Not his calling, but ‘God’s calling,’ parish organist continues to play

By Bill Doyle | CFP Correspondent

JEFFERSON – Peter Gerardi planned to retire as music director at St. Mary Parish at the end of 2023 after spending more than 40 years on the job, but he thanks God that he didn’t.
Mr. Gerardi, 68, wanted to step down as music director at the end of that December and retire from his job wiring transformer pads for National Grid the following spring so he and his wife, Jacquie, could winter at their mobile home in Sarasota, Florida, and lead a more relaxed lifestyle.

Mr. Gerardi did leave National Grid, but St. Mary’s couldn’t find a replacement, so he still plays the organ and piano at Mass, funerals, religious education programs and other events. He’s now been on the job for 43 years.

The Gerardis were scheduled to drive their motorhome to Florida last Jan. 2 for a vacation, but it snowed that day. So, instead, Mrs. Gerardi arranged to undergo an MRI at St. Vincent Hospital to check out the pain in her left side. A cancerous mass attached to five glands was discovered and on Jan. 28 she saw an oncologist at Mass General Brigham. The doctor thought he could remove the mass, but her stomach kept filling up with fluid, making surgery too risky. She never left the hospital and died on Feb. 22.

“It was devastating,” Mr. Gerardi said.

Mr. Gerardi played the organ most weekends when his wife was in the hospital. After she died, he took a couple of weeks off before resuming as music director. Playing the organ gives his life a purpose and the St. Mary parishioners have helped him cope with his grief.
“After she passed, I needed to be here,” Mr. Gerardi said.

“And I think sometimes when she was in the hospital,” said Father Timothy M. Brewer, St. Mary’s pastor, “I feel he needed to be here too to get that support along the way.”

Mr. Gerardi has played the organ at many funerals over the years and he’s attached Mass cards for dozens of the deceased on the church organ to remember them and he has kept funeral programs for many other parishioners. Mrs. Gerardi’s Mass card is positioned prominently above the organ keyboard.

Parishioners turned out in large numbers for her funeral. Since then parishioners often ask him how he’s doing after Mass. Many call him on the phone. A couple of them have had him over for dinner.

“I’m forever grateful,” he said, “immensely grateful. The outpouring of support that I’ve received here has been overwhelming.”

Father Brewer said about 700 people attend Mass at St. Mary’s each week.

“It’s an all-age parish,” he said. “We have a lot of young families.”

Mr. Gerardi has three loving children and six grandchildren from his first marriage. A seventh grandchild is due in December. Jacquie had two children.

Mr. Gerardi also takes comfort in his two dogs, who he takes to the dog park and McDonald’s.

“They eat hamburgers and I eat cheeseburgers,” he said.

Continuing as music director enables him to make an impact at St. Mary’s each week and he’s convinced that his late wife knows that.

“I think she’s happy that I’m still here,” Mr. Gerardi said.

“That is really the value of Christian community,” Father Brewer said, “that we’re here for each other. Peter has benefited because he is surrounded by a (parish) family that has been his family for many, many years. He and Jacquie were part of this family. So I really think it was in God’s plan that we could not find an organist.”

“He is a gift every day when he sits at that organ,” said Martha Liddy, who has been a St. Mary’s parishioner for 48 years. “I bless his mother every day for taking him to organ lessons.

“He couldn’t be in a better place. This parish is so supportive in every way, shape and manner.”

Mr. Gerardi placed a photo of his late wife in the garden she planted in the front yard of their home in Worcester and considers it to be a memorial garden now.

Mr. Gerardi has been the music director at St. Mary for so long, he’s outlasted the organ. For the first 25 or so years, Mr. Gerardi played a pipe organ in the choir loft while facing away from the congregation.

“People recognized me by the back of my head,” he said.

That organ broke down and parts of it were donated to other parishes. He jokingly called those donations “organ transplants.”

Since then he’s played an electronic organ at the right-front of the church.

“He’s very, very talented,” Father Brewer said. “He’s also wonderful to work with. Peter works well with everybody and he’s an integral part of the staff.”

For about 40 years Mr. Gerardi worked seven days a week between St. Mary Parish and his full-time job. When he couldn’t find someone to fill in on the organ or piano, he needed a cantor who could sing without accompaniment, and those were hard to find.

In recent years, Janet Vignaly volunteers to play the piano so Mr. Gerardi can take time off.

Mr. Gerardi coordinates the cantors at daily Mass, directs the adult choir and plays the organ or piano at Mass at 4:30 p.m. Saturdays and 8 and 10 a.m. Sundays. He also runs choir rehearsal on Tuesday nights and plays the organ for religious education services and for the two days of the Christmas pageant.

In addition, he plays for three Masses on Christmas Eve and one on Christmas Day. He directs guitar, bass and drum players for midnight Mass on Christmas Eve and for the Easter Vigil.

Each year, he plays for about 15-18 funerals and a couple of weddings. For two days in December, he volunteers his time to play the organ at St. Paul Cathedral for Confirmation for a cluster of parishes.

“It’s not my calling,” Mr. Gerardi said. “It was God’s calling. God is the one who gave me this gift and you should share that gift.”

Mr. Gerardi began playing the organ at age 10. His father wanted to play the organ so his mother bought a small chord organ at Spag’s in Shrewsbury. He and his father both took lessons, but his father didn’t stick with it.

When Mr. Gerardi was a student at Shrewsbury High, he took music lessons from Dick Buckley. A couple of months later, his parents purchased a larger organ at Music Towne in Worcester and he did yard work for the store’s owner and took organ lessons from the owner’s wife, Pat Mitchell.

Mr. Gerardi played the organ at Mass for the first time when he was in ninth grade and filled in for a couple of weekends at his home parish of St. Mary's in Shrewsbury.

In the early 1980s, Father Charlie Link, pastor at St. Mary in Jefferson, contacted Music Towne to find someone to fill in while his organist went on vacation. Mr. Gerardi agreed to fill in for a couple of Sundays, but he never left.

“One of my greatest joys is while I’m playing,” Mr. Gerardi said, “and I play the introduction and we’re ready to start verse one, the congregation comes in and sings strongly. That to me is like, ‘I’m doing something right.’ They’re enjoying the tempo or the music or the song.”
Father Brewer has been pastor at St. Mary for 13 years and he hopes that Mr. Gerardi will remain as music director for as long as possible.

“He’s got to stay here at least until I go, either to God or to retirement,” Father Brewer said.