BILLERICA -- In an age of mass-produced crucifixes, Barry Clifford feels blessed to help make one by hand.

Clifford, owner of Clifford Construction in Billerica, is used to parishes getting their crosses from factories. His dusty, well-used workshop is currently dominated by a 10-foot-long, six-foot-wide, 400-pound cross, which will soon be proudly displayed on the exterior of St. Theresa Church in Billerica. The church is purchasing a fiberglass figure of Christ from Peabody's Andrew Lane Co. Clifford is taking care of the cross that the figure will hang from.

"To do this with our own hands is really a blessing, something that I'll never forget," Clifford said. "I'll take this to the grave."

Of all the projects he has done in his 40 years in the construction business, this is one of his proudest.

"It brings me closer to God, I will say that," he said.

The wood for the cross came from a single white oak tree in New Hampshire. Oak is sturdy enough to withstand the New England weather, Clifford said, and looks good to boot. He and his foreman, Dan Sullivan, painstakingly sanded the wood, assembled it, and applied seven coats of cognac-colored stain.

"Seven is a good number," Clifford said, referencing its many appearances in the Bible.

On July 21, Clifford and Sullivan carefully applied coats of strong-smelling polyurethane to further protect the cross from the weather. Rock music played on the radio as they worked. A sign in the back of the shop said, "Never mind the dog -- beware of owner!" Clifford expects to put on 10 to 12 coats of polyurethane, but may increase the number to 14 -- a multiple of the biblical seven.

"It was a rough cut, really rough cut," he said, wearing a Patriots cap and a gem-studded cross around his neck. "So we had to put a lot of time sanding it and getting the grains to pop off, and that's why we're doing several coats of poly and stain to bring out all the beauty of the wood."

The cross is smooth and gleaming, but it still isn't satisfactory to Clifford.

"It's going to look much better than this," he said, estimating that it still needs four or five coats.

Clifford is no stranger to working for Billerica's Catholic churches. He restored St. Theresa's exterior and fixed the doors of St. Andrew Church in 2024. Both churches are part of St. Matthew the Evangelist Parish.

"We know him quite well," Father Chris Casey, pastor of St. Matthew's, said of Clifford. "He's from Billerica and he's done great work for us on several projects, so he was the first guy I thought of."

Clifford said his work on the doors was what led to the crucifix job.

"The doors seemed impossible to be fixed," he said, "but we did such a good job on the doors on the front of the church that I was very confident that we could make a deal with the cross."

When the parish asked him to make the cross for the crucifix, Clifford said he felt a "flutter" in his heart.

"For him, it's going to be a lasting piece of him in the church," Father Casey said.

Father Casey also wants the crucifix to be a lasting symbol for St. Theresa's. The crucifix will replace an emblem from the Jubilee Year of 2000.

"We're hoping that it's going to be a reminder of Jesus's sacrifice for ourselves on the cross," he said.

Clifford is reminded of that sacrifice every day as he works. The cognac stain is a dark brown, resembling mahogany, with a red glow that makes Clifford think of the blood of Christ. He made sure the wood's natural grain was still showing under the stain and polyurethane so that the cross would look authentic.

"He dragged this huge, heavy cross up a hill for people like us, for our sins," he said.

He said most people don't realize how much work it takes to turn rough pieces of wood into "a beautiful, beautiful piece."

"I think God is with us as we're doing it, and that's why it's coming out so beautiful," he said. "We think about it constantly. When we're doing the cross, I come out here at night, while it's drying. I spend time with it. It talks to me."