Donuts After Mass, Please, and Make Them Delicious

When Seminarian Andrew Chase was assigned to St. Joseph’s in Cockeysville, he learned he would be responsible for the donuts and coffee after the Sunday morning Masses. He has happily accepted the responsibility, setting up the coffee, orange juice, and donut holes for the parish each week.

But even though the set-up works fine, Chase loves a good donut. And he wanted to step things up a bit.

As the Solemnity of Christ the King approached last November, he approached the pastor with an idea. What if he drove to Maple Donuts in York, Pennsylvania, to pick up whole donuts for a special celebration—marking the end of the Church’s liturgical year, right before Advent. Msgr. Rick Hilgartner gave him the green light for the expedition, and Chase woke up early to make the trek.

The donuts were a wild success. When the announcement came from the altar that full-sized Maple Donuts were available after Mass, the church buzzed with excitement. My husband may have high-fived an acquaintance in the next pew. Parishioners were still talking about the treats months later.

So, with the Easter season underway, Chase discussed a repeat trip with Msgr. Hilgartner. Again, he got the OK.

So, for the third Sunday of Easter, Chase woke up at 4:30 a.m., drove his Honda Accord more than 40 miles to Maple Donuts, carefully loaded 70 dozen donuts into his car, and brought them back to Cockeysville.

“This time people knew about it,” he said, as parishioners eagerly hovered over the 58 varieties of donuts, trying to decide between coconut and cream-filled. That’s a decision that Chase can appreciate. Donuts after Mass are a bit of a Catholic tradition, after all.

“It’s the American inculturation of the Catholic Church,” he said with a laugh.

When Chase, who is the oldest of four children, was growing up in Church of the Holy Apostles parish in Anne Arundel County, the parish would offer donuts after Mass once a month. And, while Chase was studying in Rome, he recalls how the congregants would conclude Mass and head to a coffee bar across the street.

But most noteworthy is that donuts are part of Chase’s own vocation story. As a 20-year-old studying at McGill University, he was home visiting his family in Severna Park when he went to pick up a couple dozen donuts from the Donut Shack.

While he was driving home with the donuts, he was traveling along Baltimore Annapolis Boulevard and listening to the Ed Sheeran song, “Castle on the Hill.” It was then that he felt the call to enter the priesthood—a call he is answering now.

Today, Chase is just weeks away from his ordination as a deacon at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen. Just last week, in fact, he made his profession of faith during Mass at St. Joseph’s—a final step as he prepares to become a deacon. His grandfather and parents attended that Mass, and on the altar was his father, Keith Chase, who is a permanent deacon at Our Lady of the Fields in Millersville.

Although Chase will only be at St. Joseph’s a few more months, he hadn’t ruled out another possible trip to bring full-sized Maple Donuts for another weekly “Coffee and Donuts.” If he does, he would request more chocolate and fewer glazed. And he would be happy to do that 4:30 a.m. trip even once he is a deacon.

“Deacon means servant in Greek,” he explained.

And who doesn’t love a good donut after Mass?

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