A funeral service Friday for a man who mourners say helped teach others how to live, worship and say goodbye.

FDNY Chaplain Monsignor John E. Delendick was ordained to the priesthood in 1977. A journey that started in 1964 as a freshman at Cathedral Prep in Queens, according to friend and classmate Monsignor Richard Ahlemeyer.

“All who met John went away better and happier, his kindness, smile his stories,” Monsignor Ahlemeyer said.

He said Monsignor Delendick decided to bring his warmth to the city’s first responders, joining the FDNY as a chaplain in 1996.

“He believed that living meant givin,” FDNY Chaplain Rabbi Joseph Potasnik said.

He gave to the city’s first responders for five years before the attacks on 9/11.

Arriving soon after the second plane struck - honoring and praying for all.

“And as bodies would come out, he would say to me you bless them in Hebrew and I’ll bless them in English because we all belong to one family,” FDNY Chaplain Rabbi Joseph Potasnik said.

Monsignor Delendick continued to serve, helping the city say goodbye to the 343 FDNY members who died that day and then again years later, as the next wave of loss hit, this time from 9/11-related illness.

Those deaths now outnumber those killed on that horrific day.

“He spoke about his own illness this summer, crying. He described his suffering. Terrible stomach aches, that eventually let him to get a scan that prove he had pancreatic cancer,” FDNY Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanaugh said.

The fire commissioner said the diagnosis proved what he already knew. He was truly a member of the FDNY — now himself sickened by the toxic dust at the world trade center site.

“The cancer, he said, made him a better chaplain, because he understood the roller coaster of emotion that comes with such news, frustration and anger, appreciation and gratitude,” Kavanaugh said.

And now, a city mourns the passing of a man who gave a lifetime of service to the Catholic Church, its faithful and the fire department.

“We’re not gonna say that he died. We’re gonna say that he lived. We’re not gonna say that he passed away but instead we’re gonna say thank God he passed our way,” Potasnik said.