Church opportunities for those who aren’t interested in church

Despite my tongue’s staunch refusal to speak the language, I married into a Polish family. Besides the added frustration of not being able to say pszczoła (Polish for ‘bee’), this meant a long list of new traditions that have improved my faith. 

The most recent of these traditions was the Polish Easter basket blessing at Our Lady of Good Counsel. 

When my wife (then my fiancée) asked if I wanted to go a few years ago, I was perplexed. I didn’t know what she was talking about. It turns out it’s basically what it says on the box: you bring a basket of food to be blessed on Holy Saturday. 

The food has symbolic meanings – decorated eggs, for example, are a symbol of our new life in Christ; salt protects us from corruption; and bacon is representative of God’s mercy, as it should be. It has the added bonus that you get to eat it all the following day.

Most years I assumed that people showed up because they were Polish and this is just what Polish people do. But looking around this year I started to change my mind. There is something deeper.

My wife and I both grew up at a time in the Church where it felt like we were slowly becoming more and more alone. Every year fewer of our peers showed up on Sunday until inevitably we were the only people our age left. Ironically, we are not alone in being alone, and a lot of younger Catholics I talk to describe the same experience. 

Even our friends who used to attend at Christmas and Easter rarely do so any more – and this is why the Easter basket blessing stands out so strongly to me: everyone still shows up. Old people, young people, children – everyone is there.

Watching the crowds, it’s pretty obvious that few of them are regular churchgoers. They seem uncomfortable in the pews, and many of the children are taking directions from parents or grandparents because the setting is new to them.

In some ways they represent the quintessentially culturally Catholic – someone who was born into the Church and shows up without really engaging.

I used to think these people were a problem, but lately I’ve been wishing there were more of them because participating in church life, even halfheartedly, still orients the person to God. 

At the blessing it’s humbling to thank God for something like food because we don’t have to think about it much in the modern world. By some estimates North Americans throw out 40 per cent of their food – abundance is so common that it has become our dysfunction.

At the blessing I am reminded what my faith really means, and of where I stand in the grand scheme of things. I am reminded of how I should relate to God. I don’t think you need to be a practising Catholic to feel this truth. As C.S. Lewis says, we are spiritual creatures with spiritual appetites.

And I think this is why people come to the Easter basket blessing: for a brief moment, the cultural connection these people have to the blessing gives them a taste of the divine. It roots them in reality. Whether they would admit it or not, this is something all people need.

The practical takeaway from my experience with the basket blessing is that you can get lapsed Catholics to walk into a church even if they won’t go to Mass.

For communities that have them, traditions like the Easter basket blessing are a wonderful low-risk way for people who have fallen away from the faith to engage with the life of the Church. 

Some parishes have gone one step further to create spaces specifically for the spiritually wary. I wrote a story about Holy Ground Coffee House at St. Patrick’s in Maple Ridge last year, which I think exemplifies the approach to parish life that more churches need.

St. Patrick’s realized that inviting people to church (i.e. Mass) could be intimidating, and that the coffee shop would offer a neutral place to have conversations and be with people who may not be ready to sit in the pews.

The trick, I think, is to be discerning – don’t just invite people to Mass. Invite them to pancake breakfast instead; or to parish markets, or dances, or whatever else is going on. Help them integrate into the community before you ask them to say the Creed.

Especially if they have fallen away from the faith, don’t push them. Just give them a pressure-free space, and welcome them when they show up.