Michael John Poirier will lead a night of music, prayer, adoration

Intermountain Catholic

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Photo courtesy of http://theheartofaman.com/promo.html

SALT LAKE CITY - "I will share some real life stories and stories from my story box," said Michael John Poirier, who will present an evening of song and prayer at Saint Ambrose Parish Sunday, July 25 at 7 p.m.

Poirier said his story box contains stories he made up about a truth about which you must ask the Holy Spirit or kids must ask their parents. "Kids like the stories because they deal with angels and adventure and adults like the stories for deeper reasons," he said.

Poirier also will sing at all the weekend Masses at St. Ambrose Parish, "and if you believe that Jesus is really present in the Eucharist, I will invite you to not just receive, but join me for three minutes following Mass in opening the Eucharist as it is inside you with music and a little personal testimony," he said. "What has been most interesting to me are the men who come up afterward, when I have done this, with their hand over their heart and try to articulate their feelings but can't because they are weeping, so they mouth ‘Thank you.' One man said, ‘I didn't know he loved me that much.'"

"Often we just go through the motions, but when we receive the Eucharist, we hold the power of the universe inside us," he said. "The one who can help us forgive or help a troubled marriage is inside you. The evening is about encouraging and reinforcing the gift of the Eucharist and the Holy Spirit. It is like a lock that has been tripped and miracles will follow, so just be open and present."

St. Ambrose parishioner David Trujillo met Poirier in the early 1990s. "I quickly found his music to have a special quality and style that transcends the soul into deep prayer," he said. "I'm delighted to invite everyone to find the time to join us for an evening of musical discovery and an opportunity to clear one's mind and refresh one's soul."

Poirier said he shares anything from the time he was 3 years old singing the Christmas song "O Come Let Us Adore Him," and was inspired by what sounded like angels singing, to his young adulthood to being 50 years old.

In 2007 Poirier discovered a tumor in his right eye, and has had various surgeries and had to give up traveling for a while. In January of this year, he received word he is free of cancer. "The effects of the cancer have presented a great parable for me," he said. "The first 25 years of my Catholic life, I went through the motions. I saw the Church as obsolete and not for me, as through the perfect vision of my left eye. Now I cover my left eye and look through the distorted vision in my right eye. I say this is how I see the Catholic Church now and I feel a strange hope inside me that someday I will be able to die for my faith because it means so much to me. But the Church has not changed; it was my perspective."

Poirier said he was inspired to go into music because his father played the piano and sang to his 12 children. "He would play wonderful old melodies, and I think my father planted the love for music in my heart," he said.

Poirier's home is in Oklahoma, but he travels in an RV with his wife and three children ministering to parishes throughout the United States.