I love brunch. It has to be the best meal ever, but it is decidedly not a religious experience.

For some young adults, this Chicago Tribune article posits, brunch fills up more than their stomachs. "The meal is part sustenance, part social; a way for young, urban and, increasingly, secular adults to connect with one another on Sunday mornings."

I agree with the sentiment in the article that brunch offers a good time to slow down and connect with friends, without the loud music of a bar. And it is certainly popular. Brunch places abound in Chicago (and I know they do in New York, too). Though I can think of three places only open for the early half of the day in my neighborhood, you can still expect to wait a half hour to eat. I also enjoy potluck brunches--sinfully gluttonous affairs.

I mentioned this article to some friends/brunch fans who couldn't remember the last time they had been in a church (a wedding, last Christmas, the last time they visited home?), and they agreed with me that they had never thought of brunch as substituting for church.

Brunch or no brunch, they're not going to church either way--and Catholic brunch lovers, like me, can always go to church on Sunday evening or eat after church, as my family often did when I was child.

My non-churchgoing friends did have a suggestion for churches though: Perhaps if they served bacon, more people would line up at churchs' doors instead of restaurants' doors!

(Stuffed French toast from a potluck brunch. mmm!)