by Michael Murphy
I remember one evening in 1966, a couple of months after I was ordained a priest. The phone rang where I was living in Little Chute, and a call came in for a priest to respond to a car/train accident, about one mile away. None of the other priests were around, so I...
by Michael Murphy
Singing at Funerals and a Different Slant on Christianity In recent years, I’ve sung at dozens of funerals in various Catholic churches. Sometimes in a funeral choir, but most often as a cantor (soloist). The family often picks the songs to be sung and in what...
by Michael Murphy
WHY WRITE THE BOOK? Since High School, some seventy years ago, I have watched many people, especially youth, stop attending church. Listening to hundreds of sermons over the years, I have wondered why so much emphasis was placed on...
by Michael Murphy
THIS IS HOW IT ALL BEGAN In 1954, I entered Sacred Heart Seminary at Oneida, just west of Green Bay, the fall after I graduated from 8th grade. I had worked that summer and the following summer at Leyse Aluminum Company in Kewaunee, mostly washing windows and sweeping...
by Michael Murphy
After spending ten years in the seminary, I decided to go forward with my vows into the diocesan priesthood. I had seen four or five of my classmates suddenly drop out of this quest when the time came to receive the Subdiaconate, one year before receiving the...