NATICK -- When Christine Ackerman dies, she wants "a big Mass" for her funeral.

She has joked with her children that when the day comes, the Mass will be more for her than it is for them.

"The funeral Mass to me is so beautiful, and I want them to be able to experience that," she said.

She wants the entire thing to be planned out before her death, so her children won't have to worry about it. "A planner by nature," Ackerman coordinates activities of all sorts at her parish, St. Linus in Natick. She serves on the Finance Council and teaches confirmation classes. She helped plan the Mass and festivities for St. Linus's 75th anniversary in September 2025, and the reception for Archbishop Richard G. Henning when he visited the parish that December. Most importantly, she has spent years serving at funeral Masses in the parish.

"What I had imagined as being one of the saddest times of your life has become very beautiful to me," she said. "I really appreciate the funeral Mass, the ritual, the process of understanding what's happening to a family and the loved one who is gone."

When Ackerman's grandmothers died within two years of each other, she reached out to St. Linus's parochial vicar, Father Michael Alfaro, and talked to him about the stages of grief. He encouraged her to begin serving at funeral Masses. It helped her mourn. Sometimes, she serves at Masses for people she didn't know very well. When she and the loved ones of the deceased make eye contact, the ritual becomes personal. With a smile or a wink, she tries to let them know she's thinking of them.

"It's very peaceful for me," she said.

For her service to the parish, Ackerman and 100 others received Cheverus Awards in 2025. The Archdiocese of Boston gives the awards, named after the city's first bishop, to those who have quietly given long-time service to the Church.

"She has been invaluable to me as her pastor," Father Chip Hines, pastor of St. Linus, wrote when nominating Ackerman for the award.

When she found out she had won, Ackerman asked, "Are you sure there isn't someone else more deserving?"

At 49, Ackerman is one of the younger Cheverus Award winners.

"I don't feel like I've lived enough of my life to be receiving an award yet," she said.

She was born in Muscatine, Iowa, a city on the Mississippi River. Her father was a chemist who synthesized the rubber compounds used in tire treads. Her mother worked odd jobs, like decorating cakes, while raising Ackerman and her three sisters.

"We didn't have a lot, but we didn't want for anything," Ackerman said.

She spent her childhood fishing on the Mississippi and catching turtles with her dad. Her love of planning started early, helping her parish set up for bingo every Sunday night. While her sisters remained in Iowa, she enrolled in American University in Washington, D.C., studying political science and communications. There, she met Reuben Ackerman, her future husband. She joined him when he moved to Boston to attend law school.

"I don't know where Boston is, but it sounds like fun," she recalled saying at the time.

They have been married for 22 years and have three children who were raised in St. Linus. Her older sons are now in college and remain regular churchgoers. Her youngest daughter volunteers in the parish with her mother. The Ackermans moved to Natick in 2006 and joined St. Linus shortly after.

"The people of the church have become almost my family, and I love being able to meet them and converse with them, hang out, all that good stuff," Ackerman said. "And being able to plan activities ...and have the fellowship and worship, it just makes my life better."

When her younger son was baptized in the parish, a group of women came to her home to visit her and her family. It reminded her of Iowa. After her daughter was born, she stopped working full-time and met a group of women in the parish who sewed bonnets for baptismal baskets. With her newborn daughter in tow, she joined them, despite not knowing how to sew.

"They were so patient with me, teaching me how to put the thread in the needle and everything," she said. "I might have gotten a couple pricks on the thumb, and they might have made 50 bonnets and I got one done, but it was so amazing to sit around this room with women who were from everywhere, who had great stories to tell, advice to give on motherhood, on the Church, on faith, on families."

It was then that her place in the parish was "solidified," she said

Now retired, Ackerman worked as a nonprofit fundraiser and event planner. She hopes to spend the rest of her life volunteering with the parish and secular organizations like the Natick Service Council. She sees "a lot of work that needs to be done" in the parish, particularly making sure there are funds to preserve its aging buildings. St. Linus's older generation of volunteers, who Ackerman has known since she joined the parish, is beginning to pass on. The onus is on her to honor their memory. Despite surrounding herself with it, she does not fear death.

"We all die," she said. "These bodies are only good for so long, and I think I definitely appreciate life more, knowing that this body won't last forever. I think my faith tells me that I'm doing what I need to be doing, living how I need to be living."