Homilies - Fr. Daniel Scheidt - St. Vincent de Paul · St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church, Fort Wayne, Indiana

Homily - April 5th, 2026 - The Resurrection of the Lord The Mass of Easter Day - 130pm

April 8, 2026·14 min·1 clip

Fr. Scheidt reveals that Will Gray, inspired by a seventh-grade homily from Fr. Jonathan Norton, wore a crown-of-thorns ring until he found his bride—then had her engagement ring made in the same shape, with a diamond at the center.

1. Fr. Daniel Scheidt's Easter Sunday 1:30pm homily at St. Vincent de Paul in Fort Wayne opens with John 20:1-9, Mary Magdalene and the disciples discovering the empty tomb. 2. Fr. Scheidt is the sole homilist; parish staff members Will Gray, Emily Oberle, Brian Smith, Julia Schuster, and former parochial vicar Fr. Jonathan Norton are named. 3. The homily's thesis is that Christ's resurrection is a fact—'whether we know it or not, whether we like it or not, whether we agree with it or not'—and that it is already transforming the parish community in concrete ways. 4. Fr. Scheidt opens with 'all of us are heading toward the grave' and notes that 'the mortality rate of the human race approaches 100%.' 5. He describes two burial spots in the parish: the Spiritual Center Cemetery and the Oratory Graveyard, both of which the community actively uses as sites of prayer and celebration. 6. Approximately 1,600 Easter eggs were hidden in the Spiritual Center Cemetery for children to find at the Easter egg hunt following the earlier Mass. 7. St. Vincent de Paul teenagers camped in the Oratory Graveyard on Holy Thursday night and prayed in shifts in the Oratory of Saint Mary Magdalene, the parish's perpetual adoration chapel. 8. Fr. Scheidt then narrates two independent proposals: one couple prayed daily at the bench behind the oratory and chose Good Friday for the proposal at 5am; the second couple independently chose the same day and location. 9. The first man arranged for teenagers to go inside the oratory so they wouldn't be present during the proposal; his friend had placed an arbor of roses where he knelt. 10. Fr. Scheidt confirms: 'this is true, it's all true'—naming couple one as Will Gray and Emily Oberle from the parish youth ministry staff, and couple two as Brian Smith and Julia Schuster. 11. Fr. Scheidt traces Will Gray's idea to a homily delivered by Fr. Jonathan Norton, then parochial vicar, who stood before Will's seventh-grade class and told the boys: 'if the Lord is calling you to marriage, that's how you're supposed to propose in Christ, using death's way.' 12. Will Gray had a crown-of-thorns ring made and wore it as a reminder while searching for his future bride. 13. When Will found Emily, he had her engagement ring fashioned in the same crown-of-thorns style with a diamond at the center; Fr. Scheidt interprets this as: 'the crown of thorns is the cross; the resurrection is the diamond.' 14. Fr. Scheidt connects the proposals to the Book of Revelation's image of the wedding feast of the Lamb: 'The union of heaven and earth. The union of God and man. It's already begun.' 15. He reports that at the Easter Vigil the night before, 30 people were baptized and 30 more were received into full communion with the Catholic Church. 16. Fr. Scheidt frames all baptized Christians as 'children of divorce'—inheritors of divisions they didn't cause—healed by the Lord 'day by day, year by year.' 17. He names the Oratory of Saint Mary Magdalene as 'the embassy of Easter morning—it's always Easter morning in the oratory.' 18. The homily's tone is warm and celebratory, delivered with a narrative arc that builds from inevitability of death to the joy of Easter proposals and baptisms. 19. Those interested in Catholic Easter preaching with vivid parish storytelling, sacramental marriage theology, and scripture-grounded community narrative will find this homily memorable. 20. Listeners seeking secular, interview-format, or non-religious content should skip this episode.

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