Album Notes

The simple story of "Heavenwards, Always," can be read on the back side of the CD cover: "A Schoenstatt Sister of Mary gave me a tiny blue prayer book, "Heavenwards." She told me that it was written by Father Joseph Kentenich, in a Nazi concentration camp. I opened it and began to read Father Kentenich's "Morning Offering," secretly dictated in Dachau, March 29, 1945:

"What I bear and endure, what I say and what I dare...what I am and what I have...all my joys and all my sorrows...I give to you as a gift of love...."

Like Dorothy in Oz or Alice in Wonderland, I fell into a new world---the world of Father Joseph Kentenich....a world where all that matters is simplicity and humility; where sacrifice can fill God's treasury of Grace; where God's Providence cannot be erased in a death camp; and where a love of the Mother Thrice Admirable can help anyone to become a child again.

Reading his words, I wanted to know more about this humble German priest. What did he suffer? What did he dare? What did he take on? What brought him joy or inflicted a sore? What, surrounded by the horrors of his situation, caused him to compose the words to his Morning Offering? My journey with Father Joseph Kentenich was just beginning. I began setting his "Heavenwards" prayers to music as I sought to see Dachau through his childlike eyes.

So now, I give this to you, as a gift of love. Yours, k."

(Kathy Kanewske resides in Austin, Texas. She is the author and musical artist of the albums, "These Days," "Mass for the Lamb of God," and "Passion for the Lamb of God." She is the composer of liturgical works such as "Mass for the Lamb of God" and "Mass for the High King of Heaven.")