Cleveland follows her calling to Christian music

Recording artist  Kitty Cleveland gave a “special delivery,” St. Valentine’s weekend message that contained the elements of “be my Valentine,” the events of Good Friday and Divine Mercy Sunday. 

She talked about how Jesus reiterated his love for her by sending her visions of him carving their initials in a tree, which propelled her from a period of deep distress and sorrow to a ministry of healing through music.

Cleveland, who leads a live “Morning Glory Rosary” at 6 a.m. Monday through Friday, spoke at the meeting of Baton Rouge Magnificat on Feb. 12.  Cleveland began by telling attendees that Jesus also wants “to be the Valentine of their hearts.” She pointed out that his love will get them through heartache and trials.

Cleveland, the oldest of six children, always dreamed of a career in music.

“I wanted to see my name up in lights on Broadway,” said Cleveland.

During a high school retreat she met some girls who spoke in tongues and she wanted to do that. She was baptized by the Holy Spirit, which changed her career path. 

Because there were few opportunities for her to sing outside of church, Cleveland followed the dreams of her father, Carl, to become a lawyer, where she eventually worked as a paralegal at his law firm.

“Finally, in a retreat I discerned that the Lord was calling me out to do work that was healing, that was lifegiving, to figure out somehow how to be this music missionary that he was calling me to be,” said Cleveland.

She said she had “no clue” how she would do that and the answers came after a long, hard journey.

“The day that I left to do that was the day the FBI showed up at my dad’s law firm and announced to us and to the public on the six o’clock news that we were part of their investigation into corruption in the political system in Louisiana,” said Cleveland.

She said her world collapsed and crumbled. Her father’s law firm was completely dismantled.

Her dad’s trial did not start until two years later, and it was highlighted daily on the nightly news.

“Probably many of you saw those headlines, and I’m sure everybody thought my dad was guilty. We certainly were treated that way and it was horrifying. We lost a lot of friends, people that we thought were friends,” Cleveland said.

Her father, who was a deacon in the church, had to resign from that ministry.

Father Joe Benson OFS, a retired priest from the Archdiocese of New Orleans, prayed with Cleveland and her mother and siblings.

 “(Father Benson) said, ‘You know, they thought Jesus was a criminal too.’ So why should we expect anything less? We are to be conformed to Christ. People are going to judge us. They’re going to misjudge us, even good people. That’s one of the most painful of thorns.”

She stressed Jesus “wants to be our sole consolation. And sometimes he gives us other consolations as well. But he wants to be first.”

She recalled that weeks before her father’s trial, she and her father read together the prophetic Scripture passage from 2 Cor 12:9, in which St. Paul begged God to remove a thorn in the flesh that had tormented him for years. God’s response was “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.”

Cleveland emphasized the way to reach perfection is not “ ‘to grow up’ but to become little” through humility.

When guilty verdicts were read against her father in court, Cleveland sobbed with her face in her hands.

“All I could see was the Divine Mercy image and the words at the bottom which say ‘Jesus, I trust in you.’ ” said Cleveland.

The reading of the verdict, Cleveland said, was “a nightmare beyond my wildest imagination.”

“It was like all darkness in front of me and my dad was my hero. I am a daddy’s girl. But I felt like Jesus was really big and next to me and I was holding his hand. I was like ‘Well I don’t know how we’re going to get through this. I can’t see, but I know you can see and you know the plan. I’m just going to trust in you. I’m going to cling to you and hang on,’ ” said Cleveland.

Carl Cleveland was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison and ordered to forfeit more than $1.5 million in assets to the government that he had never received from his client, which meant Cleveland’s parents would lose their home. Literally everything was being stripped away. 

“My dad was allowed to come home the night that he was convicted and I went to check on him. He was crying in his room. And I heard him say. ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ ” said Cleveland.

Her family rallied around Carl by forming a prison music ministry.

“We were quite a ragtag group,” mused Cleveland, who said prison music ministry was “definitely not in the plan.”

But on the Sundays when they performed Mass attendance increased. Her voice broke as she shared that one inmate told her that he had attended Mass for the first time in eight years.

It was during this time that Cleveland visited the adoration chapel and vented her anger that a loving God could let such a thing happen.

As she asked the hard questions, Jesus shocked her with an interior vision.

“I saw myself leaning against this beautiful tree on this green hillside looking out over this vista next to Jesus, and we’re kind of shoulder to shoulder leaning against the tree. And he turned towards me, and he started carving our initials in the tree. He put JC plus KC and put a big heart around it.”

The journey was long and difficult and Carl spent 18 months in federal prison. Jesus proved himself trustworthy and, miraculously, the U.S. Supreme Court heard his case and reversed his conviction. Carl was also restored to the diaconate.

Carl was diagnosed with an advanced from of prostrate cancer and passed away peacefully surrounded by family and friends in 2006.
 

Through all the pain and suffering, Kitty developed a thriving music ministry, which provides people in need with free music and CDs. She sang the first song she wrote, “Surrender,” for the Magnificat attendees.

Cleveland urged her audience to spend time with Jesus and experience how much he loves them.

“He’s inviting you to spend time with him in that secret place, to make the commitment, the one on one time with him so he can speak to your heart. Some of you stopped talking to him. And he wants you to turn back and come to him in this secret place. And ask him the hard questions and let him answer you. He always works from love and my friends, he has wept with you,” Cleveland said.

To learn more about Cleveland’s ministry, visit kittycleveland.com/.