This page will contain ways that I have honored Connie by doing things for the church. St Jude was our parish and meant so much to both of us.
John D. Becker “Litany of the Saints” — This was Connie’s favorite hymn to hear at mass. She loved it so much there was no way it could not be included in this blog.
An Index to the St. Jude Page
Priest Vestments.
Aprons for the Bereavement Team.
A Tribute to Fr. Tim
Priest Vestments
I would like to especially thank Fr. Tim for being such a tremendous influence and for being a people’s priest. I would just like to say one thing about Fr. Tim even though I could go on for pages. Connie was going in for exploratory surgery on a Thursday and we were going to have Fr. Tim give her a blessing for the sick on Wednesday. Anyway, Fr. Tim lost his mother on Tuesday so I thought we would get someone else. But we did not have to get anyone else. Fr. Tim called us that Wednesday morning and said if we could come by the church, he would do the “Anointing of the Sick’. Here is a man who just lost his mother and he was still going out of his way to help others. Fr. Tim meant so much to me and Connie and I ask for your prayers for him as he is not in good health. Thank you for your prayers for Fr. Tim and I hope you enjoy the ways I have come up with to honor Connie through our church.
I want to thank Christine and Ernie for being the inspiration for doing this. Connie lost her mother on St. Patrick day March 17, 2011. After the funeral Connie’s cousins Christine, and Ernie present us with a priest vestment to give to Fr. Tim and suggested we could have something embroidered in the collar. Connie and I decided to do that and after finding the right place we had “RIP Lawrence and Veronica O’Neill”. I can still remember Connie and I presenting it to Fr. Tim one afternoon. Not only did it make Fr. Tim happy it also made us very happy. We just asked that when he wore the vestment that he would say a prayer for Connie’s parent. The best thing about it was that every time he wore it, it made her so happy. What really made it special was he always wore it when we were having a mass said for them. Thank you, Fr. Tim as I know it was not by chance you picked that vestment that day, it was knowing that it meant something to Connie. For that, I am eternally grateful. The Vestment with an Irish Cross In the Collar it says RIP Veronica and Lawrence O’Neill.
That was such a great way to honor your loved ones that Ernie and Christine passed on to us. Thank you so much Ernie and Christine.
It did not take long for me to realize that one of the best ways, that I wanted to honor my love for Connie, was for me to buy the priest of St, Jude vestments. I approached Fr. Andrew and told him what I would like to do. His only request was that since they did not have many matching priest and deacon vestments could I buy one for the deacon that match the one for the priest. I worked with a lady named Nancy at Ziegler’s at learned a lot. The priest vestment is called a Chasuble while the deacons is called a Dalmatic. They had several in their catalog that were matching sets. They were made in Poland and we did have one problem as they sent the wrong items. Nancy at Ziegler’s was very good at getting this corrected. I ended up ordering two chasubles and two matching dalmatics.
Then I ran into a problem the place that had embroidered the vestment for Connie’s parent said that they were not able to the vestment as the collar was not big enough for their machine. Luckily, I found a place that could do it. It was a place called Moonlight Threads and they did a wonderful job on the chasubles. But they could not embroider the dalmatic directly. We ended up solving that problem by them embroidering a piece of cloth that Connie’s best friend Lizzie was able to sew into the back of the dalmatics without anything being visible. Thank you, Lizzie you did a wonderful job for Connie.
After I realized that they had gotten the order wrong, I sent pictures of what I had ordered and what had been shipped to me. One set was completely correct it was exactly how ordered it. This is the one that came incorrectly, which is a lovely chasuble. I decided to keep this chasuble and return the dalmatic. The reason I decided to keep it was that friends of mine at St Jude’s had a son that was going to be ordained a priest in July of 2016. He is a wonderful young man like his parents. I remember his father bringing him and his brother to 6:30 am mass every Wednesday morning before school. His name is Fr. Greg and he was selected to go to Rome for his training as a priest. I have heard him speak a few times and he is a wonderful homilist. The original chasuble that I ordered was supposed to be ivory with the center green pieces down the center. You will see a picture of it later.
The Vestment Fr. Gregory -St Jude’s Chapel.
The Inscription to honor Connie.
This is the dalmatic that goes with the chasuble above. I had ordered an ivory vestment with a green stripe that contained the cross down the middle. These two did not even match. As I stated I returned the dalmatic and gladly gave the chasuble to Fr. Greg. You will see the correct ones that I order later on.
I had received one chasuble and dalmatic that was correct and present them to Fr. Andrew for the use of the priest and deacons of St. Jude in late July of 2016. They have a weekly meeting of the parish staff on Monday mornings and I got the parish administrator to let me come in and present them to the priest and deacons. Fr. Andrew allowed Fr. Tim to be the first to wear the new chasuble on a Saturday evening mass. Thank you, Fr. Andrew, for that wonderful gesture.
This is the chasuble that I received and gave to the church. The priests have worn it several times. In fact, this past Sunday. January 28 Fr. Andrew wore it at the 8:00 AM mass.
This is the matching dalmatic that Deacon Robert wore this past Sunday. It always thrills me to see the priests and deacons wear the vestments. It also brings tears to my eyes.
After working with Nancy at Ziegler’s we were finally able to get the other Chasuble and Dalmatic. It took quite a while because they were being made in Poland and the place that was making them was close for their summer vacation. It took a while communicating with everyone to get the ones I had ordered. It was mid-November when I finally got them after placing the order in May. I was able to present them to the priest and deacons before Thanksgiving. Below is a picture of them. The pictures of the chasubles give you a better picture of what they both look like.
Aprons for the Bereavement Team
Aprons — For The Bereavement Team
As a lot of you know Connie was a member of the St Jude Bereavement Team. Her responsibility was when notified that there was going to be a funeral and the family was requesting a reception, she would notify the other members. She would let them know the date and time of the funeral, what time and how many people we needed for Setup, Serving and Clean-Up. She would let them know what type of food the family had requested such as casseroles, sandwiches, salads, etc. She would then collect the responses from the members and put together a chart of who was bringing what and who was helping with, setup, serving, and clean-up. She took it very seriously and a couple of times when I helped her out and made a mistake, she let me know, as she wanted to do a perfect job on it. She did not want to give it up after she got sick and ask me to help a lot with it as she was hoping to pick it up again after she got better but that was not to be.
Anyway, I decided to continue her work in that ministry as a way of honoring her. In looking at other ways of honoring her, I came up with the idea of buying new aprons for the bereavement team to wear while working the funerals. Below you will find some pictures of the aprons that I purchased.
The left picture shows the top of the apron with the Women of St. Jude Logo, while the picture on the right is the bottom part of the apron where I had “In Memory Of Connie” placed.
Below is a picture of the parish receptionist (Sara) trying on the apron. The other picture is some members of the bereavement team wearing the apron at a reception. Thank You (Elva, Ruth, Sonja).
A Tribute To Fr. Tim Church
On August 15th, 2018 the members of St Jude Catholic church lost it Pastor Emeritus, Fr Tim Church. Not only did the church lose a wonderful, pastor, homilist, a man who provided spiritual guidance to the whole church, but I personally lost a friend. While it was not a friendship where we went to basketball games, fishing, etc., it was still a friendship that I will always cherish. I am sure, I am not the only one that felt that ways as probably the whole church felt the same way about him; to all, he was a friend. Fr. Tim came to St Jude in July of 1999 about a year after I had become Catholic and he amazed me right away with his homilies and help guide me in my new faith. But he was more than a priest, he was a person always looking to help those in need and providing them with opportunities to grow in our faith. You can read earlier in my blog about the anointing of the sick for Connie, which I will never ever forget. But we had a relationship where we could kid each other, and he took the time to really get to know me. One of the things I will miss is him telling me how bad my jokes where but deep down I think he laughed at a few. I had been given a bright orange Tennessee jacket for one of my birthdays and Fr Tim would tease me when I wore it. He would say things like I could go stand in the road and people would think I was one of the cones they put in the street or he would say Joel if the lights go out in the church, I will just have everyone follow you. It was wonderful that he would kid me, and I will miss that. One day he asked me if he was going to do my funeral and I said of course, and he said well if I need the church to be quiet I will just tell one of your jokes. How I wish he would be here to do my funeral, but I know he will be there to greet me when my time comes. Thank you, Fr. Tim, for not only being a great priest but for being the person you were an inspiration to all. A special thanks for co-celebrating at Connie’s funeral it meant the world to me.
Fr. Tim, I am a better person for having known you.
Work Continues on this page