Hammering Home Connections

SWARTSWOOD  At any given Mass, two recently constructed freestanding wooden kneelers in Our Lady of Mount Carmel (OLMC) Church almost look as if they are kneeling in prayer on the floor before the altar while they wait to accommodate worshippers who choose to receive Holy Communion while kneeling.

The soft padding on this pair of kneelers provides communicants who kneel such as Ann Johnson, a parish secretary, with a more pleasant experience than before. Their red oak construction and light-brown stain match the polished appearance of the wood detail on the altar — tying together the design of OLMC’s worship space. But what worshippers cannot see is that the building of the new kneelers also matches — or “goes with the grain” of — the faith, life’s work, hometown and family heritage of their creator, Tom Rivara, 67, a lifelong OLMC parishioner.

“The new kneelers are more comfortable,” Johnson said. The kneelers, which replace two older, larger and more unwieldy freestanding kneelers, usually stay in front of the altar between Masses at OLMC but sometimes are stored in an area to one side of the worship space. “Kneeling for Holy Communion makes me feel more reverent when I am worshipping God. It’s wonderful,” she said.

On a recent Sunday, Rivara looks with pride as a few communicants avail themselves of the new kneelers that face the altar. Even without woodworking expertise, he called on his 45 years of experience as a building contractor to construct the high-quality kneelers — along with inspiration from Jesus, who learned carpentry from St. Joseph. Rivara fashioned them from the wood of trees on Rivara Farms, a more-than 100-year-old family farm where he lives, which gave the project a sense of place, rooting it in the rolling countryside of rural Sussex County, and good stewardship of the earth, re-purposing available materials in God’s creation.

The kneeler project marks the latest in Rivara’s years-long — and ongoing — succession of construction or repair projects to help update the facilities of the parish that his grandparents helped establish more than 70 years ago. Rivara’s handiwork at OLMC lets him, as with some other parishioners, use his talents in service of the Church.

“I like the way the kneelers came out,” said Rivara, who with his wife, Cindi, has five children and nine grandchildren. For the project, he bought and installed trim to match the wood of the kneelers and the altar. “I can’t preach the Word of God or convert people like Father Abuchi [Nwosu, OLMC’s pastor], so I do these projects, because I know what talents I do have,” he said.

It was at the urging of Father Nwosu that Rivara took up the kneelers project, working on it on and off in his large workshop — a former chicken coop on the 155-acre farm — last fall. He used a chop saw to cut several pieces of red oak from his large stash of lumber on his property and then straightened, planed and sanded them. The wood of the kneelers matches several pieces that he used for an arch over the altar, pillars to the side of it and steps — parts of an extensive renovation of OLMC’s sanctuary that he helped lead in 2016.

“The workmanship [on the kneelers] is beautiful,” said Father Nwosu, who already was familiar with his handiwork. In addition to leading a construction crew with a partner in the renovation of the sanctuary, he also assisted with the construction of the St. Thomas More Chapel, under the direction of the previous pastor, Father Brian Ditullio, now a teacher and chaplain at Pope John XXIII Regional High School, Sparta.

Originally, Father Nwosu wanted to install an altar rail and built-in kneelers around the front and sides of the altar during renovations. Then he realized that the limited space there could not accommodate them. So he asked Rivara to build the two kneelers. Previously, he built a simpler-looking kneeler for the chapel, which is located in the rectory and dedicated to Eucharistic Adoration, Rivara said.

Father Nwosu had confidence in Rivara, because of his outstanding and speedy renovation of OLMC’s sanctuary. He, a partner and their crew gutted the sanctuary and covered a brick wall on the altar with sheetrock and wood trim, replaced carpeting with tile and repositioned the steps at the altar. They also hung a crucifix above the altar and installed a new sanctuary lamp, altar, credence table, ambo and tabernacle stand. Father Nwosu said that he gave Rivara a tight deadline for completion: about two weeks, just before Palm Sunday of 2016.

“I really like a challenge,” Rivara said.

Since birth, Rivara has felt rooted in the rural landscape of Swartswood and the faith community of OLMC. His grandparents, Mary and James Rivara, moved from Greenwich Village in New York City more than a century ago to the farmland that they received as a wedding gift that they would establish as Rivara Farms. Later, Rivara and his six siblings inherited the farm and operate it together. The land was the location of a previous farm that dated back 100 years before the Rivaras owned it. Years ago, Rivara Farms stopped raising livestock but today continues to produce 9,000 bales of hay annually, Rivara said.

Rivara’s grandparents helped found OLMC, originally a mission of St. Joseph Parish, Newton, with a history that dates back to the 1940s. Masses were celebrated in a local school and home, which Rivara’s grandparents and his father, John, attended. The church was completed in 1967. OLMC was raised to parish status in 1970. He remembers being an altar server as a boy and, at age 15, completing his first project there: building two brick pillars that held up the parish sign, which since have been removed.

“Our Lady of Mount Carmel is where we got married and where our kids received Confirmation,” said Rivara in explaining his long and close connection to the parish. “It always seems like home here.”

Proudly looking at the completed kneelers on a recent morning at OLMC, Rivara told The Beacon that his latest projects have included repairing the floor in the garage and installing more energy-efficient windows in the rectory. He said that he plans to replace doors in the rectory soon.

“It’s people like Tom, who are talented and generous with those talents, who will keep Our Lady of Mount Carmel around for years to come,” said an ever-appreciative Father Nwosu.