Stuff Catholics Like

A Friday Feature.

Free Coffee and Donuts – as Catholics we flock down to the basement, church hall or another location where coffee and donuts are being served after Mass. As the first notes of the closing song are being played, parishioners can be seen heading out in droves before the priest has even left the alter. People need to get a head start to get the best choice of donuts. If you aren’t fast enough you won’t get the chocolate donut with the sprinkles or the Boston crème filled one, you will get stuck with a powdered sugar donut or worse, one that my kids have taken a bite out of and put back. And the only coffee left will be from the bottom of the pot and filled with grounds. My own kids are guilty of jumping the gun on “Donut Sunday”. By the time I finally get down to the basement they are already on their second or third ones.

At our church we have coffee and donuts after the 10am Mass on the 3rd Sunday of the month. It’s the kid’s favorite Mass of the month. It’s my ace in the hole for the inevitable “Why do we have to go to Mass?” question that at least a few of them are going to ask on Sunday mornings. Saying “its donut Sunday” is a lot easier than saying “because I said so”. It gets a better response too. Makes me wish we had coffee and donuts every Sunday.

At our church the Youth Group does all the work for Donut Sunday. They leave collection baskets out on the tables so people can leave a donation. I’m sure they hardly ever break even let alone make a profit. Catholics can be real cheap. I’m guilty of almost never remembering to throw some money in. And after all these years with the amount of kids I have and the amount of donuts they eat, I’d have to take out a second mortgage to catch up. Sorry youths.

But these get togethers are a nice thing to have. At ours we get around 150-200 people down in the basement. The adults get to visit, the little kids run around and eat, and the teens stand in groups and pretend they aren’t having any fun and want to leave. It’s a great time for parishioners to catch up with each other, exchange church gossip, complain about the music during Mass and critique the priest’s homily.




With apologies to Stuff White People Like and the Stuff Catholics Like websites. I haven't read these websites but I imagine they are similar to this.