Arthur “Art” Wilson has been a recognized voice at St. Mary Parish for decades. The longtime lector and his wife, Gayle, have lived in Mokena since 1978. Together, they raised five sons and now have 11 grandchildren. Although he is a mechanical engineer by trade, Art has long cultivated a passion for writing, a passion that has culminated in his new book, “Everyone,” which is a vast repository of personal experiences and wisdom meant to deepen readers’ love for God and their neighbors.
“I started writing about this book’s religious subjects a few years ago based on deep religious thoughts that had started to come to me,” Art explains. “I had not dwelled on such thoughts before and once it had been going on for a while, I believed that God was inspiring me.”
A Fruit of the Pandemic
Art’s book might not have come to be if not for a strange twist of fate. He describes that “deep religious thoughts” about the fundamentals of the Catholic faith had been coming to him, and he was emboldened to consolidate those thoughts into a lecture. As a longtime lector, Art was comfortable with public speaking and felt called by God to share his epiphanies with St. Mary Parish.
Unfortunately, the timing was bad. The Covid-19 pandemic was raging, and the parish was forced to cancel or postpone all in-person events. That meant Art’s talk would have to wait. But that didn’t stop him from expressing his thoughts on paper.
“With my being shut in during the pandemic, I kept writing,” says Art. “I wrote a lot, and in time my materials became too much to be covered by a talk. With that, the logical decision was to change my format into a book.”
Three hundred and ninety-two pages later, Art had completed his magnum opus, titling it, “Everyone: A Celebration of Our Love for God and Our Neighbors.” In Art’s case, God had seemingly turned something as horrible as the pandemic around to result in a beautiful expression of faith.
Simple Yet Profound
It’s not an oxymoron to say that Art’s book is profound in its simplicity. It contains theology for the common man, written by a common man. When discussing original sin, Art writes,
What is original sin? It is the sin of Adam and Eve when they disobeyed God.
Why is original sin passed down to everyone? Everyone came from Adam and Eve. Through their sin it was established that sin is an inherent flaw of human beings.
Why is original sin passed down to innocents? The inherent flaw of sin by human beings can be compared to traits passed down through our DNA. It doesn’t matter whether we are innocent, we still receive them. An example with myself is that two of my sons have inherited my hand tremor. They were totally innocent as babies in Gayle’s womb, and yet they still received these traits.
This excerpt is representative of Art’s entire book. Instead of constructing complex philosophical statements, he distills some of the deepest truths of the Catholic faith into prose that an eighth-grader could understand.
The central focus of Art’s book is love. “The whole idea is to slowly but surely get the reader into the frame of mind that they should be loving everyone,” explains Art. He intersperses personal stories that serve as real-world examples to reinforce the book’s theology. “The personal stories show how I’ve received love from other people and from God,” he says.
His stories span decades. From meeting his first friend at age three, to help he received from a priest after an embarrassing altar serving incident, to dating his wife and getting to know her family, Art shares many details from his life that help the reader get to know him. He also includes many experiences he had at St. Mary Mokena and names specific individuals at the parish who have helped him experience love. Most importantly, Art dives into examples of how God loves us and covers diverse Catholic topics, from the Beatitudes to Our Lady of Guadalupe.
The Takeaway
“Everyone is our neighbor.” That is how Art summarizes the main takeaway from his book. His call to action? “I want everyone to think about that and accept that, and then pray for their neighbor as a way of showing love for them.”
Art brought this message to a live audience during a recent St. Mary Men’s Ministry lecture event, where he discussed the central theme of his book and allowed everyone who attended to take a copy home. “The key theme is determining how we should respond to Jesus telling us to love our neighbors,” he explains. “That then breaks down to, who should be included and how should we go about doing it?”
In a way, things have come full circle for Art. “It’s kind of ironic that I’m now giving a talk about my book,” he laughs. After all, the content in “Everyone” was originally meant to be a relatively short lecture before the pandemic-related disruptions.
Writing is Art’s hobby, and he plans to continue. He explained that he has some works of fiction that have yet to be published. As for “Everyone,” it is currently available on Amazon. “Just like the title suggests, my book is meant for ‘everyone’ to read,” says Art. “If everyone read it and made a determined effort to love their neighbors in the way I suggest, the world would certainly become a better place. And that’s something we all really need.”
St. Mary Men’s Ministry has monthly gatherings that include Mass, breakfast, and fellowship. For more info on how to join, contact smpmensministry@gmail.com.
The Mokena Marian 