Spiritually in Tune
by Tony Rossi in News on Monday, November 22, 2010 6:00 AM
Being an award-winning musician who’s performed with the likes of Luciano Pavarotti, Faith Hill, and even Carlos Santana hasn’t spared Natalie MacMaster from the self-doubt that afflicts many busy wives and mothers. Her Catholic faith, however, provides a source of comfort she can turn to during those inevitable times.
A native and resident of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, (about which she’s just released a book), MacMaster has earned her reputation as an electrifying fiddle virtuoso with numerous gold albums, Juno Awards, and successful concert tours to her name. Married to Donnell Leahy—an acclaimed fiddler himself with the band Leahy—the couple has three children and a fourth on the way. Though they balance work and family life well, MacMaster recently experienced a bout of self-pity and gloom after comparing herself to other mothers who seem to be able to “do it all” with ease.
Instead of staying focused on the negative, she tried a different approach. As she explains on the Christopher Closeup radio show/podcast, “I went down in the basement, cried real hard, gritted my teeth and was praying to Mary. I said, ‘Mary, please help me. I don’t want to be like this.’… And you know what? My day turned around. I attribute that to Mary as a mother and a woman helping me to see how much God loves me, how much the things that I do are of value, and how I shouldn’t be comparing myself.”
MacMaster first learned about relying on her Catholic faith from the example set by her mother and father. She admits that her parents only “knew the basics” and weren’t deeply schooled in theology. Yet they believed in Catholicism and lived it—“I watched my Mom live her faith through loving people … My father always lived the commandments in an obvious but unspoken way … My Mom and Dad (were) the only example I watched from the time I was born. Now that’s so ingrained in me that anything less than what they did is just not acceptable.”
Another key factor during her formative years was that MacMaster’s father would never accept her or her brothers missing Mass. When she started traveling a lot for concerts, she continued to attend weekly Mass originally out of obligation. In retrospect, she believes that receiving the Eucharist throughout that time gave her the graces to transform her lukewarm faith into a Catholicism that’s “on fire” today. She says, “I really do believe the Eucharist…gives you strength that’s not human. It’s God trying to help you do things that are much too hard to do on your own.”
After years of focusing on her own goals like developing a career and falling in love with the right man one day, marriage and motherhood required an adjustment in attitude and some divine assistance. She observes, “Love itself, after the ooey-gooey part is over…is a denial of self that’s not so easy. Our faith mentions giving up things for great reward and it’s so true. Life would be so shallow without my family, if I was just living for myself.”
Another difficult but worthwhile aspect of MacMaster’s life is finding time to pray and connect with God. Once the children were born, she decided to adopt St. Therese’s method of doing little things with love throughout the day as a form of prayer. Focusing on God while doing the dishes or reading a recipe, however, proved harder than expected.
Realizing that she needed more alone time in prayer, MacMaster started getting up ten or fifteen minutes before the kids in the morning and devoting that brief time to getting herself spiritually in tune. Though it’s not as much time as she’d like to spend with God, she recalls, “Somebody once told me it’s not the quantity, it’s the quality (of prayer). So I try not to worry about finishing that rosary but about entering a real conversation with Mary.”
Though MacMaster is busier than ever, she wouldn’t change a thing about her family life. She says, “It is way harder than anyone ever told me – and it is absolutely the most gratifying, fulfilling, loving thing I’ve ever done!”
—Tony Rossi is the host/producer of “Christopher Closeup,” the radio show and podcast of The Christophers. The Christophers is a Catholic non-profit that uses media to encourage people of all faiths to live gospel values. The full interview with Natalie MacMaster can be found at The Christophers.
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