From religious education to youth ministry, to retreats, pastoral parish ministry, and national conferences, Fr. Michael Librandi explains the teachings of the Christian Catholic faith in a style that resonates with his listeners. His media ministry, BuildMySpirit.com, has a focused mission – to encourage and facilitate individuals and businesses to increase the energy of their God-powered human spirit so that they will experience new meaning and purpose in their lives.

Fr. Michael is a priest of the Catholic Diocese of Rockford, Illinois. He is retired from parish ministry but not from what he calls his spirit-ministry. He is convinced that many people do not pay enough attention to their spiritual dimension, and so they have a sense that something is missing in life.

As the religious education director for several parishes, Fr. Michael developed and published an innovative religious education program for public school students in grades 1-8. This series, along with his curriculum for high school students, was adopted by many military bases and many parishes throughout the United States and Canada.

During his service to the Diocese of Rockford as Director of Youth Ministry, Fr. Michael established a diocesan retreat center connected to a rural parish church. He believes that youth ministry needs to be grounded in a worshipping community. Along with his young staff and 180 teen retreat team members, he presented retreats for about 2,000 young people each year.

While serving as pastor of several rural parishes, Fr. Michael wrote and published a children’s sacrament preparation program for First Reconciliation and First Communion. He is currently developing home study programs for use by parents to help them share their faith with their children.

No stranger to the use of media for evangelization, Fr. Michael was using slide programs set to music long before the first music video was ever produced. In most of his presentations at national and diocesan conferences, he used the latest media available to get across his message. Back in those days he used overheads, slide and filmstrip projectors, and movies. Now he’s moved to power point, video, and the world wide web.

Fr. Michael was born in Chicago in 1941. He studied Architecture at Illinois Institute of Technology, Botany at the University of Illinois and earned his MA in Theology from Aquinas Institute of Theology, Dubuque, Iowa (now located in St. Louis). He was ordained for the Diocese of Rockford in 1978.

When asked about homilies, Fr. Michael responds: “The Sunday liturgy is the one time each week we get together as a parish church community. It should be the best time of our week. We should strive for excellence in our liturgies. From the music to the proclamation of the word to the homily, through the celebration of the Eucharist, right up to the final blessing, we should be the best we can be.”

Fr. Michael’s homilies are based on what he sees as the Church’s message for a particular Sunday. He says this is determined by the choice and message of all the readings assigned for the day. Through his study of Scripture he is able to connect all the readings, as well as the response psalm, to preach a message that is interesting, instructional and useful in the daily lives of his listeners.

People are responding enthusiastically to Fr. Michael’s messages. Here is just one of the many comments he has received:

Dear Fr. Mike,
Benjamin (my 10 year old) and Mary (my 6 year old) and I just listened to the last two homilies that you posted. Ben said:

"He has convinced me to try to live more like the poor, and to give stuff away more often, and not keep as much. Good job!"

Mary said:
"From this day on, I will try to be more like the poor. And, I will give stuff to Salvation Army." (This is really what she said, I did not add anything!)

Bottom line, we especially liked your talk about almsgiving, and it has given us something to think about and talk about. The weight of some of the stuff we have has loaded us down in more ways than one, and we have been really working on giving things away. Your homily encouraged us to continue...and reminded us that our blessings (stuff) can bless us more if we just part with them...

If my two children can sit and listen to two of your homilies back to back, you must be doing something right, Father!

God bless you....
Sincerely,

Jennifer

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