{"id":33,"date":"2025-09-08T13:47:34","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T13:47:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flourishingtogether.bc.edu\/?page_id=33"},"modified":"2025-10-06T00:59:53","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T00:59:53","slug":"story-10","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/flourishingtogether.bc.edu\/index.php\/story-10\/","title":{"rendered":"Fire in Hoboken"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-superbfont-small-font-size\"><em>Churches and Faith Communities as Third Places\/ Third Place Stories<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:3px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-superbfont-small-font-size\">I was immediately struck after stumbling into St. Ann\u2019s in Hoboken, New Jersey two summers ago.&nbsp; The space is bright and beautiful but unpretentious.&nbsp; People were genuinely happy and excited to be there, but not in the overwrought, unattractive ways that even (and especially) well-intended Catholics too often fall into.&nbsp; The homily broke open the beauty, depth, and richness of the tradition and spoke directly to my own \u201cjoys and hopes\u201d and \u201cgriefs and anxieties,\u201d as the majestic opening of <em>Gaudium et Spes <\/em>puts it.&nbsp; A penetrating duet of Curtis Stephan\u2019s \u201cMiracle of Grace\u201d moved me to tears and left all in stunned silence.&nbsp; The parish\u2019s commitment to Jesus\u2019s \u201cNonna\u201d evoked fond memories of my own Italian grandmother from North Jersey, who took her rightful place in the communion of saints seventeen years ago.&nbsp; The priest and parishioners were more than happy to chat with me after mass (especially after I felt safe enough to divulge that I am a theologian!).&nbsp; Most of all, the warmth, energy, dynamism, and life of the gospel were palpable.&nbsp; It is not difficult to understand why St. Ann\u2019s engenders so much love from so many \u2013 even for a newcomer like me, it felt like home.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-superbfont-small-font-size\">St. Ann\u2019s offers tremendous hope for our Church, if only we would heed its greatest lesson.&nbsp; People don\u2019t want to feel relief, anger, or indifference when they leave mass.&nbsp; They want to feel seen, renewed, and alive.&nbsp; They want to feel fire \u2013 the type of fire that I encountered at St. Ann\u2019s.&nbsp; Give people that fire, and they\u2019ll find themselves asking, as I did upon leaving mass two summers ago, \u201cwere not our hearts burning within us\u201d while we gathered together as one (Lk. 24:32)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-superbfont-small-font-size\">-Peter K. Fay, Ph.D.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:5px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-a89b3969 wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-border-color wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/flourishingtogether.bc.edu\/index.php\/tml6\/\" style=\"border-color:#1e1d1d;border-width:1px;border-radius:4px\">Third place Stories List<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-border-color wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/flourishingtogether.bc.edu\/\" style=\"border-color:#1e1d1d;border-width:1px;border-radius:4px\">Home<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Churches and Faith Communities as Third Places\/ Third Place Stories I was immediately struck after stumbling into St. Ann\u2019s in Hoboken, New Jersey two summers ago.&nbsp; The space is bright and beautiful but unpretentious.&nbsp; People were genuinely happy and excited to be there, but not in the overwrought, unattractive ways that even (and especially) well-intended [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-33","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flourishingtogether.bc.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/33","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flourishingtogether.bc.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flourishingtogether.bc.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flourishingtogether.bc.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flourishingtogether.bc.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/flourishingtogether.bc.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/33\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":913,"href":"https:\/\/flourishingtogether.bc.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/33\/revisions\/913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flourishingtogether.bc.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}