April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
AVERILL PARK WOODWORKER
Carving solace for grieving people
But these days, another carpentry project excites Mr. Clement most: He quietly makes wooden crosses in his Poestenkill basement for family, acquaintances and fellow parishioners of St. Henry's Church in Averill Park. He also made a cabinet for the church's sacred oils and another for the book that memorializes deceased community members. The case includes carved glass in the shape of a tree on a stained glass window made by another parishioner.
The crosses are intended for bereaved or sick people and Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults candidates, among others. Mr. Clement, who's 61, estimates he's made hundreds of crosses.
"It's kind of taken off," he said. "I do it for anyone I see who I feel needs it."
The project started when Mr. Clement thought he could improve on a similar cross he saw in a catalog, so he made one for his father in 2004. Using recycled wood, scraps from local sawmills and even some leftovers from renovations to the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Albany, he makes each cross look unique and carves designs in the center.
Feeling God
When he brought a few crosses to Sister Rosemary Cuneo, CR, St. Henry's youth ministry coordinator and a member of the diocesan Vocations Team, "she fell in love with them," he said.
"The idea is to hold it in your hand and you can feel the cross and hopefully feel God's presence," Mr. Clement explained. "God has given me this gift [of carpentry] with no conditions, no requirements, no expectations, and the feeling I like to have is when I give this to somebody with no conditions, no requirements and no expectations. I hope they get some comfort out of it, but if they don't, that's OK. That's not up to me; that's up to a higher power."
A prayer card he includes with his creation, which he calls the Feeling Cross, reads: "You don't have to see it to know it's there. This is the same as God....Feel what is in your heart. Then you can pray to God and ask Him to help with these feelings, whatever they may be (pain, joy, anger, gratitude, etc.)."
After Newtown
Mr. Clement doesn't wait for specific recipients to crank out the crosses. Last December, when he was looking for a way to help after the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., he attended a men's Scripture group he helped start at St. Henry's. The message that day was, "You may sit there sometimes and think that there's nothing you can do. If God wants you to do something, He'll give you a way."
The shootings had claimed 27 lives. Mr. Clement found the exact same number of finished crosses in his basement. Rev. Thomas Holmes, the pastor, blessed the crosses and Christmas cards made by faith formation students and Mr. Clement sent them to St. Rose of Lima parish in Newtown to distribute to victims' families.
"Somebody was pushing me to do that," he believes.
The carpenter calls the project part of his "spiritual journey." It has inspired him to get more involved with the parish men's group, the Knights of Columbus and other volunteer work.
"I started out by doing it for other people, and it's given me a great relationship with God, because I can't help but pray and anticipate where these are going," he said. "It's at the point that it's a part of me. It's something that God wants me to do, so now I can't stop."
Spiritual work
Mr. Clement believes everything happens for a reason and everyone can find their talents and use them to glorify God and help others.
"I feel we all have a little talent or gift that God wants us to share," he said. "We have a responsibility to find that gift, and when we do, we're going to get back a lot more than we give away."
Mr. Clement and his wife, parents of five and grandparents of 10, live in a house he built next door to his childhood home, where his 96-year-old mother lives. He has been in carpentry since age 10, when his carpenter father gave him a summer job cleaning, sweeping and hauling lumber.
"That's all I wanted to do," he recalled. "I said, 'OK, can I quit school now?' I liked the fresh air, being outdoors, working with my hands [and] looking at it at the end of the day and saying, 'We made something here.' It was the love of my life."
He jumped into full-time work after high school and was hired by Western Building Restoration in 1978; he retired in 2010, but still does some work for that company. He says his vocation is made even more special by the fact that Jesus was a carpenter.
"I can also say it's a gift that my earthly father gave me," he said. "So it's from two fathers and Jesus as my brother."[[In-content Ad]]
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