Amid the statues of Jesus, angels and disciples on Ray Kern’s altar, which fills an entire room in his Luling residence, also rests his strong religious devotion.
“I just got the thing in my mind and that’s what I wanted to do,” said Kern in a distinctly Cajun French accent of his shrine. “And I did it.”
It was about 10 years ago when Kern decided he wanted his own altar. He’d been serving as a Eucharistic minister at a church in Galliano, where he and his family were living at the time for more than 30 years, when the idea firmly set in his mind.
Kern’s son, Gary, recalled how the altar appeared in one of their bedrooms when he and his brothers left home.“The people heard he was doing this and gave him things at first,” he said. Gary said they even brought him items, including statues, special medals and some rosaries, from their trip to Rome. “He has plenty of rosaries.”
The chapel literally grew out of love and then kept growing.“I started small and it went bigger and bigger,” Kern said. “I had way less than what I have now. Everything with the altar is what I wanted and I’m not willing to give it up either. It’s a full room.”
As of today, Ray estimated it has about 250 religious pieces.
Kern’s faith is rooted in bearing the challenges of his life, although his conversion to Catholicism came with his marriage to his wife, Irene.
“My daddy died when I was seven months old,” he said. “We were four boys back in 1931 and it was hard. We grew up four boys without a daddy.”
Kern’s father died at age 27 of tuberculosis, which had no treatment or cure at the time. His grandmother helped them and their mother went to work.
“It was so hard for me when I realized that I had no daddy,” Kern said. “It was very hard and it still is.”
The brothers were close for nearly 80 years and then Kern endured more difficult change.
“They passed in the order they came in the world,” Kern said as the youngest remaining sibling. “Oldest, second oldest and then the third. I take this so hard for losing my brothers. We had been together over 80 years.”
Now at age 85, the altar is where Kern goes to pray and make peace with his life.
There is a kneeler in front of the crucifix, statues of Jesus and Mother Mary and many other things that represent his life.
“I just go over there,” he said. “You can close the door and meditate in that place by yourself. To me, it’s rewarding.”Although Ray said his chapel had gotten a little smaller when they moved to Luling about four years ago to be closer to family, Gary said he thought the chapel was actually bigger. Their family had the house built for the couple and Gary noted the plans called for bedrooms but they knew one of them would be the chapel.
“By then, he slowed down collecting things, but he is definitely real proud of it,” Gary said. “Ray’s also pleased to show the altar to people, as well as displaying new additions.”
Gary mused that he once told his father that it might be a good addition to a bus tour, but he also added that he has used the chapel, too.
“I really like it,” he said. “It kind of helped increase my faith a little bit. It kind of helped me out, too.”
Kern, 85, and Irene, 87, also receive communion weekly at the chapel.
The chapel is mostly Kern’s “thing,” but he says his wife, is fully supportive.
When Ray observed the area was more diverse religiously than Catholic-predominated Galliano, he decided that was no big deal and has invited anyone to see his chapel – no matter what their religious persuasion.
“It’s not everybody that’s like me that wants this thing here,” Kern said.
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