Use of Your Talents for the Lord

Thea and I almost didn't come to St. Francis Inn. As many of you know, we went through a rather involved discernment process regarding where we would do our year of service. We ended up with two strong possibilities -- the St. Francis Inn and the Christian Appalachian Project (CAP). We visited both, and came away with the feeling that CAP would use our individual talents and provide us with opportunities to learn new skills much better than the St. Francis Inn. CAP (located in a desperately-poor area of rural Kentucky) has a very broad ministry with many needs. Thea would have probably become a teacher for parenting classes and a consultant for the area's school teachers. I would have been doing fundraising classes and board retreats for the area's smaller non-profit organizations and learning how to build houses. Despite this, Thea and I felt called by the spirituality of the St. Francis Inn. We made the conscious decision to give up doing more "professional" tasks such as teaching and fundraising for living in community here at SFI and doing "lower level" tasks such as cleaning bathrooms, bagging bread, helping with cooking, and washing dishes. I loved the spirituality of the St. Francis Inn from the very first day we were here, but I felt sorry that I had left the opportunity for using my institutional talents behind. So be it, I thought.

Now, halfway through our time here at the Inn, I have to laugh at myself. God truly does work in mysterious ways! The first talent that I thought I left behind was music. At St. Aloysius (Hickory), we have a marvelous Contemporary Choir which I am privileged to be a small part of. Playing music at those masses is one of the true joys of my life. At St. Francis Inn, I figured I would be taking a year off from playing at mass because there is no music at the daily masses, and the Sunday masses are covered by Sister Mary and Barb who have been doing the music for years. Well, after a week or two here, Thea goaded me into asking Sr. Mary if she would like a keyboard to be part of her group. After some reflection, Mary agreed to give it a try, and she and I turn out to fit like hand and glove. I play the keyboard every week and do solo communion meditation music which many of our community have told me adds much to the mass. It all has been very much a joy for me. A couple of weeks ago, during one of our rehearsals, Barb said to me: "Your music is such a blessing to all of us." Mary responded, "That's because it is a form of prayer to him." So true.

So, OK, it wasn't too much of a stretch to think that I would be able to fit in musically at the St. Francis Inn, but I never thought that any of my museum director experience would be used. The Inn is a very spiritual space which runs on "controlled chaos". The basic idea is that the Lord will provide everything in His own good time. This is pretty foreign to my basic idea of life ("Pray like everything depends on God, and plan/work like everything depends on you!") and to Thea's ("Organize/plan the ****** out of every task, and nothing can possibly go wrong!"). Here at the Inn, everything is donated -- all the goods, all the food, all the handouts, and all the money. No one ever overtly asks for anything and there is never any organized fundraising. In fact, the staff and friars are almost "anti-fundraising" -- no one ever even talks about money.

So, you can imagine my surprise when, about a month ago, Fr. Michael came to me and asked me to speak to the Franciscan Volunteer Ministry (FVM) Associate Board about fundraising. Apparently during a sharing several months before, I had mentioned that in my former career I had loved to fund raise, and Father had filed it away in his memory. Last week, as we prepared for the meeting, he filled me in on the situation. The FVM program is 20 years old and places graduating college students in one year volunteer settings in several cities. The jobs include working at St. Francis Inn, doing school and prison ministry, working with AIDS patients etc. The program has always been supported 100% by the Franciscan Province (sort of like a large diocese), but the recent economic downturn has forced the Province to cut this support by about one-third. In order to continue, the FVM program will now have to raise some money. The FVM Executive Board, comprised mostly of Friars and religious, opted to form an Associate Bd. and to give it the task of raising the needed money. As Father and I talked about my presentation to the board, I asked who the members of the Associate Bd. are, he replied: "Well, there's me, and Walter, Sr. Kathleen, Fred, Lori, the site director from Camden, and ....... YOU..... but only if you want to!" I was floored: I had no idea that he wanted me to be a board member for the program, but it took me only a second to say "Yes!". (Fr. Micheal is a living saint: he has that effect on people.)

At our first meeting, the Associate Bd. came up with a whole menu of ideas, assigned tasks, and I am already hard at work on my job -- developing a plan to train our "fundraising adverse" staff and Friars on the subtle art of asking for money. Better yet, our plans call for the Associate Bd. to meet regularly during the next year which will provide Thea and me a number of opportunities to travel to Philly and to keep in contact with the community here at the Inn. It is really exciting -- I feel energized and vital, like I am in the right place at the right time to further God's kingdom.

I also feel a little embarrassed: how could I really believe that the Lord would not utilize the gifts which He has to me? Here's to another little step on Mark's journey toward faith and trust in God...