Through these musical settings of the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church, 'For Eden' invites you to prayer, pondering, and attentiveness: helping you look at (and listen to) how God takes the simple and makes it divine. Here, we want to share our hearts, our vision, our stories, and our music with you - because creativity is best when it happens in communion.
COME AND SEE THE GARDEN.
The sacraments are fundamental flesh-and-blood encounters with God in our ecclesial life of faith. In and through the sacraments, we see, sense, and experience firsthand God’s grace touching our lives. The sacraments provide seven unique vantage points for understanding God’s grace and Creativity, and also provide a framework for understanding human creativity. (See the songwriting tab for more!)
God gave humans a share in his creativity by making us stewards of creation in the Garden of Eden. We began in a garden, we fell in a garden, and Jesus gave us the gift of resurrection in a garden. The sacraments help return us to an even better garden: an even better Eden. Our artist name is “The Gardener,” and as we’ve worked on both our album and our thesis, we have called our creative process “gardening.”
We met in a chapel at the University of Notre Dame, ready to make music around a piano. Our friendship began to blossom from there, always accompanied by music and each other.
In the winter of 2024, we wrote our first song, "Falls Like Rain," after hearing a talk on baptism at Eucharistic Adoration. Soon came "Communion," "Ordination Day," and "With Us (Within Us)." Conversations with professors and advisors led us to develop this project into our senior thesis in the Theology department—and before we knew it, we had finished recording the album and writing our thesis in the spring of 2026!
In April 2026, we had the opportunity to perform a live concert of 'For Eden' for friends and family right where we started in a residence hall chapel. We knew that 'For Eden' was never only ours: it belongs to Mother Church and the world we live in. We're so excited for you to listen. We hope you enjoy!
- the Gardener
Sofia Benigno & Thomas Mazzurana
Want to collaborate, see what's next, or learn more?
We'll send you some snail mail:
Thank you!