Father Michael's Column

Pastor’s Column for April 27th, 2025

DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY

I hope you enjoyed the celebration of Easter at St. William as much as I did!

Most people have no idea how much effort or how many people it takes to create our beautiful liturgies, and often the people responsible are unrecognized—but I don’t want them ever to feel unappreciated! I don’t know what I would do without my dedicated staff!

As an example of things that can be taken for granted, a lot of people don’t realize that our Music Minister, Bill Richart, sometimes with help from Christie Eischen, also puts together the slides that display the words to the songs, along with picking out the beautiful backgrounds and pictures that help enhance our worship experience. I also thank our numerous volunteers: choir members, cantors, lectors, greeters, ushers, altar servers, audio-visual/live-streaming technicians, catechists, the Ministers of Holy Communion, those who made the Easter Candle, and those who helped with the cleaning. There was a lot of extra effort by our environment committee to create a beautiful and welcoming liturgical environment. They succeeded!

And a special thanks to Karen Sommers and Deacon Mike who worked with me for many, many hours to go through the multi-page checklist of items that needed to be done before the Triduum Liturgies. Thanks, everyone!

The Masses for Easter were beautiful, and even more people attended than last year. In fact, I suspect that there were some people present who may have been away from the Church for a long time, and I hope that they will be drawn back by this experience to a fuller practice of their faith. Perhaps some of them were people who were invited by neighbors or friends, or even (gasp) relatives. (Were you one of the inviters? Keep praying for your special person!)

Certainly the Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper and the Good Friday Solemn Liturgy were very well-attended—the best that I can remember. All in all, I think that the Lord is starting to do something special in our Church as we are learning to “Unleash the Gospel.”

As usual, the Easter Vigil was an especially moving experience, and particularly edifying to me, as pastor, was how enthusiastically (and loudly) the congregation was singing throughout the service. People who have never been to a Vigil before tend to be awed by how Faith is expressed and deepened at that Liturgy! Besides the special things such as the blessing of the new fire and procession into a darkened church with the Easter Candle, the singing of the Easter Proclamation, the readings, and the beautiful singing and decor, we also celebrated the "Sacraments of Initiation", Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist. It's always a delight for me to baptize new Christians or to formally receive others into the Catholic Church! This year we had four persons who were already baptized but made their profession of Faith and were received into the Church, and three others who were baptized that night. We already have a number of people that are in process for next year.

That process is called the “OCIA” (the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults). The best way to get people into the OCIA is to have individual parishioners invite them! We all need to become a lot bolder about sharing our Faith with neighbors, relatives, and friends. This is an important part of what it means to be a disciple: inviting someone else to discover the Christ! AS IT HAPPENS, the “inquiry” portion of that process is starting this Sunday evening at 7. Even if you haven’t pre-registered, you can come! It’s in the small meeting room next to the East Tower Entrance. Regardless you can give Deacon Mike a call anytime: 248-624-1421, ext. 345.

I know it’s tragic, but sometimes people never become members of the Church simply because no one ever asks them. I remember talking to a person who had been in charge of the initiation process at another parish, and when she asked some of the excited newly-baptized why they hadn’t done this earlier, some remarked, with tears in their eyes, “No one ever invited me.”

When the Lord spoke his final word to the Church before the Ascension: "Go, make disciples of all the nations...." I don't think He intended it as just a polite suggestion.

Have you ever asked anyone to come to Church with you? Have you ever asked anyone if they might be interested in becoming a member of the Catholic Church? (If your husband or wife isn’t Catholic, I especially encourage you to invite!) Who knows, but the person you start talking to this Spring might be the one standing in front of the assembly at next year's Vigil saying, "I believe!"

In Jesus,

Fr. Michael