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By Pricilla Greear, Staff Writer
LILBURN—Described as a man of deep personal faith, who also
served the church of Atlanta as a permanent deacon both in times of celebration
and suffering, Rev. Mr. James M. O’Brien of Lilburn died July 28. He was
58.
The funeral Mass was celebrated Aug. 1 at St. John Neumann Church
in Lilburn by Msgr. James Fennessy, the pastor.
Deacon O’Brien died at Embracing Hospice in Snellville
following a four-month battle with cancer.
He was ordained to the permanent diaconate on June 24, 1989 by the
late Archbishop Eugene A. Marino, SSJ, and served as a deacon at St. John
Neumann Church, where he became a member in 1979, two years after the parish
was founded. A James O’Brien Fund has been established through the parish
St. Vincent de Paul Society to assist his wife, Janet, to whom he was married
for 37 years, and his family.
Deacon Loris Sinanian, archdiocesan director of diaconate
formation, said, “I personally encourage everybody to help out in every
way they can. He really went through a very serious illness.”
Deacon Sinanian spoke of his faith despite suffering various
health problems in recent years including diabetes. “In the last several
years he’s really suffered and even through that he’s been a person
dedicated to the church and carrying out as much of the background work in the
church as best as he possibly could,” he said. “He’ll be sorely
missed. He’s one of the good guys.”
Members of the same diaconate formation class, Deacon Sinanian
said he and Deacon O’Brien “shared an awful lot” about their
struggles balancing work, ministry and family life. Janet O’Brien attended
the entire formation program with her husband and he said in an interview at
the time that theirs was a “team effort.” While serving at the
parishes, Deacon O’Brien also assisted the diaconate formation program.
“He was a good friend,” Deacon Sinanian said. “He
helped me an awful lot in our diaconate retreats. He provided me with all music
materials needed. He was very, very helpful in getting some of the
organizational things done.”
Deacon Gary Womack, also serving at St. John Neumann for 14 years,
said he met Deacon O’Brien in 1969 when the O’Briens moved to Atlanta
from Chicago and belonged to Holy Cross Church.
After retiring from a career of about 25 years in sales of
emergency equipment at Federal Signal Corp., Motorola and elsewhere, Deacon
O’Brien began working part-time in the early 1990s at St. John Neumann as
sacristan. In 1999 he began working as the parish facilities manager, Deacon
Womack said. His diaconate responsibilities included baptisms, marriage
preparation, assisting persons seeking annulments, adult religious education,
coordinating weekly eucharistic adoration and altar server training.
He was “somebody who was willing to say, ‘Yeah, this is
my belief in God and I’m going to live out that belief.’ Jim was very
dedicated to his role as a servant, which is wonderful because that is what God
calls all of us to, to serve one another,” Deacon Womack said.
He admired his friend’s ability to take firm stands when he
believed he was right, even though it occasionally led to differences between
the two men.
“Even though we butted heads and locked horns it didn’t
mean we hated each other. It was a sign of our love and willingness to walk
with each other,” he said. In the church “he was well respected as an
individual, as a neighbor and member of the clergy and fellow
parishioner.”
Deacon Womack brought him Communion several times before he died.
“It was such a delight to be able to see him smile, (to have) a twinkling
in his eyes . . . It was a delight to see somebody at peace with the Lord,
knowing he was on the way to meet the Lord. In his weakness he gave me courage
and strength.”
His son, James, a member of St. John Neumann with his wife, Tammy,
and their two children, said that his father always had strong faith, which he
instilled in his son growing up. He recalls watching his father kneeling at the
bedside to say his prayers when he was four or five. He said his father wrote
about his faith in the face of illness for the St. John Neumann newsletter and
that in the hospice as his family cried and questioned their suffering, he told
them, “‘God didn’t do this to us.’”
“Even until the end, his faith was really strong, which is
kind of like the bedrock of the family, which has helped most of us get through
this.”
He also admired his father’s independent, non-conforming
spirit, as even when going for doctor’s appointments he would refuse to
give his Social Security number when asked for it to those he didn’t think
needed it.
“He did things his own way, except when it came to the church
and church rules,” he said. “He lived life on his own terms.”
In addition to his wife and son, he is survived by his daughters
and sons-in-law, Kathleen and James Thompson of Lawrenceville; Margaret and
Todd Houghton of Byron; and daughters, Colleen and Kelly O’Brien, both of
Lilburn; a sister, Mary Patnaude of Barnstable, Mass.; two brothers, Patrick of
Green Bay, Wis., and John of Washington, D.C.; four grandchildren and seven
nieces and nephews. Those wishing to make a contribution may send donations to
the James O’Brien Fund in care of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, P.O.
Box 1183, Lilburn, GA 30048-1183. |
