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BY GRETCHEN KEISER
Staff Writer
CONYERS--The funeral Mass for Father Mary Joachim Tierney, OCSO, was
celebrated at the Monastery of the Holy Spirit May 27.
The monks of the Trappist community, several hundred lay people and many
priests of the archdiocese joined Dom Bernard Johnson, OCSO, and Archbishop
John F. Donoghue in remembrance of the 86-year-old monk who was one of the
founders of the monastery in 1944.
White-haired and increasingly stooped and frail in recent years, Father
Joachim continued to bring Christ to others in remarkable ways, the abbot said
in his homily.
“That holy monk and holy priest ... has helped us all. He loved in such
a way that he wanted to touch everybody. He did touch everybody with a word,
with a smile, with a prayer. He did touch us all ... and helped us on our way.
He had a mission, almost an apostolate, to show as many as possible how they
could touch Jesus in their lives.”
While he was called Father Joachim, he made it a point to remind others that
his monastic name included the name of Mary and he had a great devotion to the
Mother of God.
He was Dom Johnson’s confessor since 1946, the year the future abbot
entered the Conyers monastery. The abbot mentioned one of his spiritual
principles.
“Nothing happens to us in this world that God does not will or permit
for our good, for others’ good and for God’s glory.”
Despite the twists and turns in life that seem impossibly against our good,
holding fast to this principle “brings a serenity and peace of soul like
nothing else,” Dom Johnson said.
The funeral Mass for “a very holy priest” is “a very joyful
occasion, there’s nothing sad about it,” he told the assembly.
Archbishop Donoghue presided at the funeral. The monastic community and
visiting priests were gathered around the altar. Several hundred lay people,
many of whom came to Father Joachim for confession or spiritual help, filled
rows of chairs at the front of the church, the monastic choir stalls and other
seating areas downstairs and upstairs in the abbey church.
In addition to his role as confessor within the monastery and to people
outside the community, Father Joachim served as prior for over 20 years, during
which time much of the construction of the Conyers monastery was accomplished.
The Monastery of Our Lady of the Holy Spirit was founded in 1944 on former
plantation land in Rockdale County. Father Joachim was one of a small group of
monks sent from Our Lady of Gethsemani in Kentucky to make the foundation. The
cloister buildings and the church were constructed by the monks, who lived in a
barn until they completed the first monastery.
“He was the master at the old concrete mixer,” said the abbot
alluding to the vaulted arches of the church which took 25 years to complete.
“We are very pleased and happy to be able to put father to rest
here.”
A native of St. Louis, Mo., born in 1912, Father Joachim entered Gethsemani
in 1932. He professed solemn vows as a monk Nov. 1, 1937 and was ordained to
the priesthood March 9, 1940. An older sister, Helen, a Carmelite nun, died
earlier, while he is survived by a brother, James, and a sister, Maxine Adler,
of St. Louis.
For a monk’s funeral, the body is placed in a wooden coffin in the
church the evening before and attended by two monks in prayer at all times
until the Mass. Following the funeral, the coffin is carried outside the church
door to the monks cemetery, but in the spirit of simplicity only the body is
buried. Everyone may place a handful of dirt in the grave following the prayers
of burial at the grave site.
For the wake service, Father Joachim’s handwritten monastic vows were
placed in his hands.
“He was faithful to that his whole life,” Dom Johnson said of his
vows. “We ask him to be sure and send people like himself to us--those
that will be faithful to the end to their commitments.”
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