Fr. Adam Laski distributes communion during St. Michael Church’s annual outdoor Mass at Iron River’s Blueberry Festival during the last weekend of July. (Catholic Herald photo)

Jenny Snarski
Catholic Herald staff

St. Michael Catholic Church in Iron River provided a Sunday Polka Mass celebration on July 26 for the town’s annual Blueberry Fest. The altar was set up on the main stage, central to the festival’s installations of rides and food trucks located at Moon Lake Park. Seated on bleachers, lawn chairs and tables under a covered pavilion, more than 250 people attended.

Newly installed pastor Fr. Adam Laski was the celebrant, assisted by altar server Isaac Pooler. Polka Mass music was provided by the Osacho Sisters, who are natives of Superior; Donna Osacho and Susie Osacho-Seiler played the accordion and cantored, accompanied by drums.

David Ciembronowicz, parishioner at St. Michael’s, said the polka music “was beautiful, inspirational and fit the outdoor Mass well.”

The parish’s evangelization team also organized a prayer station where visitors received prayers, holy medals, rosaries, prayer cards and “Jesus Loves You” wristbands. The Sacrament of Reconciliation was available before Mass.

During the homily, Fr. Laski said, “We are temples of the Holy Spirit, and God has promised to make a life with us and for us… To love the Lord’s commands is to say, ‘I want this to pour into my life, to follow after the Lord and to put the first things first.”

He noted that while Solomon rightly asked God for wisdom, once he also acquired “pleasure, wealth and power, he put other gods before the Lord.”

“The Lord has given us treasures and riches. His law, commandments, words and his Eucharist are the greatest gifts that God can give us. So, as we think about these things, he is nourishing us and feeding us.

“He wants to give us his commands, yes; but all the more he wants to give us himself. It’s not just about following commandments or doing right, but about loving a person.

“That’s ultimately why we come to Mass at all … To encounter Jesus Christ who suffered and died, and lives among us, feeds us with his word and sacrament … He is the one who makes it possible for us to live a holy life,” Fr. Laski concluded.

He addressed the Protestants he knew were in the crowd, welcoming them and inviting them to come forward with arms crossed for a blessing. Fr. Laski spoke about the “scandal that the Church is divided … that Martin Luther and others brought us into different stripes of Christianity.”

Fr. Laski invited everyone to pray Christ’s prayer for unity and to be strengthened through that morning’s Holy Mass.