It was just a stop at McDonald’s to get some coffee that turned into an “a-ha moment” for Father Jack Collins, CSP.

The young man behind the counter not only took his order for some java, but delivered it to where he sat. A man from the streets soon entered the restaurant and ordered coffee as well. After placing his order, the man went outside the restaurant for a quick smoke. The McDonald’s employee also delivered the coffee to where he was waiting outside.

In treating both men with the same level of service, the employee was saying, “He is equal to you, he is a good as you are,” said Father Collins.

“He was living a richer narrative that I was,” he recalled. “He was treating this man with the dignity and respect anyone walking into that place should get.”

It is moments like these – those “a-ha,” reality-altering, mind-waking flashes in life – that Father Collins and a few others are hoping people will share with one another in a new ministry, “City Spirituality New York Style: If you experience it, share it.”

Father Jim Lloyd, CSP (left) and Father John Collins, CSP, hit the streets of New York collecting stories for City Spirituality.

City Spirituality is an invitation for people to gather and honor those moments of insight and joy not only for their own sake, but for the enrichment of others. These gatherings, happening in free, public venues around the city will be combined with video and email accounts on a web site. Father Collins and others have even pounded the pavement of New York to begin collecting these stories.

“City Spirituality came out of our discussions together about how to reach people of all generations that may not be particularly religious, but have a sense of the spiritual,” David Pilliod, a longtime friend of Father Collins who shares the direction and decision making of the project. “My hope for this project is that we will help awaken in people a sense of wonder about the city and about each other. This journey of discovery is made not inside churches but on the streets, in the subways and in the parks of New York City.”

Jim Collins, Father Collins’ younger brother, likened these moments to a James Joyce-style secular epiphany.

“At first it seems to be nothing big or important, then, ‘Bang!’ it all opens up and the veil has been pulled back,” said the retired high school English teacher.

The hope for City Spirituality is that these shared stories will cause people to recognize more of these special or spiritual moments in their own lives reflect up on them.

“This is not about religion or even God,” Father Collins said. “It is a sort of pre-evangelization, the moment before something becomes a religious moment. That is what we are capturing. Maybe their spirit is stirred and they are moved to look deeper.”