Fr. Michael Williams

Fr Michael was a Catholic Priest in the Archdiocese of Liverpool from 2004 until his death in 2011 at the age of 42. As his sister, Rachel, I inherited his sermons from my mother after his death. I realised how much she trusted me when she gave them to me to do with them whatever I thought was best.

I’ve decided to share them with the world. It’s thanks only to Mikolaj’s generosity in creating this website that I am able to do this. I’m also grateful for my friends’ loving support throughout many difficulties and for knowing who I truly am. Mike knew me and loved me as I am, and I loved him in the same way.

Michael was, and is, a very special person. I remember him as a small child asking my mother for bread. Then he would arrange a table and perform the Mass using the bread as the host. It was a serious occasion for us both. I was the only ‘parishioner’ present at this ‘Mass’. He would place the ‘host’ on my tongue, and his silence was mature and solemn.

Mike had left school after his GCSEs, and went straight into work. But when he was made redundant (at the age of about 19) he decided to return to study. He completed additional GCSEs and then did A-levels. It was about this time that Fr Tom at Holy Name, our childhood parish, would give weekly talks and Mike and I would go and listen.

Mike’s further study enabled him to go to university in York where he studied English Literature and History. Like my father, Mike loved history. Mike enjoyed literature too and Shakespeare plays in particular. I remember he took me to see my first play at The Everyman Theatre in Liverpool; it was Dr Faustus by Christopher Marlowe, about the seven deadly sins! After that I loved theatre too.

After he completed his degree Mike came home and started a teacher training course. He also began seeking a deeper relationship with God. This led to us going to Medjugorje on pilgrimage together. Mike first became aware of the call to the priesthood there and he shared this with me at the time. It was a profound experience for us both.

This was the beginning of his journey towards the priesthood and the end of his teacher training course. I still remember Mike and his friend Alan going back and forth to seminary and hearing stories about it all when we three met up in the holidays. Alan left after four years and later got married, but Mike stayed. Alan still tells wonderful stories about the antics they got up to!

In the time before Mike went to seminary, I had taught him to pray all of the prayers I had learnt since he had gone off to York, and that was a lot! I was taught by Fr Fabian of the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary. My daughter and I had moved to The Wirral, and Mike visited us every Tuesday, and we often said nine-week novenas together for various concerns.

The first novena we said was to St Philomena for my daughter’s education. I was a single parent from when she was eighteen months old. I had worked in a senior school for excluded children in Liverpool and realised that education was key to many opportunities. I unexpectedly found a school in North Wales in a beautiful spot where the children were happy teenagers. The headmistress was a nun and she had devotion to St Philomena.

Later, Mike and I both left Merseyside on the same day to study theology, but we went to different cities - Mike left for Durham and I left for Oxford. It was the 24th September 1998, the feast of Our Lady of Ransom. Mike went on to achieve an undergraduate and a master’s degree, both in theology. I ended up with a certificate in higher education, also in theology.

Mike returned to Liverpool after seminary and was ordained to the priesthood at Holy Name Parish on the 25th June 2004. I had just been diagnosed with delayed onset PTSD, due to an incident as a young mother. I’m grateful I was able to go to his ordination, in spite of this difficulty, and others at this particular time.

After his ordination Mike was placed at the Catholic Cathedral, where he later baptised Robbie Fowler’s son. He was a keen Liverpool supporter and he later told me, “Ah, Rae! I was buzzin’!” Stevie Gerrard had looked after him at the after party. Stevie had waved him off at the end of the evening with a real Scouse, “See ya later, Far-ther Mike!” I can still see the twinkle in Mike’s eyes as he told me this story.

Mike was hospital chaplain for The Royal Liverpool Hospital, and later on, for Broadgreen Hospital. He and Mum had become close and had started praying the rosary together on Mike’s day off - my Dad even joined in. Both our parents were very proud of him serving people in the diocese as a priest.

Mike was only a priest for seven years in Liverpool, but he fitted an awful lot into those few years! I felt quite protective of him as he became exhausted giving himself wholeheartedly to whomever asked for his help or support. But he was confident serving in his priestly role and he enjoyed it immensely. My Mum was joyful that he had entered the priesthood and proud that he exercised the role so well. It was lovely to witness.

In the last six weeks of his life he visited Oxford three times to stay with me. He would land and say, “I’m on my holidays!” But he never took a holiday from prayer! I enjoyed looking after him and seeing him unwind and relax, we laughed a lot, often remembering the ups and downs of family life! If it was Friday we would go to the local fish restaurant - it was always fish only on Fridays!

His first visit was for Kelly, my daughter’s birthday, another was for Bella’s baptism, my granddaughter. Mike was very tired at this time, I had noticed, and I had spoken to him about it. At that point, all we knew was that the doctor had diagnosed him as suffering from migraines; later on, when he was experiencing more serious health issues, his doctor had told him that it was cluster headaches.

Finally, on the third visit on the 17th September, we went to the ordination of Lawrence Lew, Mike’s friend. Sometime earlier, Mike had asked me to pray for a new parish for him and now I prayed fervently throughout the ordination for this. A song for Our Lady of Guadalupe was sung at the ordination and I felt her presence at this time very profoundly:

This song had been composed specially for Lawrence’s ordination by Sir James McMillan. The main choir sang the words spoken to Juan Diego by Our Lady:

“Listen, put it into your heart, most little of my sons: Let nothing frighten or grieve you, let not your heart be disturbed, do not fear any sickness or anguish. Am I not here, who am your Mother? Are you not under my protection? Am I not your health? Are you not happily within the folds of my mantle, held safely in my arms? Do you need anything more? Let nothing else worry you, disturb you.”

A week later Mike was lying unconscious in hospital. When Archbishop Patrick Kelly, the then Archbishop of Liverpool, visited him, I told him about Our Lady of Guadalupe’s powerful presence at the ordination (it was like she was speaking directly to me). He then told me that he had received a vestment with the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe on it that very day.

Mike was in fact suffering from an undiagnosed brain tumour. Right up until a week before he died, he was serving the sick and dying as hospital chaplain, even getting up in the night for hospital visits. This is the stuff saints are made of. Mike fell unconscious at my parent’s home on his day off - It was the 23rd or the 24th of September. During his final days I spoke to the hospital doctors about his care with my father’s consent; all of these doctors acted with the utmost care and compassion and it was greatly appreciated. I asked the surgeon if Mike would have lived if his condition had been correctly diagnosed - he said, “Yes”. Our sister Jacky was with me and supportive at this very sad time for us both. But instead, on the feast of St Michael and The Archangels, 29th September, Mike died. His new parish was to be heaven; as his funeral card stated he is: ‘A priest forever’.

There were twelve of us around his bed in his last hours and it reminded me of Christ and His apostles, it was a holy death. Mike shed a couple of tears in his final moments. I wailed three times. I had dreamt the night before that Mike was in my arms and he had shed those same tears - we were in the same embrace as Mary and Jesus in the Michelangelo Pieta statue. This was also a profound experience for me.

Mike’s family all still miss him greatly - he loved all of his nieces and nephews in a special way. He loved all of his family very much. I truly believe in ‘…the resurrection of the body and life everlasting’. So did Mike and he spent his life pondering this mystery; Christ’s life, death and resurrection. As Saint Thérèse once said, “I wish to spend my heaven in doing good upon the earth.” Maybe my brother, Mike’s, work has just begun! Father Michael Williams pray for us.

Rachel Williams, August 2024

Please contact me if you have any memories that you’d like to share about my brother (I love to hear stories about him and his antics). My email is: 11willra@gmail.com