Early Morning Sermons for the “6:30 Crazies”
For more than 10 years Deacon Michael Weston gave a sermon every weekday, Monday through Friday, to his “6:30 Crazies”. These were the people who came to the Communion Service at 6:30AM at Mary Immaculate Church in Farmers Branch, Texas. They gave themselves the name even before Deacon Michael came to Mary Immaculate. They requested that he conduct a Communion service for them when it became impossible to continue the 6:30AM Mass. They came to love him as deeply as he loved them because he insisted that they name their prayer intentions specifically instead of saying “For a Special Intention”. In that way they could and did support each other and work to solve their problems together. The 6:30 Crazies community became a model of love and unity.
In his sermons he frequently addresses one or another of the “Crazies” by name. He would smile as he used the names of specific people as he wandered during his homily, either because he knew that they would not do the things for which he was rhetorically addressing them, or because they embodied the virtues he was praising. This personal touch, and his understanding of them and love for them made him much loved by them and helped unite them into a close community of love.
From the beginning of his ministry as a deacon, at St. Monica Church and at Mary Immaculate Church, people asked him for copies of his sermons. Since he always spoke without notes, that was impossible. Shortly before his death, he consented to attempt to record some of his sermons. His sermons were recorded and are presented here, along with a mostly unedited transcript of each. It is hard to directly transcribe the spoken word, so some changes had to be made to make the transcriptions more readable.
Deacon Michael Weston was a passionate Catholic. For some, the fact that he was a convert explained everything. But he was a much more complex man than that.
Michael had a difficult childhood. For most of his youth his mother was bedridden. Since his father fled in times of trouble, he was left alone to take care of her and his two sisters. But his father always came back. Unfortunately, when he was there, he could be cruel, and Michael had to defend his mother and sisters from him.
His sisters were furious when he left them and Los Angeles for Houston and Rice University. In his freshman year he met Laura Garcia and immediately fell passionately in love. He never tired of telling her, and everyone else, how much he loved her. She was a devoted Catholic, but it was 16 years after their marriage before his overnight conversion. He embraced the faith with the same dedication and passion he felt for his wife.
Many in his deacon class considered Michael to be the intellectual of the class; he was always thinking, analyzing, and clarifying. Though he was a founding partner in a good sized law firm, like the Centurion in the Bible, he understood authority and always said, "Lord, I am not worthy,” of the gift of the Catholic faith and the privilege of his ordination.
Almost no one realized he lived a life of constant excruciating pain. This is part of what made him close to the weak, the sick, the unloved and the abandoned. He was always especially devoted to children. He could instantly quiet a crying baby by holding it and was always surrounded by children after Mass.
Of course, he loved his family most of all.