Resurrecting the Rosary
Marc Sanchez
DECEMBER 15, 2007
- John and Bill
- (Sean Giaier)
- View the Slideshow
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Bill Gildenstern: I guess our story goes back to the summer of 1992. I was driving down to John's house one day. I happened to be praying the rosary -- using the rosary beads, and they got stuck in the track of the seat. And, I couldn't get them out. So I thought to myself, "You know, there's got to be a better way." Then it came to me: why not do the rosary on tape?
So I basically built the melody for "Silent Night" on a keyboard, called my wife in. She sang the song, and the two of us read the meditations and prayed the prayers. So what we did was took a five and a half minute song down to John's house the next day.
John Giaier: Well, I actually thought Bill was out of his mind. He said, "why don't you call Debbie," my wife, "into the kitchen and let her listen to this." I just couldn't believe what I was seeing and hearing. She started listening and started to cry. I'm the first to admit that I wanted nothing to with it in the beginning, but that's completely out the window now.
Bill Gildenstern: We're not competing with the church organist. It's been our intention all along to compete with the other songs on your iPod. We're not creating a prayer for in church. We're creating a CD for when you're out in the world, driving out on the street, or sitting in the den, or whatever.
John Giaier: The music is mainstream. Some of the songs could be played on pop radio.
We do commercials all over America.
Bill Gildenstern: Geographically, everything from the Portland Pirates hokey team in Portland, Maine, to Linders furniture in Los Angeles.
John Giaier: You know, when it comes down to a technology, you adapt things you know. And, the same technology was used for the rosary tapes. Just getting people to remember the psychological hooks in prayer.
I really never prayed the rosary until the tapes were created. I'm a Catholic, and I go to church every once in awhile. I have to remind myself that I do pray the rosary now, just by listening.
Bill Gildenstern: I think praying is a lot like exercising. We kind of do it for ourselves. Even when we're praying for other people, we're getting benefit out of the time we spend in prayer and meditation.
John Giaier: We've had people all over the world contact us.
Bill Gildenstern: Indonesia, the Philippines, Africa
John Giaier: People are exercising to it. Pope John Paul, before he died, contacted us and blessed us, and thanked us for doing it. After that we got contacted by the Papal Nuncio and the Vatican.
Bill Gildenstern: The responses that we have gotten are "We Are Your Rainbow" seems to be the favorite of a whole lot of people. It's about the fact that we're all different from each other. In the way we look. In the way we feel. In the way we walk. In the way we talk, and every other way. And, it's that difference that, together, makes us as beautiful, as a people, as we are.
Comments
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From TuzAqTuEYyDQS, WA, 03/27/2011
From Los Angeles, CA, 11/18/2009
I bought and listened to these CD's endlessly and absolutely love them.......I recommend them to everyone!
Zach
From Kokomo, IN, 08/01/2008
How do I order the the rosary tapes? the cds?
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