January 28, 2023

St. Agnes Academy students featured in new Mary Verdi music video

REGIONAL
Staff report

 

PITTSFIELD – Catholic singer-songwriter Mary Verdi, director of music for Sacred Heart Parish in Pittsfield, has released “Abundant Joy,” a CD including her new praise and worship originals and a few covers.

Verdi, who also is a member of St. Agnes Parish in Dalton, has been performing praise and worship music across the Diocese of Springfield and beyond for decades. Students from St. Agnes Academy in Dalton were featured in her latest video, in which she covered the song, “Every Praise.”

“My new CD is called ‘Abundant Joy’ and I put together a contemporary Christian 75-minute high energy praise concert. A large part of that is my desire to get the younger families reconnected with the kids in a stronger way,” said Verdi, whose four adult children attended St. Agnes Academy.

“Every Praise” was written by Rev. Hezekiah Walker, pastor of the Kingdom Love Fellowship Church in Brooklyn, N.Y.

“I wanted the Catholic community represented in this huge dance group thing going on. I really wanted the kids to be part of something positive and bringing God to the social media world,” said Verdi.

This is Verdi’s seventh CD. She is launching a concert tour in which she will perform at different parishes across the diocese. “It’s really fun. We just need more joy in the church,” she said. Verdi added the most repeated lesson in the Bible is to “be happy.”

“Music is just amazing. It opens our hearts, it touches an emotional depth that hopefully leads our focus upward to Jesus to try to walk the path that Jesus walked in humility and kindness,” said Verdi.

In the spring, she will release a new single, “Vision in Sky,” about the Blessed Mother. She said that single also will feature students from St. Agnes Academy in a video which will be filmed in May.

“We shared the ‘Every Praise’ video with parishioners at all our Masses and, like me, they were delighted with the presentation,” said Father Christopher Malatesta, the pastor of St. Agnes Parish in Dalton.

“It was joyful and showed our children at their best: happy. Mary is so talented and we thank her for sharing this gift with our school,” he said.

Watch the video here: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/#search/Mary+Verdi/FMfcgzGrcFhSWWxvbvNCskBRjLftkHxK?projector=1

More about Verdi’s music can be found at Maryverdi.com or on YouTube.

Interviews with Mary Verdi and St. Agnes Academy students will be featured on the Jan. 28 edition of “Real to Reel,” which airs at 7 p.m. on WWLP-22NEWS.