EAST BOSTON -- "This is my second home," says Paul Racki as he climbs to the choir loft of St. Joseph-St. Lazarus Parish in East Boston.

In a career as an organist spanning over half a century, Racki, 76, has been in many choir lofts.

This one, however, is "number one."

"It's just beautiful," he said.

On Feb. 27, harsh sunlight glinted through the stained-glass windows of the sanctuary, giving Racki an unparalleled view of the frescoes and life-sized reliefs of angels that adorn the 101-year-old church.

Despite having to use his hands and feet with great dexterity, Racki believes that playing the organ is more mental than physical.

"You have to be well-organized," he said. "You have to know what you're doing. You have to know the organ itself."

He said the only way to get to know an organ is to play it.

"It's got a lot of bells and whistles," he said. "The other one I had, some of the keys didn't work. It was tough, because you had to kind of fake things, but no, this thing is just perfect."

Before coming to East Boston, he was music director of St. John the Baptist Parish in Salem (now the St. John Paul II Shrine of Divine Mercy) for over 20 years. The organ there was built in the 1800s and uses a leather tracker, activated whenever a key is pressed, to open the pipes and produce sound. The organ at St. Joseph-St. Lazarus is all electronic, but nevertheless, he says the sound is "magnificent."

Racki, a retired insurance agent, has been music director of St. Joseph-St. Lazarus since 2011.He also serves as its business manager.

For his service to the parish, he was one of 151 people in the Archdiocese of Boston to receive the Cheverus Award in 2023. The annual awards honor those who have dedicated their lives to serving the archdiocese.

"I nominated Paul because he's very dedicated to our parish," said Don Orione Father Mirek Kowalczyk, pastor of St. Joseph-St. Lazarus, adding that he is "very, very loyal to our parish, and he's giving himself, everything of what he has, to our parish."

Racki plays the organ during weekend Masses as well as at weddings and funerals.

"If I sit at the organ, I'm in another world," he said.

As an organist, he provides a soundtrack to the lives of hundreds of people. His music scores their most beautiful and most tragic moments. He said he doesn't think of it as a burden.

"I'm just doing my job," he said.

He has even played for people he has known and loved, including at the funerals of his mother, Veronica, and his parents-in-law.

"That was tough, really tough," he said.

When he had to play his mother's funeral, a few singers he knew came with him in case he "broke down" and couldn't play.

"But I did it," he said.

If the choir loft is Racki's second home, his office in the rectory, where he spends 20 hours a week, may very well be his third home. He is in charge of all of the bookkeeping and bills for the parish's English-speaking and Brazilian communities. He puts together the weekly bulletin, answers the phone, schedules Mass intentions, writes checks, and is responsible for every aspect of the parish's finances.

"I guess you can say anything to do with this parish that comes through this office, except for Father," Racki said. "It's a busy place."

When The Pilot visited him, he had recently completed the parish CORI forms. Soon, he will work on the budget with the Finance Committee.

"There's a lot," he said.

Suddenly, the rectory doorbell rang, making the sound of church bells.

"Let me get the door," he said. "That's another thing: I get the door."

Racki was an only child born and raised in Salem. His father, Henry, was an architect, and Veronica was a homemaker who worked part-time in restaurants.

"It was a good stint, that's for sure," he said of his childhood.

Veronica was a devout Catholic and a soloist at the now-closed St. Mary Parish in Salem.

His mother had a "real great voice," Racki recalled, "and she did all the Masses, and that's how I got into it."

He would attend Mass at St. Mary's every Sunday and sit on the bench with the organist as she played. His interest in music faded with his teenage years, but he later started taking piano lessons. After graduating from Salem High School, he served in the U.S. Army from 1969 to 1972, finishing as a sergeant. When he returned to civilian life, he got a job loading baggage on planes at Logan Airport and married Joyce, whom he had met through his high school job at New England Telephone. When he came back from the Army, Joyce was still working there.

"I asked, 'Who was the redhead in there?'" he recalled. "She gave me her name. I went out with her once, and that was it."

He and Joyce have been married for 51 years and they have three children and three grandchildren.

Racki said the secret to his lasting marriage was "talking to each other."

"It's a 50/50 split," he added.

Around the same time he married Joyce, Racki got his first music job as a backup organist at St. Mary of the Annunciation Parish in Danvers, where he lives.

After working as a music director and organist at other North Shore parishes, in 2011, Father Kowalczyk asked Racki if he would come to St. Joseph-St. Lazarus.

He said he was "honored" and "thrilled" to receive the Cheverus Award.

Looking back on his life serving the church, he simply said: "It's what I like to do. I've always been that way."