Recordáre: Remembering the Mysteries in the Life of Jesus, Son of Mary
First featured in the New York Times and subsequently heard on the Today Show, Good Morning America and National Public Radio, our first Women in Chant CD touched people's hearts and enjoyed an extraordinary success. On the strength of this experience, our conductor and friend, Dr. Theodore Marier, was inspired to ask us to collaborate with him on a second CD of the Women in Chant choir under the direction of Mother David Serna, O.S.B.
Recordáre means to remember with the heart. It is the first word of the first piece of the new Women in Chant CD: Recordáre: Remembering the Mysteries in the Life of Jesus, Son of Mary. Recordáre brings together two radically diverse spiritual expressions, the classical Gregorian Chant repertoire and what are popularly known as the Mysteries of the Rosary. Each year through the sung prayer of the Chant, the nuns of Regina Laudis remember the lives of Christ and Mary in the cycles of Advent and Christmas, Lent and Paschaltide. In Recordáre we are for the first time linking these particular Chant pieces with the Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary.
Although widely divergent in form and appeal, both the Chant and the Rosary allow us to go more deeply into our collective spiritual memory, not simply with the mind, but with the whole heart. What is not commonly known is that the traditional devotion of the Rosary evolved out of a desire for people every-where to participate in the prayer of the monasteries.
The 150 Psalms that make up the backbone of the monastic Chant were transformed over time into the 150 Hail Mary's of the Rosary. Often, each prayer of the Rosary was accompanied by a meditation or reflection, which eventually has come down to us in the form of the five Joyful, five Sorrowful and five Glorious Mysteries.
In bringing together two diverse spiritual expressions - the Gregorian Chant repertoire and the Mysteries of the Rosary - we have retained the ancient practice of introducing a spoken meditation before each group of Mysteries. The meditation you will hear, written by Mother Lucia Kuppens, O.S.B., expresses Mary's relationship to Christ from her singular perspective. We are privileged to have this meditation read by the celebrated actress and nun of Regina Laudis, Mother Dolores Hart, O.S.B., who gives voice to Mary's exquisite joy and anguish as she ponders her Son's life and reveals the hidden memories of her heart.
The theme of remembering took on an intensely personal dimension for everyone involved in Recordáre, when our producer and beloved Monastic Scholar, Tom Pomposello, died in a fatal car accident in 1998. But the story of Recordáre is also one of resurrection and the triumph of love. Travis Pomposello, Tom's son, unexpectedly took up his father's work as producer and brought the recording to completion. Recordáre is dedicated to the memory of Tom Pomposello and reminds us all that there is a love stronger than death.
The CD includes a 60-page booklet with photographs and more information about the Regina Laudis Community, as well as the Latin texts and translations of the Chant pieces, background on the Mysteries of the Rosary, and the full texts of the Meditation spoken by Mother Dolores Hart, O.S.B.
Recordáre means to remember with the heart. It is the first word of the first piece of the new Women in Chant CD: Recordáre: Remembering the Mysteries in the Life of Jesus, Son of Mary. Recordáre brings together two radically diverse spiritual expressions, the classical Gregorian Chant repertoire and what are popularly known as the Mysteries of the Rosary. Each year through the sung prayer of the Chant, the nuns of Regina Laudis remember the lives of Christ and Mary in the cycles of Advent and Christmas, Lent and Paschaltide. In Recordáre we are for the first time linking these particular Chant pieces with the Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary.
In bringing together two diverse spiritual expressions - the Gregorian Chant repertoire and the Mysteries of the Rosary - we have retained the ancient practice of introducing a spoken meditation before each group of Mysteries. The meditation you will hear, written by Mother Lucia Kuppens, O.S.B., expresses Mary's relationship to Christ from her singular perspective. We are privileged to have this meditation read by the celebrated actress and nun of Regina Laudis,