Do you feel that breeze?

That's the feeling of salvation rushing towards you at ninety miles-per-hour.

Being a newly baptized Catholic, I've found a lot of joy at Mass on Sundays. Clocking in at an hour-fifteen or hour-and-a-half, it's a great way to get centered. I've been a Catholic-American (is that the correct phrase?) for almost 6 months now. For the first time, Kitty and I took a trip to St. Patrick's Cathedral on 5th Avenue by Rockefeller Center.

The majesty of the Cathedral is unmistakable. Arches soaring overhead, a grand organ, excellent preaching and a sense of tradition that feels like it has travelled across generations all combine to make for a great retreat. In our case, we were looking forward to celebrating All Saint's Day- a Holy Day of Obligation- where all Catholics are directed to attend Mass.

We met after work in front of St. Pat's and ran in. It was very crowded but not too packed. We found a pew near the center aisle with a clear view of "the action."

The opening hymn began and we realized this would be no ordinary Mass (pun intended). One verse later, the Priest was up front and before we knew it... BAM! We were on to the readings. Anything that was usually sung, was spoken. Not 10 minutes into the Mass, we were on to the Homily. Plowing forward, our excellent preacher told a gripping story and as soon as he was finished... WHACK! On to the collection, before that even finished, Father was blessing the Gifts and then... WHOOSH! We were walking up for Holy Communion. We made it back to our seats where we closed with one verse of another hymn.

Final tally? 33 minutes from beginning to end. If they had shortened it any more, it would have been a haiku.