TEXARKANA — Gary “Butch” Garrison, a member of St. Edward Church in Texarkana, enjoys working with wood, and he is skilled at it. His wife Betty is proud of the many attractive and useful pieces of furniture Garrison has made for their home through the years.
He loves the challenge of fashioning a new piece, but was not expecting his son Matthew to present him with his greatest woodworking challenge. Several years ago when Matthew was still in seminary, he asked his father to make the chalice he would use as a priest.
Garrison explained, “Our son Matt graduated from high school in 1994, and soon after, he felt a call from God to go into the seminary and become a priest. After he had been in the seminary a couple of years, he told me that he would like for me to make his chalice for him. I was humbled and proud at the same time to be asked to make the vessel that would contain the body and blood of Jesus.”
Garrison was a machinist teaching at a technical college at the time and had machinery at his disposal. He said, “I got busy making a chalice out of steel, which I knew was going to be heavy and would need special treatment so as not to rust and tarnish. I was not pleased with what I was able to produce.”
Garrison knew where to turn for help. Who else but to Jesus’ earthly father, a carpenter? He said, “I have always felt a closeness to St. Joseph, so I began to pray for his help.”
Matthew suggested using olive wood from Jerusalem, but that turned out not to be a practical option. Perhaps it was St. Joseph who then inspired Garrison to try out different kinds of wood.
Garrison recalled, “I decided to develop my skill at making a chalice using other kinds of wood to determine how the grain should run and whether to cut it from a solid piece or cut and glue pieces together before cutting it. I wanted to get all this worked out and develop my skill … With St. Joseph’s help, I made three different chalices, using pine, cherry and black walnut.
“I worked for about two years doing this and learned that I needed to cut many small pieces very precisely and glue them together before cutting it to final shape. I developed the technique that I needed to make the chalice.”
Finally Garrison was ready to start work on THE chalice. At that point Matthew came up with an inspired suggestion: why not make the chalice from dogwood, an appropriate wood because of the legend that Christ’s cross was made from the dogwood tree.
Garrison’s thoughts turned excitedly to a beloved dogwood tree that had flourished for years in his parents’ yard. Two generations of Garrisons had played under it. Could the chalice come from that tree?
Garrison recalled the beloved tree: “Mom always did love dogwood trees, so Daddy planted one for her in the front yard. Well, that poor little tree, it was a miracle it survived at all. I think we probably tripped on it, ran over it with our bicycles, shot it with BB-guns and slingshots, used it for home base when we played ball. Mom even says that a cow got through the fence one day and ate the top out of it.
“The tree did survive and grow. My younger brothers and sisters even climbed in the limbs of that tree. I think my sisters probably set up their playhouses in its shade. I think the grandkids probably played in it more than we did. Eventually, we all enjoyed the shade and beauty of the tree. It spread and grew to be huge for a dogwood.
“Every spring about Easter time, it would be covered with beautiful white blossoms. Mom really loved her tree and we all grew to cherish that tree very much.”
But in the late 1980s, a disease hit a lot of dogwood trees in Texarkana, and the family’s beloved tree died. So in 1990, when the family gathered at the family home to celebrate Mary and Clarence Garrison’s 50th anniversary, Mary Garrison asked that one of her children cut down the cherished dogwood tree that had sheltered so many Garrisons.
No one wanted to cut down the tree. Gary was the oldest, so the sad task fell to him. He cut the tree into chunks and each of the six Garrison children took a piece of the tree home that day. Garrison’s brother Bill, an artist who could also carve, used some of his piece of the tree to carve a twig with dogwood blossoms on it. He gave it to his mother.
“It was realistic, a beautiful piece of work,” Garrison said. “My mom was thrilled with it and said her dogwood tree had bloomed again.”
The dogwood tree was destined for an even greater blooming. The whole family contributed a piece of the family tree to Garrison for the chalice. And with the help of St. Joseph, he fashioned the chalice with care and love. After it was completed, the interior was lined with gold. By the time Matthew was ordained in 2004, the chalice was ready for him.
Father Matthew Garrison — with his chalice — serves St. Mary Church in Paragould, St. Joseph Church in Corning and Blessed John Newman University Parish at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro.
And the dogwood tree still had more blooming to do.
Garrison said, “One day Mom asked me if I had any of the dogwood left. I told her I did. She had been making rosaries with a group from church, and she said she wanted me to make her some rosary beads from her dogwood. I thought that would not be too hard to do, so I began experimenting with other woods to see how I could make little round beads. Not as easy as I thought! St. Joseph, help! Finally I did develop a method, but I had to make each bead individually …”
Mary Garrison was delighted with the rosary beads. Her dogwood tree had bloomed again! Garrison ended up making enough beads — exactly 1,320 — for his mother to make rosaries for each of Garrison’s children, grandchildren and brothers and sisters. It was painstaking work, one bead at a time.
With each gift of the rosary to a family member, Garrison included this note: “You now have in your hand the opportunity to make Mom’s dogwood tree bloom in heaven before the throne of Jesus every time you pray the rosary with these beads in your hand. Prayers are forever. These blossoms will never fade away. They will last for eternity.”
Through the whole process of making the chalice and the rosary beads, Garrison said he did a lot of praying to Jesus and to St. Joseph. Now they both must be smiling upon the Garrison family and their dogwood tree that just keeps on blooming.
