By Kelley Kepler
Catholic Herald

Hurley woman started Pentecost tradition

HURLEY -- The weeks between Easter and Pentecost prove to especially busy, yet prayerful and renewing, for Jody DeCarlo-Schneider. This year is no exception as she and a number of local musicians prepare for their 11th annual Pentecost concert. Pentecost, the Christian feast celebrating the gift of the Holy Spirit, holds special significance for DeCarlo-Schneider, 48.

Now a musician at St. Mary Parish in Hurley, she experienced major life changes in the early 1990s. Fortunately, DeCarlo-Schneider emerged from this difficult period with the realization that God had sent many spiritual people into her life to support her.

She told the Catholic Herald, "I'm constantly amazed at how God works through the Holy Spirit. I knew I had to thank God publicly for saving my life, for changing it and turning it around. I did this in the format of a concert of appreciation."

She added that Psalm 30:11-12 captures why she needed to hold the concert: "You turned my wailing into dancing, you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing to you and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give you thanks for ever."

Her first Pentecost concert took place in 1993 and involved only a handful of musicians and songs that were spontaneous and mostly improvised. What DeCarlo-Schneider anticipated would be a one-time event made such an impact on both the players and the audience that many requested another concert the following year, and thus, a tradition was born.

Marcia Raymond, another member of St. Mary Parish, is one of the 30 musicians that will perform in this year's concert on June 8. She enjoys the variety of music that DeCarlo-Schneider selects for the singers and instrumentalists, ranging from traditional hymns, contemporary Christian music, Gospel, blues and original pieces that DeCarlo-Schneider plays on the piano.

Generally, "Every musician that participates wants to participate again the next year," Raymond said. "It's a real uplifting, spiritual thing for me. You can just feel the Holy Spirit in the church."

Though Raymond described DeCarlo-Schneider as "the most spiritual person I know," DeCarlo-Schneider will be first person to explain that she wasn't always a spiritual person.

"I did go to church when I was younger, but I did it because I was told I had to," she admitted.

In her younger days, DeCarlo-Schneider's heart wasn't in the music either. "I was just someone who took piano lessons because her mother made her," she said. "I've always enjoyed listening to music, and I knew I was good at it, but I didn't think of myself as a musician." She continued to study music in college, but she never considered it as a career.

She stopped playing the piano and going to church after she married an artist, a man she described as "a sort of atheist character." The relationship was not healthy and later fell apart, DeCarlo-Schneider said. "I couldn't be who I really was in that marriage. It didn't work out because neither one of us had God."

Though she was a successful accountant, she still felt unhappy and empty inside. God was not a part of her life, nor was music. She had not touched a piano in nearly 20 years. When her husband finally left, "It seemed everything that could go wrong did," she said.

With help from the new people who entered her life during her time of crisis, things began to change for the better, and DeCarlo-Schneider started embracing the Holy Spirit.

She would sit at the piano while she prayed, and the notes and melodies started pouring out of her. Interestingly, DeCarlo-Schneider claimed that before she had just been a note reader. "I could never make things up. But when it came back, it came back without any notes. ... It was strange because it would seem like it wasn't really me. I'd watch my hands and wonder how they were coming up with this," she said.

While she was rediscovering music, DeCarlo-Schneider had a religious experience that changed her life. She said, "I walked into St. Mary's and felt this presence that I was astounded by. I know that God was leading me every second after that. I realized that all through my life, music had been the rope he'd given me to stay connected with him, and I was the one that wasn't hanging on.

"I had spent half my life running away from my gift before I realized that we are spiritual beings too. How do you say no to God once you know he's there? You don't have a choice."

With this realization, DeCarlo-Schneider decided she needed to invest more time in her God-given talent and returned to college to study music and composition. Though she still holds an accounting job, DeCarlo-Schneider said her life feels complete now that she has music and God.

In the past she had always been shy and afraid to play for an audience. This changed as she began to say "yes" to God. She began, reluctantly at first, to play the piano at the prayer group meetings she attended. After returning to the Catholic Church, she also began playing during Mass. Before she knew it, the Pentecost concerts had become part of her life, DeCarlo-Schneider she was amazed to discover that she loved performing.

"I feel really good when I play music for people. I still get nervous, but once the music starts, it's like I'm just playing to God. It becomes a deep form of prayer," DeCarlo-Schneider explained. "I always grow a lot through the process and always discover a new part of myself that I didn't know was there."

In fact, DeCarlo-Schneider said, "The only time the world makes sense to me is when I'm making music. I know where my place is, and I feel connected to God. And I want to share it with others and help them make their connections. ... My job is to stay out of the way and let God use me to reach others."

Many non-Catholics, and others that normally wouldn't go to church, attend the concerts, and DeCarlo-Schneider believes getting them into the church is a start. "Hopefully they'll feel what we feel when we're here and it's going to move them," she said.

"This is not just entertainment, but a ministry. You have to minister to spirits and souls and let God do his work."

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© Superior Catholic Herald, 2003