Father Michael's Column

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 Christy 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 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 Christy 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

In Christ,
Father Michael