In 1993, he began offering candlelight prayer concerts at parishes nationwide, an evening of healing through music and storytelling.  That year he met his future wife, Mary Cook, and they were married in Arizona where they made their home for six years.  From the first day they met, Michael and Mary Poirier have felt a steadily growing ‘ache’ to share a message of mercy.  In 2000, they sold their home in Arizona and for the next eighteen months, they traveled around the country in a motor home with their two sons.  They offered evenings of “prayersongs” and Eucharistic Adoration to draw people closer to the love and mercy of God.  They invited people to simply remain open.  Open to change.  Open to an ongoing conversion of heart.  Open to receive graces being offered to all.  Since 2001, he and his family have made their home in Edmond, Oklahoma.  Their daughter, Therese Marie, was born in 2005. In 2007, they once again set out on the road as a family and have been traveling full-time ever since.

Michael uses music and storytelling to set an atmosphere where it is easy to imagine God telling us how much we are cherished.  All of us need to hear this, especially those of us who like to think we know all about the love of God.  How can a mortal human ‘know all about’ something that is infinite?  If we pondered God’s mercy our whole lives, we would not begin to understand this priceless gift!  Each evening of story and song is a chance to remember that God has never stopped calling us.  If we do not allow time to remember this truth - it can only become less and less real to us.  So, let your imagination go for a moment: Imagine God telling you one more time how much you are loved – then, imagine that it is true!

Often, the evening theme is forgiveness.  Michael still asks people to pray for his grandmother’s killer.  She (Agnes) was murdered on July 4, 1990 at age 79.  Michael believes hatred causes a cancer of the soul that only forgiveness can cure.  In the fall of 1990, Michael met Mother Teresa.  In a brief, private conversation, he told the saintly woman about his grandmother’s death, she urged him and his family to forgive the killer.  “(It is) not enough not to hate.”  Mother Teresa told him, “Tell them to forgive this man from the heart and their pain will be lifted.”

Mary, too, shares about the miracles that began in her life when she began to open herself to mercy.  Responding to the same ‘still, small voice’ that calls each of us, she began a conversion of heart that continues to this day.  No matter what we have done, no matter how far we have fallen - there is a Good Shepherd calling his thirsty sheep to the fountain of mercy.  The miracle of mercy that occurred in her life more than fifteen years ago stands timelessly in her memory - a testimony to the timeless God who poured out that gift of mercy on her life. To read Mary’s complete testimony, click here.

Michael’s music is filled with prayers of encouragement, comfort, forgiveness and mercy.  He has composed more than one-hundred songs, released ten music CD’s, a storytelling CD, an Advent CD featuring children telling the Christmas story and a special interview CD just for men examining their faith lives and how that faith impacts their wife, children and the world.  Michael’s music can be purchased at World Library (www.wlpmusic.com).  Visit www.holyfamilynow.com soon to find out more information about this wonderful ministry.