Staines: Blessing of Easter Food

Photo by Michael Nolan

A long cloth covered table, placed in the central church aisle, gradually filled up with colourful baskets of Easter Food for the Polish 'Święcenie pokarmow' or Blessing of Food, at Our Lady of the Rosary Church in Staines, west London today, Holy Saturday.

Polish, and some Slovak parishioners streamed into church for the eleven o'clock service of blessing, which has become a regular custom here. Beautifully crafted food baskets, containing the food used for Easter Sunday breakfast, (all items have a symbolic meaning) eventually decorated the whole length of the church, with the church hall and an extra table needed to accommodate the 270 strong congregation.

"This is a really colourful and joyous family occasion, as we approach the feast of Easter" said parishioner Michael Nolan, "belonging to this multi-cultural parish is a real gift."

Parish Priest, Father Philip Dyer-Perry, whose first language is not Polish, conducted the whole service of blessing in Polish, to the delight of his parishioners. A huge cheer and clap went up at the end in appreciation of his mastery of the language. And as is the tradition at Staines, tea, coffee and delicious home-made cakes were served afterwards giving everyone a chance to catch up with one another.

Fr Philip said: "Here in Staines we have been very much blessed by the presence of our Polish parishioners, whose faith, enthusiasm, and amazing culinary skills have not been taken for granted. We know that many are far from family and loved ones this Easter, and that keeping important home traditions like this is a great source of joy, comfort and connection with relatives and friends."

(Editor's note: Easter Food Blessings were also given in several other churches around the UK - especially all the Polish ones and others - including the parish of Our Lady of Fatima in White City- where their parish priest Fr Richard Nesbitt speaks Polish.)

LINKS

We will be putting more pictures from this event on ICN's Facebook page soon HERE

Our Lady of the Rosary Parish, Staines: https://parish.rcdow.org.uk/staines/