A ring and a prayer: Priest to add a blessing to the love story that saved his life

Posted

On Saturday, June 26, I am honored to be celebrating the wedding Mass of Taylor Manes and Chase Freidel of Holy Spirit Parish, who just completed her nursing degree at Truman State in Kirksville.

Beyond the joy of celebrating the wedding of such a precious young couple, I know that without their love story, I would most certainly be dead.

“God love ya’!”

I first met the Freidel family in 2010, when they moved to Moberly where, I was pastor of St. Pius X Parish.

The parents, Dr. Denise and Dr. Brad, moved with their children to start a new path on their medical journey.

The Doctors Freidel came to visit me at St. Pius X School to see about the possibility of enrolling their three children: Chase (grade seven), Bayli (grade five) and Jake (grade two) in St. Pius.

Dr. Brad and Dr. Denise were upfront about telling me they had not been active in their Catholic faith and that their children had not received any sacraments.

They wanted to change that, so I was happy to receive their children at St. Pius.

I taught seventh-grade religion each day, so I got to see Chase on a daily basis. She let me know that she wasn’t all that excited about attending a Catholic school and not even sure how she felt about God.

Chase was a very polite and diligent student and began attending Mass with her parents and siblings.

A few weeks after the Freidels arrived, I hosted the NET (National Evangelization Team) to give a retreat to the St. Pius seventh- and eighth-graders.

NET is a group of 10 to 12 young people, ranging from recent high school graduates through college students. I had seen them inspire young teens for many years.

When Chase arrived at school the morning of the retreat, I told her that by the end of the day, she would be totally in love with Jesus.

Sure enough, after the retreat was over Chase sought me out and said: “You were right, Fr. Mike! I fell in love with Jesus today!”

By the end of her eighth-grade year, Chase, accompanied by her younger siblings, joined the Church at the last all-school Mass of the year.

She was one of the first in her class to commit to attending Fr. Tolton Regional Catholic High School in Columbia, which would be opening that fall.

Chase graduated in 2015, the first class to go all four years through the school.

During her years at Tolton Catholic, Chase got involved with TEC (Teens Encounter Christ), and I used her countless times to lead retreats with her peers and younger teens.

I have heard her give her witness countless times but I still get goosebumps each time I hear her speak about how Jesus became Lord of her life and “my best friend.”

Chase was also an accomplished athlete and in her senior year helped lead the Tolton Trailblazers track team to the first of two consecutive state championships.

You’re welcome

Shortly after I was transferred to Holy Spirit Parish in 2018, I was thrilled to hear that the Freidels would also be moving to Centralia.

Dr. Brad had retired and Dr. Denise would begin working for Boone Hospital Center at the Centralia clinic.

Chase had kept in touch during the years after Tolton Catholic. Each year, she calls me on Father’s Day and my ordination anniversary to thank me for being “my spiritual dad.”

Each of the years I was stationed at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Columbia, the Freidels would attend the Christmas Eve Mass I celebrated and then bring me out for dinner afterwards.

Chase was a nursing-school student at Truman State and was often home on weekends. She would always bring her boyfriend to Mass — a medical student at Kirksville — Taylor Manes.

Taylor is a very polite young man and we would sometimes get into faith discussions after Mass.

In March of 2020, when the pandemic hit and schools closed, Chase returned to Centralia.

The Freidel family invited Taylor to stay with them since his family home is in Nevada, Missouri.

I wasn’t at all surprised when Taylor called me shortly after Easter to tell me he wanted to join the Catholic faith. He had finished his preparation in Kirksville and was eager to join.

I got the appropriate permissions and on April 30, I was honored to celebrate Mass and baptize and confirm Taylor and give him his First Holy Communion.

Doctor’s orders

At that point in the pandemic, we were still limited to 10 people in attendance. Chase asked Dr. Brad and Dr. Denise to be his godparents and Confirmation sponsors.

After Mass, Dr. Denise pulled me aside and told me that while I was leading Taylor in the various prayers during Mass, she had heard a terrible wheezing in my chest as I spoke.

She asked me to come in for a chest X-ray the next day. I chalked it up to allergies and told her I would be fine.

A couple weeks later, Taylor called me again and said he was ready to propose to Chase. He wanted to do so in Holy Spirit Church as a sign that Jesus and their Catholic faith would always be at the center of their relationship.

I was very honored when he said he wanted me there as well.

After the proposal, Dr. Denise came and sat with me in the pew as Chase and Taylor alternated between laughter and tears, celebrating their new engagement.

After we talked for a few minutes, Dr. Denise looked at me and said in a determined voice: “Your wheezing is even worse. Tomorrow you WILL come in for a chest X-ray.”

Reluctantly, I did so.

That is how my cancerous tumor was discovered.

Never alone

Dr. Denise conferred with my primary care physician, Dr. Phil Stitzer, who is a member of St. Pius X parish in Moberly.

The next week, Dr. Denise took me to an appointment with a cancer doctor. He said I had a tumor resting over my heart and my lungs.

The tumor was the size of two baseballs. If the tumor had been undiscovered much later, it would have been too late for treatment.

An operation was immediately scheduled for the following week. The surgery took eight hours and 10 minutes.

One of my lungs was crushed, and I would need aggressive chemotherapy and radiation over the next seven weeks.

Since I was on oxygen and so weak from the chemotherapy and radiation, I needed to have someone staying with me the next few months. Dr. Denise took care of that.

The night I got home from the hospital, the first couple to stay with me was Dr. Stitzer and his wife Nancy.

I felt so blessed. Between my sisters in St. Louis, a couple of people I have been best friends with since my teenage years, parents of Fr. Tolton students, a couple of my brother priests and members of Holy Spirit Parish, I always had someone with me during those months.

Those same people also provided rides with me to my daily radiation and weekly chemotherapy treatments.

I had so many saints tending to me during those months.

I know Jesus has so many ways to work in our lives. For me, it was the listening ear of a doctor who would never have heard me wheezing without the Mass welcoming Taylor into the Church and without sitting next to me while Taylor proposed to Chase.

On June 26, I will proudly give Taylor and Chase the blessing of the Church at the end of their wedding Mass.

Then I will thank them for saving my life!

Comments