Grace and the Woodshop

THE WOODSHOP AT the Holy Cross Court has become a place of refuge, especially during these days of endless video conferences. The stacks of maple, red oak, and cherry and our saws, planes, and chisels beckon us to imagine and create. Along with my fellow CSCs, I’ve turned salvaged dorm room furniture and fallen campus trees into cutting boards, altars, cabinets, and even an icon of St. Joseph the Worker, patron saint of the Holy Cross Brothers.

As priests and brothers we gather daily around Christ’s altar of sacrifice to turn humble bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus, for the salvation of the world. In this most important act of faith we participate in the transformation of simple matter into sublime and sacred realities.

It is not so different in the woodshop. We trade our stoles and chasubles for aprons and safety glasses as we stand before the workbench, once again calling on the Holy Spirit to help us transform the ordinary into something extraordinary: the presence of God, now in the guise of western redcedar and American chestnut, figured with birdseyes, fiddlebacks, and spaltings. We marry chocolatey black walnut to silvery Oregon whiteoak. We shape and sand rough boards into elegant pieces that shimmer under the cloak of a teak oil finish. Our bench then becomes another altar and our shop another chapel, where we offer the sacrifice of our creativity and God’s grace again enters the world.

DAN PARRISH, CSC, ’96 teaches business management for UP’s Pamplin School of Business. His icon of St. Joseph the Worker is portrayed on the back cover of the Winter 2021 issue.