God provides

One thing I know beyond a shadow of a doubt and have learned through experience is that God always provides for my financial needs. I began to understand it a little when I was first home full time after my eldest child was born. We were living on one income and things were tight. There was one instance I remember that we had $30 left until the next paycheck came in 10 days later. A call came from my parish, asking if I would play for a funeral which meant I'd earn $60 a couple days later. It would hold us in food until payday!

This sort of thing has happened over and over during my life. At one point, I had been playing for a Presbyterian church for about 10 years and, one Sunday, as I was playing a hymn, I paid attention to the words and realized they went against what the Catholic Church teaches. I knew then that I had to stop playing there. I was nervous about losing the $320 a month I was paid but I decided I HAD to quit, given it would be sinful for me if I didn't. After I quit, I asked God to send me enough added income to cover this amount. The next month and for 3 months after that, I was called to sub at different parishes, or a funeral or wedding would come up unexpectedly, all totaling at least $350 each month! Then, I was offered a job playing for weekday Mass at a monastery twice a week. I was amazed because I'd never heard of any parish or convent ever paying a musician to play for daily Mass. It was as if God was saying, well you go to daily Mass so you COULD play while you are there...very little extra time needed. (Part of my job was to plan the music ahead of time.) And, guess what? It totaled $360 a month. I suspected God must have grown weary of my begging Him each month to replace the $320 and had decided I needed a permanent job to cover it (plus a little more) so He wouldn't have to listen to it any more!

When I was first divorced, I was scared I wouldn't be able to make a living. I was working part time at different things but I needed more income. I started praying about it. Then, out of the blue, the parish administrator at St. Columba called and asked me if I might be interested in applying for the music director position that had just come open. They had remembered me from a few months earlier when I played for my friend Father James' Luke Live! retreat there. I found this interesting because, 6 months before, they had had an ad on the Archdiocesan job line and I'd decided NOT to apply because I didn't think I was qualified to do the job. I'd only directed small choirs along the way but nothing very formal and, after all, I was an accompanist and felt much more confident at the piano than with a baton in my hand. However, I figured this had to be an answer to prayer and, if God thought I could do the job, then I'd best take it. Well, it turned out that I LOVE the job and can honestly say, for the most part, I feel pretty competent at it. (I do have my moments, though...) The best part is I, as the music director, HAVE to play the piano and I have a paid section leader in the choir who loves to direct whenever I need both a conductor and an accompanist. (It is just so beautiful!) I share these stories because I think they are all part of our learning that God is very generous when it comes to our needs being met. And, we don't always understand that it's not anything we do...It's all God's doing. We can sometimes think it was us doing great things when it wasn't us at all. Our pride can stand in the way of being thankful. We must accept God's gracious generosity (as shown through the talents He gives us and the outright gifts He bestows on us) humbly and gratefully.

I learned this lesson from a corporate angle, too. When the pregnancy center was trying to buy a clinic property a few years ago, we needed $100,000 for the down payment in 8 weeks' time in order to be able to afford the monthly payments. We received it in 6 weeks' time through unbelievably generous gifts! (I will tell you this miracle story one day soon.) It truly was amazing and spoke of the awesome faith of the board of directors. I learned so much from them during that time!

The bottom line: God is so generous in providing for our every need.