Two former altar boys highlight St. Joseph, reason for the season
WILDWOOD — Father Ed Namiotka and Thomas Raniszewski, two former altar boys from Wildwood, have written a Christmas song they hope will become a standard. It puts a spotlight on St. Joseph.
“The Carpenter’s Son,” with vocals by tenor Drew Seigla, is available now on most music platforms as people prepare for the Christmas season.
“Joseph is a role model for not only families and fathers, but men in general,” Raniszewski said. “That’s what I would like people to get out of the song.”
Standing on the porch of the year-round holiday store Winterwood in Rio Grande on an unseasonably warm day as Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas” was playing in the background, he added, “I hope that it becomes a beloved Christmas song like this one. Every winter when they defrost Mariah Carey, they can defrost our song, too,” he said, laughing.
“Recognition of Joseph is very important,” Father Namiotka added. “God chose him to be the foster father of His Son, so if God chose him he had an important role.
“(Joseph) doesn’t say a word in Scripture, which is very interesting. People don’t realize that a lot of times,” he said. “Joseph was very present by his actions, what he did. His obedience, doing what he was told to do, and he always did it. So there’s a silent role model there for all of us to follow. That’s a lesson for all of us to learn,” Father Namiotka said.
There is another reason the duo, who have been friends since their youth in Wildwood, wrote the song.
“To put it very bluntly, it is to just draw attention to the religious aspect of what Christmas is all about. Christmas needs to focus on the birth of Christ,” the pastor said.
He is the pastor of St. Thomas More Church in Cherry Hill and a former pastor at St. Joseph’s in Somers Point, among other places during his 37 years in the priesthood. He and Raniszewski grew up in Wildwood, graduating from St. Ann Regional School and Wildwood Catholic High School.
The lifelong friends began talking about ideas over a summer dinner at a Wildwood restaurant. They wanted to collaborate and find an angle that would be unique.
“I told Tom I don’t think St. Joseph has enough attention in the Christmas scene even though he’s there, so let’s focus on a song that will highlight his role,” Father Namiotka said.
“As Father Ed said, we decided to do a Christmas song. We began writing it. Father Ed wrote the very first verse of it. When you hear the first verse, it is exactly as he wrote it, pretty much. I set music to that,” Raniszewski said. “Once I set music to that, I wrote a refrain. And once we had that pattern, Father Ed and I worked back and forth basically with the lyrics, fitting the lyrics in.”
When they were satisfied with what they had, Raniszewski showed it to Jonathan Delgado, the director of music and liturgy at Notre Dame del la Mer Parish, which oversees St. Ann Church in Wildwood.
They asked Delgado to come on board as the producer.
He was impressed.
“Tommy brought me in toward the end of the project. We sat down to work on some piano accompaniment and adding instrumentation to it to create the final product,” Delgado said. “They had the lyrics and music written out and I brought in the accompaniment and instrumentation to it.
“It was awesome. It was the first time I worked on a new song for Christmas. I fell in love with it as soon as I heard it when Tom sent it to me,” Delgado said. “Tom gave me liberty to throw out my ideas and feelings and my take on it and we were able to work together and bring it together.”
“Jonathan did an absolutely amazing job producing it,” said Raniszewski, who has a degree in music from Rowan University and worked for years with pianist and composer George Mesterhazy, who died in 2012. He also worked with Bob Fowler and Kathy Fowler of SSR Studio in Smithville.
“After George died, I took a break from music,” he said. “I felt I didn’t really want to get into it, and it was kind of this project that kind of got me back into things. It was a blessing.”
This past March, they went into SSR Studio with Seigla. Bob Fowler was the engineer and Kathy Fowler helped in the engineering and provided background vocals for Seigla’s lead vocals.
“Drew did a magnificent job on it,” Father Namiotka said.
Focusing on St. Joseph is “why I first fell in love with it so much,” Delgado explained about the song. “I’ve been a church music director for 27 years and I’ve never come across, out of all the times planning Christmas liturgies, a song that really portrays Joseph and his role. Of all the thousands of Christmas songs I’ve listened to — new composers write new Christmas songs all the time — and I’ve always thought Joseph has been left out of the picture. He didn’t get his fair share, I would say.
“This finally brings to light Joseph’s important role, which people don’t hear about through music, certainly,” he added. “That, for me, is what I was most excited about. People, at churches and through the radio, are going to hear about Joseph’s role and get it in their heads.”
“The Carpenter’s Son” is available for purchase and play on Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, Pandora and most other major music platforms. It can be found on YouTube.com (See the version sung by Seigla, who has credits Off-Broadway, in regional theater and in opera.)
All revenue from the song will go to the South Jersey Catholic Charities Ministries Appeal through the Diocese of Camden.
THE CARPENTER’S SON
(Words by Edward F. Namiotka and Thomas Raniszewski)
To Joseph, entrusted the King of Kings,
a child so small,
Lord God of All.
Holy mystery from the start.
Through Mary’s “Yes” bore human flesh,
he presses the Babe to his heart.
“Glory!” sung on high,
heralds the Holy One.
The Prince of Peace, the Savior of All
is born as the carpenter’s son.
Born in a stable, so cold and obscure,
a child so fair
in Joseph’s care,
the God we would all adore.
No riches claimed in Joseph’s name,
yet, lovingly he endures.
“Glory!” sung on high,
heralds the Holy One.
The Prince of Peace, the Savior of All
is born as the carpenter’s son.
On Joseph, bestowed a heav’nly grace:
a love to guide,
strength to provide
the child his arms embrace.
Devoted life to son and wife,
he vows in this humble place.
“Glory!” sung on high,
heralds the Holy One.
The Prince of Peace, the Savior of All
is born as the carpenter’s son.
To Joseph, entrusted the King of Kings,
a child so small,
Lord God of All.
Holy mystery from the start.
A righteous man fulfills God’s plan
through faith and a joyful heart.
“Glory!” sung on high,
heralds the Holy One.
The Prince of Peace, the Savior of All
is born as the carpenter’s son.
©2022, Edward F. Namiotka & Thomas Raniszewski