Anyone behind the wheel of a car trying to do anything except drive will appreciate Bill Gildenstern’s problem.

He kept losing his place, and often the beads as well, trying to pray the rosary while driving the car between business appointments.

He often told himself there had to be a better way.

One night when he got home he asked the Lord’s guidance about a better way for something else – the direction his life should take.  “I’m tired of trying to do what I want all the time… what is it that you want me to do?” he prayed.

Looking around his family den turned office and audio studio in Saginaw, Mich., Gildenstern immediately thought of recording a rosary tape.

At the time he thought it was an original idea, but found out later it wasn’t. However, the recordings were different – some were spoken, some were sung, and some, like his,  had some of each with upbeat contemporary music.

To prepare “The Joyful Mysteries,” the first tape, he asked his wife, Kelly, to read and record a portion of the rosary. He later added keyboard and guitar music, more  narration, some meditations on the rosary from his original book of meditations and “a homedone rendition of Silent Night.”
  
 A former Detroit disc jockey, Gildenstern and a friend, John Giaier, had for years produced commercials. Giaier recorded and produced one of the first “Have You Driven A Ford Lately” dealer packages for Ford Motor Co., Gildenstern said.

For almost 20 years the two men had also been trying to find a way to do a major project together.

Gildenstern took his homemade tape and played part of it for Giaier and his wife, Debra. He could tell Debra Giaier was impressed with it, but her husband said he would have to  think about it.
 

It was just a few days later, as Giaier was driving through a Texas desert and feeling lonely, that the thought came – “it would be nice to have a tape like that.”  Upon  his return, “That’s when we got serious and I realized we had a project,” Giaier said.

The project grew to three tapes with “The Sorrowful Mysteries” and “The Glorious Mysteries” added.

“The three cassettes include 14 original songs written by us, plus ‘Ave Maria’ and ‘Silent Night,’ interspersing inspirational meditations with the praying of the rosary,”  Gildenstern said. “The dialogue and lyrics explain the meaning behind each set of prayers.””
  
 That the tapings were done in record time with an almost miraculous melding of parts convinced the couples that God’s hand was in their project.

Giaier said there was also another miracle.  “Bill was seriously ill when he recorded his parts for the “Sorrowful” tape.  He was given less than a month to live.  His thyroid had died three years before, and had shut down his liver and kidneys. Then it tried to shut down his heart.”

Gildenstern said, “The fact that I’m here and now healthy is my miracle.”

Kelly Gildenstern, who is a chaplain at St. Luke’s Hospital in Saginaw, said, “But it’s not because the tape contains miracles.  In this type of meditative prayer, people are able to yield to the will and power of God.  They give him permission to move and work in their lives. They ask him to perform miracles.”