A & P Catholics  

• Father Willy Raymond, CSC
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When I was growing up in Old Town, Maine, we were lucky to have in our small city of 8,207 {1950 US census} a franchise of that enormous food chain called the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, or for short, the A & P. We were also blessed to have  four franchises of the Great Catholic Church: Saint Joseph’s, for the French Catholics: Saint Mary’s, for the Irish Catholics; Saint Ann’s, for the Indian [Native American} Catholics; and a second Saint Ann’s, across the Penobscot River in Bradley, for all comers. All families shopped at the A & P supermarket, even Protestants and Jews.  Sometimes we confused the two companies and called those people who came to Church only on Ash Wednesday and Palm Sunday, A & P Catholics, because they came for Ashes and Palms, not because they shopped at the A & P. Although they did that as well.

Sometimes regular shoppers, I mean regular Mass-goers, grew annoyed that the twice-a-year interlopers came and sat in “their” pews. However, if the people I grew up with in Old Town could see Saint Monica’s parish this weekend in Santa Monica, CA they would not believe their senses as thousands of strangers, some vacationers and others neighbors, show up for palms and the beginning of the Holiest Week of the Christian year. The ranks of our already considerable number of  regular Mass-goers swell by almost three-fold. You have to see it to believe it.

The managers of the A & P supermarket never complained about the large number of weekly shoppers because those customers made for properity. The shoppers came seeking earthly food and drink. A & P Catholics come for a variety of reasons, but certainly among them has to be spiritual nourishment and the grace and love of a Good and Wise God. In whatever parish we attend for nourishment of the spirit and soul, I think we should be  incredibly delighted that these strangers have come seeking God for the food He gives is infinitely more wonderful than the meat and potatoes of the old A & P.

Will you welcome the stranger, who comes and takes your favorite spot in Church this weekend?