Album Notes

AVE: Songs of the Congregation of Notre Dame

It seems that every decade the Sisters and Associates of the Congregation renew our canticles of praise with yet another version of this collection which has ripened and resonated and been augmented anew since its first recording in the late 1980s. In that season we called it “In the Footsteps of Mary,” a decade later, “Visitation,” and now, a decade later still and richly laden with new songs we call it“AVE.”

But this is no mere resounding. What comes to life here is the most original version of a nearly flawless recording by Jerry Brock of Posthorn Productions when a schola of singers simply stood before one microphone in a live session, counting only on their vocal gifts and spirit of harmony to create a musical world of clarity, purity and grace. What Paul Avgerinos of Studio Unicorn recovered and enhanced in those 20 year old tracks was a soul sound rarely found now in the highly digitalized world of today’s recordings. And what echoes with greater intensity is the vitality of a deeply motivating spirituality that has funded centuries of CND mission to the world in the way of visitation.

The Congregation of Notre Dame holds at its heart Mary’s prophetic canticle of praise, “The Magnificat.” In fact, the CND exists to honor and imitate “the life Mary lived on Earth,” and finds in her mysteries a luminous wisdom to that has inspired every facet of their lives for over three centuries. In this collection of sacred songs composed by Kathleen Deignan, CND and Mary Anne Foley, CND we trace this Marian legacy to its source in the salutation of an angel whose one word awakened mystical life in young girl, whose own song of wonder would begin a transforming revolution on Earth: “AVE.”

Listen to that angel song with us and all this songs that it has inspired, many of them adapted from the writings of Marguerite Bourgeoys, the founder of the CND, from Scripture, and from the words of kindred spirits like the Shakers and the poets of the Celtic Isles. We thank all who offered their musicianship to make this collection possible and hope that it will draw you into the joyful mysteries of the sacred feminine.


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To learn more about Marguerite Bourgeoys and Visitation spirituality, visit the Congregation’s website at www.cnd-m.com
To hear more of Kathleen Deignan’s music, go to www.scholaministries.org

Original recording Posthorn Recording, NYC, 1989; reproduced and engineered by Paul Avgerinos
at Studio Unicorn, Redding, CT., 2009.