Wisdom, My Road (2001)

Chrysogonus Waddell, OCSO, is a Trappist monk of the Abbey of Gethsemani. Classically trained in composition and organ, he was choirmaster at the abbey for more than thirty years. Steve Warner is a litrugist at the University of Notre Dame, a guitarist, composer, and choir director. The meeting of these two men in the fall of 1985 brought about a friendship that bridges their artistic perspectives.

It is hard to conceiver of a more unlikely duo - one an organist, the other a guitarist; one a scholar of Cistercian studies, the other a trained liturgist in post-conciliar liturgical theology; one a hermit and monk, the other a married man with three children. Yet through th years, their continued collaboration has offered an insight into what can be gained when two diverse visions intersect in creative action.

Here is a collection of music that offers common ground for the sometimes sparring artistic elements of sacred church music. Schola, organ, piano, guitar, folk, and classical styles alike, all are woven into a rich tapestry of integrity. The listener will find treasures on this disc unlike any others in the realm of liturgical music: the haunting psalm tones of the Good Friday psalm "Into Your Hand," the solid theology and lyricism of "Make of Our Hands a Throne," the transparency of the vesper hymn "Light Serene of Holy Glory," and the yearning simplicity of the Marina hymn "O Mary of Promise." There are deep veins of music to be mined here. All of it can be carried back to the parish.

It is obvious to the listener that these two are fast friends. What is remarkable, however, is the way they have forged a common path between the cloister and the university, celebrating the spiritual journeys of the assemblies they have served.