Two nationally known jingle writers have repackaged their Grammy Award-nominated Rosary Tapes so it appeals not only to Catholics but also to all Christians.
Bill Gildenstern and John Giaier of Gt TechnoTracks are releasing The Mysteries of Light on CD this month after more than five years of writing and re-writing. All meditations, set to contemporary music, are pulled directly from the Bible.
Each meditation is a reflection of the Scripture and the songs are the responses, sung as prayers. Giaier and Gildenstern purposely designed their new CD so it isn't just for Catholics but for people of all religious traditions who now have another way to pray.
The two Michigan men, who write commercial music for companies nationwide, initially released the Rosary Tapes/The Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious Mysteries in 1993 with the blessing of Pope John Paul II. Gt's controversial musical technology and ability to create these types of memorable melodies were featured on the front page of the Wall Street Journal on June 11, 1996. John Paul, while observing the 24th anniversary of his election to the papacy, proposed five new mysteries to the Rosary – The Mysteries of Light – in October 2002.
Gildenstern said the Rosary has been a Catholic tradition for centuries.
"We wanted to build the Mysteries of Light CD for all Christians and for all ages," Gildenstern added. "We wanted the Rosary and the CD to appeal to everyone, including our parents and our grandchildren. When we analyzed the Scripture passages that were chosen by Pope John Paul II for The Mysteries of Light, we found that, together, they form a very complete, beautiful prayer – a prayer that really needs to be shared with everyone."
But the Mysteries of Light CD goes way beyond that, Giaier added.
"Bill and I sought the advice of a number of people outside the Catholic tradition before taking on this project," Giaier said. "I very much wanted to build this CD for everyone. That's why we made it to be something very embraceable by all Christian traditions. And we're not competing with the church organ player here – we're competing with all the other music on your MP3 player."
The "Rosary Tapes/The Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious Mysteries" was initially released by Bill and John on audiocassette in the Summer of 1993. Sales skyrocketed after they became the subject of a story that ran nationwide.
While writing the first 3 tapes took Gildenstern & Giaier only a matter of weeks; writing the Mysteries of Light took 5 years.
In October of 2002, Pope John Paul II observed the 24th anniversary of his papal election by proposing 5 new mysteries to the Rosary –The Mysteries of Light.
While the Joyful Mysteries contemplate Jesus' birth and youth, the Sorrowful Mysteries reflect the Passion of Christ, and the Glorious Mysteries begin with his resurrection; the Mysteries of Light concern themselves with His teachings. The Mysteries of Light project resulted in what Bill calls "A Complete Conversation With God".
According to Gildenstern, "I think a good conversation with God is a lot like a good conversation with a friend. And I think that Pope John Paul II choosing these five readings for this prayer was a stroke of absolute genius.
"If I'm having a good conversation with a friend, and I've offended that person, I need to begin by getting our relationship right. We need to reconcile. That's the first mystery — the Baptism of Christ — reconciliation.
"The second Mystery of Light, the Miracle at Cana, talks about perseverance in petition. When we're asking for an important favor, we shouldn't just ask once and then forget it. We should persist, as Mary did at Cana.
"The third Mystery of Light, the Kingdom of Heaven, is about praising a friend for something really good that they've done. We like it when a friend notices something good we've done. Why should God be any different?
"The fourth Mystery of Light, the Transfiguration, talks about seeing as God sees. It's a prayer of respect and empathy. Those at the Transfiguration saw Jesus in glory. Shouldn't we try to look at each other as we really are in the eyes of God? We're all individually beautiful while we are also very different from each other, as the colors of the rainbow are different from each other.
"And the fifth mystery addresses Eucharist, Greek for gratitude. The meditations and our song ‘Washed By The Blood Of The Lamb,' try to get right to the reason for our gratitude. It all points to a love so strong that someone gives up everything for a friend. This is easily the most upbeat song on the CD; because, with gratitude for something this big, we felt the need to be very expressive.
"We initially wrote another song for the first mystery, the baptism in the Jordan. But the more we looked at the reading, the more fitting ‘Amazing Grace' became. As most people already know the words, we chose to perform it as an instrumental love song."
Sample The Mysteries of Light at www.rosarytapes.com.
