Rosary CD aims to lead people to healing, peace

Over the past year, musician and composer Maryana Erzinger has been on a creative spiritual journey she hopes will inspire the world through song.

Beginning with a single Hail Mary, the consecrated lay woman of the Madonna House Apostolate in Combermere, Ont., recorded The Complete Rosary, Divine Mercy Chaplet & Jesus Prayer: Original Music for Contemplative Prayer, released through Madonna House Publications.

“Many, many months before the COVID-19 virus hit, I was inspired to write music for the Hail Mary,” said Erzinger. “I ended up composing a couple different musical settings. Then I sang and recorded them and played it for a friend who said it brought Our Lady’s presence to her. She encouraged me to write music for The Complete Rosary.”

The album, which features keyboard and vocals, like Erzinger’s other compositions arose from a deep listening to the Spirit, she said. Little did she know that a few months after being inspired to create it, the world’s need for prayer would escalate dramatically.

“The rosary, along with the Divine Mercy Chaplet and Jesus Prayer, are some of the most powerful and beloved prayers that are said outside of the Mass,” said Erzinger. “God gave me a gift for music, and I knew that people could pray these prayers at home in their daily lives or wherever they might be.”

The vocals, including those for The Chaplet of the Divine Mercy and the Jesus Prayer, are sung in unison by Erzinger and Fr. Michael Weitl, a priest of Madonna House.

“We relied on the Holy Spirit to pray in and through us as we sang,” said Weitl, currently serving at the Madonna House in North Yorkshire, England.

“We sang with the intention that this music will lead people to experience the healing, truth and peace of God through a personal encounter with Him. I believe that music, the universal language, has the power to dispose the soul to receive God in an often more intimate and direct way than words can reach.”

Before coming to Madonna House in the late 1980s, Erzinger was a professional musician and holds a Bachelor of Music degree in performance violin from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y.

Her gift for composition has flourished in the community, providing many new hymns especially suited for the blend of male and female voices, and appreciated by visitors to the community.

Daily you will find Erzinger at the St. Mary’s community of Madonna House in Combermere. Among her many tasks as head of the housekeeping department, you will find her sweeping stairwells, refilling soap containers and praying her way through each day.

The Complete Rosary, Divine Mercy Chaplet & Jesus Prayer: Original Music for Contemplative Prayer, is available at www.madonnahouse.org/publications.

(With files from Patricia Lawton of Madonna House Apostolate.)