Finding God in the Big Apple

Lorelei Savaryn shares three strategies for seeing God when we travel with our children.  

I love visiting New York City. I grew up taking several trips there to see my aunt, who used to call Manhattan her home. I came to appreciate the arts, the dining, and the history that permeate the streets, among many other things. To this day, I still love to visit to eat great food, see beautiful art, and enjoy a Broadway show or two.  

I recently took my two oldest children with me for their first visit to the Big Apple, and therefore it was my first time viewing the city through the lens of motherhood. All the things I love about the city are still very much there, though I also understood that my kids would be exposed to things that would be challenging. NYC is the kind of place where you can’t help but notice the diversity of worldviews that exist. It’s the kind of place where, if you didn’t know any better, it might be easy to assume that everything must be relative — because how could any one person in this great sea of opinions and beliefs have the ultimate claim on Truth? Or, when you witness some of the uglier sides of humanity up close, it might be easy to wonder if God is with us at all.   

It is easy for me to be overwhelmed by these kinds of thoughts, especially in a place where so much humanity exists in such close proximity to each other. It’s easy to start to wonder if God is big enough to handle a world filled with people who believe all kinds of different things, and who act all kinds of different ways.  

These things weighed heavily on my mind as I navigated the city with my children. But I also put into practice three ideas for how to navigate the complexity of their experiencing the city for the first time. These ideas helped my kids, but they also helped me too. I hope that these ideas are helpful others as well, no matter where your travels with your family may take you.  

3 Ideas for Seeing God in New Places  

Cultivate the Ability to Recognize Truth, Goodness, and Beauty  

This happens long before we set foot on an airplane or embark on a road trip. One of my primary goals as a mother is to make sure my kids know how to recognize the true, the good, and the beautiful in the world. The hope is that my kids can look at an idea and recognize whether or not it is likely true. That they can see something and determine if it is good. And that they can appreciate true beauty, to the point that they don’t want to settle for a counterfeit of any of these things.  

At home and during our travels, we teach them the Faith. We teach them morality. And we cultivate a taste for beauty. We walk in the forest preserves near our home and the great redwoods in California. We visit museums and see uplifting musicals. We notice the patch of four-leaf clovers in the yard and grow flowers. We play records and allow music to fill our home.  

Then, when we find ourselves in a place like NYC, we can recognize the true, good, and beautiful things there too.  

Look for the Face of God in Everyone  

This is one of my favorite things to do when traveling. I love going to a new place and looking into the faces of those I pass on the street. I love taking some time to intentionally recognize that each and every one of those faces is made in the image of God. It is overwhelming in the best of ways. It broadens my understanding of God and his love. We can teach our children to do the same and to ponder God’s great love for each and every one of us.  

Find Comfort in the Church 

It’s a good idea to find a Catholic Church to visit when traveling to a new place, if possible. This time, we stayed at a hotel right across the street from St. Patrick’s Cathedral. It turned out to be more comforting that I realized it would be, and our nearness to the Cathedral ended up holding more graces for me than I expected. During our stay, St. Patrick’s hosted both a funeral and a wedding. The streets were closed off for the funeral, and the audio from inside the church was projected out into the streets. We crossed the street nearby during the intentions of the funeral Mass, and I smiled a little as I uttered, along with so many people, “Lord, hear our prayer.” Moments later, the Ave Maria began. A beautiful operatic voice wove through the streets of New York City, singing that ancient prayer so close to many Catholic hearts.

Later that day, we were able to enter the side of the church and bear witness to the beginning of a wedding held in that beautiful, sacred space. We lingered for a while, and when we made our way back outside, I spoke with my children about how this place is part of our Church, and the sacraments celebrated here are our Sacraments. It is part of the bigger whole that we belong to. I never had that feeling before becoming Catholic, but I am grateful every day that my kids get to grow up knowing the beauty and bigness of the Church they call home. 

God Here and There  

Ultimately, travel is an opportunity to better understand the enormity of God’s love and the transcendence of our faith across time, people, and places. May we be mindful to look for consoling opportunities when our journeys take us far from the familiar, and may we cultivate a sense of gratitude and wonder in our children as well as we grow in our faith. 

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Copyright 2025 Lorelei Savaryn
Images: Canva