Madonna’s Grammy Award

No, not that Madonna.

The Phoenix Chorale, an Arizona-based a cappella choir, was awarded a Grammy for the Best Small Ensemble Performance category at the annual Grammy Awards Feb. 8 in Los Angeles.

The Grammy was awarded for the group’s album, “Spotless Rose: Hymns to the Virgin Mary.”

The choir has dedicated the Grammy to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the choir announced yesterday in a news release.

“I was delighted to learn we would be honoring Our Lady with a recording,” Matthew Scott, who is a Catholic cantor and a baritone with the Phoenix Chorale, said in the news release. “Composers have always written only their very best for the Blessed Virgin, and we singers are always inspired to use our voices in the most beautiful way possible to appropriately praise the Virgin Mary. My excitement about this project escalated when we found the ease with which the compositions complemented each other, as well as the exquisite harmonies on each hymn. I suspect this is due to Mary’s very nature: The music she inspires is always filled with tremendous joy, humility, grace and healing. She has certainly inspired something very sacred in this work.”

Go here to listen to a podcast of an excerpt from Phoenix Chorale’s Grammy Award-winning Marian album.

An image of the Sacred Heart in the Church of the Jesu in Rome

Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Next week, the Bishops of the United States will meet in Orlando and consecrate America to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This week on Register Radio we are joined by Bishop Kevin Rhoades to explain the importance of the consecration and how we can all take part and then Register senior writer Zelda Caldwell tells us about the remarkable phenomenon of diocesan priests living in community.