Dear God, I’m Ready To Meet The One

by Holly Lebowitz Rossi

Many young, single people of faith are tired of soulless bars, meaningless speed dating events, and the manipulations of secular online dating. They know what they care about, and they feel they run the best chance of meeting their soul mates if they go to places where their souls are nourished.

Carey O’Neill found just such a place in the Contemporary Roman Catholics (CRC) group at Holy Trinity Church on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The CRC brings singles—there’s one group for twentysomethings, another for those in their thirties and forties—together after Sunday afternoon mass to do everything from going to a local bar for a glass of wine to having a potluck dinner to heading to a Yankee game or having a fondue-tasting party at a local restaurant.

O’Neill, 31, says the group isn’t made up of “religious freak zealots,” but people who share a commitment to Catholicism while also living in the busy real world of New York single life. “At least I know I have something in common with someone through this group,” she says. “They have a shared faith, but at the same time, they have a personal side—they like to do the things I like to do, like go out for a drink after work.”

Buddhistconnect.com and Spiritualsingles.com provide faith-based options to those seeking love online. Spiritual singles unaffiliated with one religion often have a particularly hard time finding like-minded dates and ultimately maintaining a soulful marriage, according to Reverend Laurie Sue Brockway, an interfaith wedding officiant and love coach. She moderates “The Soulmate Project” on Beliefnet.com, which guides singles to be soul mate-ready through the use of intention, prayer and feng shui practice.

“Religious people have an easier time of it because they have a religious protocol that tells them how they are supposed to live,” Brockway said. “Spiritual couples work harder to define their role, what they are supposed to be and do.”