I’m deeply grateful that “Drawn Back to the Table” has received the Catholic Music Award for Best Production Song.

The first Catholic Music Awards were presented in Rome on July 27, 2025. This recognition belongs to a piece that was made through an unusually communal process: recorded with the University of Notre Dame Folk Choir in Jerusalem in May 2022, produced by Joe Henry, and engineered by Ryan Freeland, with beautiful playing and singing from Franky Rousseau, Ike Sturm, Aubrey Breen, Marie Latham, Dominic Mekky, and the members of the Folk Choir.

The song grew from the road to Emmaus: two disciples walking through grief, unable at first to recognize the presence beside them. Only at the table, in the breaking of bread, do they see what has been with them all along. That movement—from isolation toward recognition and communion—became central to The Passion and has continued to shape the larger work that followed.

Awards are never the reason to make sacred music. But I am thankful when an honor like this creates another occasion to recognize the care, imagination, and trust of the people who made the recording possible.

My gratitude goes especially to the Folk Choir students who carried this music, to Joe and Ryan for the extraordinary attention they gave the recording, and to every musician who entered the project as a listener and collaborator.

See the Catholic Music Awards winners:

https://aleteia.org/2025/07/30/here-are-the-1st-ever-catholic-music-award-winners/