By Christina Leslie | Correspondent
Bill O’Hara wants to share his love of the Virgin Mary with others in the language he knows best: music.
“I love the Blessed Mother,” O’Hara, a parishioner in St. Maximilian Kolbe, Toms River, said. “I have always had an affinity for her.”
That love for the mother of Christ was shared by his bride, Joan Elizabeth, whom he married in 1953 upon his return from the Korean War. During the couple’s wedding liturgy, as they walked to the statue of Mary to present a floral bouquet, Joan whispered to him she wished there had been a musical setting of the “Hail Mary” which might have marked the moment.
O’Hara, a musician/pianist, obliged years later, copyrighting “Hail Mary,” a melody set to the Marian prayer, in October 1970. The busy pianist, a parishioner in St. Maximilian Kolbe for the past 14 years, shared his talents with the church by playing concerts in the parish hall, but never the Marian hymn. This past January, nearly 50 years after he first penned the melody, decided to professionally record the song.
“I had an a capella version written for five voices I wanted to record, but there weren’t enough choir members available at the same time,” O’Hara, nearly 91 years old, said. Instead, he asked fellow parishioner Kathy Skrocki, to sing the hymn to the Virgin Mother with piano accompaniment.
For the CD’s theme, O’Hara chose the Seven Sorrows of Mary and asked the Toms River faith community’s pastor, Father Stephen Piga, to serve as narrator as Skrocki added her vocal talents. One by one, Father Piga read the sorrows aloud: the prophecy of Simeon; the Flight to Egypt; the loss of the child Jesus for three days; witnessing Jesus carry his Cross; the Crucifixion of Jesus; taking Jesus down from the Cross, and the burial of Jesus, to which Skrocki responded each time with O’Hara’s “Hail Mary.”
The CD’s cover art is a depiction of the Blessed Mother’s serene visage emerging from a yellow rose, intended to signify peace and duplicated from a painting by Steve Addeo. Recorded at Studio 609 in Toms River, the musical work came out this past September; O’Hara is selling it through the parish office, and all proceeds will be donated back to St. Maximilian Kolbe.
O’Hara is preparing a second CD on Mary, this one focusing upon the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary. The studio is in the process of coordinating a recording schedule for the five singers necessary for O’Hara’s original five-part a capella version, and Father Vince Coppola, one of St. Maximilian Kolbe’s parochial vicars, will serve as narrator.
“This one will focus on the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary,” said O’Hara. “It is more serene. I hope to do more CDs about the Glorious and Luminous Mysteries as well.”
O’Hara has played piano each week for the residents of the Holiday Care Center, Toms River, for the past 10 years, though he refers to himself as retired. His wife Joan’s earthly journey may have ended about 26 years ago, but Bill’s promise to his bride remains: to profess his love of the Virgin Mary and share the fruits of his labor of love through song.