The sign outside St. Joseph Church in Astoria says “all are welcome in this place.”
Inside, churchgoers are greeted by a huge painting of Christ, above the altar.
“It is really the Christ in judgment,” said Father Vincent Chirichella, pastor of St. Joseph Church. “But also the Christ of mercy because he has a book in his hand and on the book is written come to me all you who labor and are heavily burdened.”
Father Chirichella tells Currents News it was laborers who built the original church’s wood-frame structure in 1876, many of them German immigrants.
“The name of the church, St. Joseph, was given by the bishop because of the men that worked in the Steinway music factory, and a lot of them were carpenters and laborers,” Father Chirichella said. “They worked on this church so he came up with Joseph the carpenter.”
Parishioners are still working on the church. the current one, built in 1906.
The Germans moved on. Now Hispanics, some Italians, and others fill the pews.
“The people that worship here make it special, very loving, very caring, very giving,” Father Chirichella said.
People like Marlene Kaselis, the resident wreath-maker.
Kaselis makes every wreath by hand to decorate the church for Christmas.
She says she’s not an artist, she gets her creativity from God. “I’ve had some interesting things happen in my life and some of them have been difficult and I truly believe that if it was not for my faith, I would have gone off the deep end,” Kaselis said.
This is her way of saying thank you.
And when Christmas is over, her work, and that of her volunteers, isn’t.
“All of a sudden it was like well now it’s Easter,” Kaselis said. “We have to do something for Easter. Then you take down Easter, well now it’s summertime, now it’s autumn you have to make decorations, it just happened!”
Whatever the season, Father Chirichella said Kaselis is ready to be put to work.
“She’s always there, always there to lend a helping hand,” Father Chirichella said.
And Kaselis said she wouldn’t change a thing.
“It’s nice, you know it’s nice that the Church looks pretty,” Kaselis said.
Decorating the church isn’t the only thing Kaselis does for St Joseph Parish.
The former lector and religious ed teacher also runs the food pantry.
Now you know Marlene Kaselis from St. Joseph and how she makes up the Pulse of the Parish.