immensely helped the Catholic church in this county by staffing schools, orphanages, and other responsible works.
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In the 18 miles of Merrick Road across Nassau County, a traveler passes the front door of three Catholic churches: Our Lady of Peace, Lynbrook, St. Christopher's, Baldwin, and St. Rose of Lima.  

St. Edward Confessor, Syosset

St. Edward Confessor stands in front of his new church at 205 Jackson Avenue, Syosset NY 11791.  The parish telephone number is 516-921-8030.  The school entrance is around the corner at 2 Teibrook Avenue, telephone 516-921-7767.  The buildings are about a half-mile south of the Syosset train station, via Jackson Avenue.
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Edward, who became King of England, lived from 1003 to 1066.  The title "Confessor" means that he confessed the Faith, not that he heard confessions.  He was not a priest.  It seems that there are two other parishes in Nassau County named for saintly monarchs: St. Hedwig and St. Ladislaus.

The church, seen here from Jackson Avenue, is many-sided.  The main entrance and foyer are at the left of this photo.  The church faces a large parking lot surrounded by the parish buildings and a green ballfield. 

An excellent article in the Long Island Catholic is linked here.

The school website is linked here.  The parish website, out of service as I type, is listed in the bulletin as www.st-edwards.org  On 5.28.2013, Newsday reported that the school enrollment is 218.

The quotation seems to be from a 1937 encyclical, "Divini Redemptoris."