By Eric Brooks

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight.” (Prov 3:5)

Michael Sowers was ordained a permanent deacon in August of 2016. However, his path to the clergy began decades earlier when he was 12. At that time, his mother was hospitalized for a surgery and Michael went on his own to visit her. Following the visit, he felt the need to pray for his mother and next to the Catholic hospital was a Catholic church. Deacon Sowers distinctly remembers being a thin child at that age and the large doors were almost impossible to push open. 

Finally able to do so, he entered the nave and was struck by an “experience of calm and overwhelming peace.” He was a Protestant Christian by birth, unfamiliar with Catholic churches, and remembers the multitude of candles burning the darkness, particularly the tabernacle candle glowing softly in a red glass globe. Looking back now, Deacon Sowers knows that calm and peace was in response to “the actual presence of Christ in the Eucharist.” 

That calm and peace did not lead to conversion to the Catholic church… a girl did. When he was fifteen, Deacon Sowers worked summers at Fantasy Farm, a small amusement park near Cincinnati. There he met his future wife, Toni, who was also working a summer job at the park. When they began to date, they often wanted to go out on dates Saturday nights. His future mother-in-law recommended they attend the vigil Mass before heading out and they often did so. 

Months of participating in Mass but remaining sitting in a pew during Holy Communion left Deacon Sowers questioning and wanting something more. This led to conversations with the parish priest which then led to meeting with him weekly. At 17, he completed RCIA and was baptized and confirmed. His Godmother was his mother-in-law. His Godfather would bring him to Our Lady of Perpetual Help decades later. 

Deacon Sowers was married on July 4, 1975 and worked for Emery Worldwide Airlines, a freight shipping company out of Dayton International Airport. Emery was eventually acquired by UPS and their operations moved to the UPS hub in Louisville, Kentucky. He was offered a transfer to Louisville and, “having a job in Kentucky was better than not having a job in Dayton.” Once in Kentucky, their family joined the small St. Francis of Assisi parish. 

While in Kentucky, Deacon Sowers first felt God’s call to the Diaconate. His first thought was, “Your aim is a little off, God.” Not me, You must have someone else in mind. As it turns out, God is never wrong. 

The Blessed Virgin has always held a special place with Deacon Sowers and he credits her intercession for eventually bringing him into the deaconate. When he began formation, the program was four years and then extended to five years in association with St. Meinrad Seminary in Indiana. Deacon Sowers found those five years “incredibly enriching” and was ordained in 2016. 

During formation, the future deacons are introduced to various ministries they can participate in. Deacon Sowers remembers thinking “I will never work in nursing homes or prisons.” Then a good friend of theirs at St. Francis parish broke her hip and spent time in a nursing home. Deacon Sowers brought her the Eucharist and before he fully realized what was happening was regularly participating in Masses there and other nursing homes. 

His best friend during formation was deeply involved in the prison ministry and, again, just this once Deacon Sowers helped. He remembers after Mass in the general population they walked to the infirmary and how these people so needed the calm and peace he first felt at 12 years old. Both experiences were “deeply rewarding.”

Again, God is never wrong. 

With retirement at UPS looming, Deacon Sowers and Toni decided to move to Central Ohio to be closer to their daughter and her husband who live in Bexley with his only granddaughter. This brings us back to his Godfather, Bob Sheehan, a parishioner at Our Lady of Perpetual Help. While looking for places to live in the Columbus area they would often stay with the Sheehans and attended Mass at Our Lady. The community and parish drew in Deacon Sowers and his wife and they purchased a house in Grove City earlier this year. 

He smiles as he tells me that he was able to spend Thanksgiving with his family for the first time in a very long time and is looking forward to spending Christmas with them. And then smiles even more broadly when he speaks about attending his 10-year-old granddaughter’s recent Christmas program. As anyone who has ever attended a Christmas program with 10-year-olds singing and playing musical instruments knows, it takes a special kind of person to enjoy that experience. 

Between raising a family, a demanding job, and the permanent deaconate, Deacon Sowers claims he does not have any hobbies. I might argue that attending the cacophonous caterwauling of 10-year-old musicals is a hobby in itself, and not a particularly pleasant one. He is currently being talked into exploring fishing and recently spent thirteen hours on the water with friends and not catching a single fish. In that Deacon Sowers is in good company, “And Simon answered, ‘Master, we toiled all night and took in nothing!’” (Lk 5:5)

For Deacon Sowers, being a permanent deacon is about serving. He sees himself “as a vehicle of service” and again repeats that “Mary led me to this.” He truly loves being able to proclaim the Gospel at Mass and gave his first homily on December 12, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, fittingly a day dedicated to Our Blessed Mother. 

However, Deacon Sowers does find preparing for those homilies challenging. “I can’t believe how many hours it takes to get ready for an 8-minute homily.” He truly wants his words to convey the same peace of Christ he first felt when he walked into the Catholic church. It is that same peace he would wish the entire world could experience, “It would end the world’s issues.” 

“He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” (Is 2:4)