How it all Began

We are Mike Campbell and Karen Hiegl Campbell called to be apostles in obedience to faith and set apart to build an arc, an audio-visual sound arc of Daily Bible Readings WITH MUSIC for the Monday through Saturday Catholic Readings schedule.

I (Mike) am from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (United States) and mainly played sports such as baseball and street hockey growing up. My family moved from St. Henry’s Parish 4400 N. 5th Street to St. Helena’s Parish 6161 N. 5th Street in 1973 when I was age 14. While attending 8th grade at St. Helena’s, I met Karen Hiegl (my future wife). We both appeared in a one-act play called “The Birthday of the Infanta.” We’ve been on one stage or another ever since. While at St. Helena grade school, there were four classes of 50 students and we were in different classes. So, we only knew each other mainly from the stage play. 

Karen and I attended Cardinal Dougherty High School. I acted in musicals and dramas while Karen participated in the Guitar Club, Glee Club and CYCP Club.

I became involved with WFIL Radio and WCAU-TV 10. First, “Banana Joe” Montione allowed me to be a “call-in character” named “Spiro” (named after Vice-President Spiro Agnew). I created various humorous skits. Sometimes I started the routine with the “Lone Ranger” theme (William Tell Overture”) music. After the music intro played, the narrator would say “The Lone Ranger.” Using a record player, I would turn the volume down as the narrator said “The Lone Ranger.” I would then say “It’s Spiro”. We had a lot of fun doing those routines, and The Banana Joe radio show was the number one rated radio show from 6p.m. to 10p.m. Mondays through Friday in Philadelphia.

I also was in the Boy Scouts of America Explorer Post for ages 14 to 20. Blaine Howell of Channel 10TV ran the Post at the station. Channel 10 gave us one of their news studios to make productions such as Public Service Announcements (PSAs). We students did everything: we ran the cameras, controlled the sound, were the talent on screen. Our PSA’s aired on all the local Philadelphia television stations. Am thankful for such a great experience.

After High School, I tried college for one semester even though I wanted to go to disc-jockey school and become a full-time rock’n’roll disc-jockey. I attended Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, a Jesuit school. I had a brother working for Mutual of Omaha so I had family not far away. At Creighton, I joined the campus radio station from day one and worked 6-hour shifts like commercial market disc-jockeys as a way to prepare myself for the working world. After I enjoyed the first semester, I decided to stay in college.

To earn midnight snack peanut butter money, I DJ’d at a local steakhouse restaurant that had a bar and a dance floor. Did that for several years. One Halloween I heard the bar was having a Halloween party for staff. So I came to work in a toga costume. I was wearing a white sheet dressed like a Roman with green leaves pinned to the outfit. What I didn’t know was the party was at 6p.m. (and my shift didn’t start until 7p.m.) and the party was over by the time I got there. So I had to DJ for several hours in a toga outfit as the only one in a costume. To make matters worse, the restaurant kept the air conditioning blasting all night so I nearly froze to death. I had to dance with everyone just to keep warm. I never dressed in a toga outfit again. But DJ’ing in a nightclub did get me my midnight peanut butter money. I used to buy 5 pound tubs of peanut butter and at midnight in the dorm room broke out the crackers for a snack in the middle of studying.

While at Creighton I took on the responsibility of being the radio station News Director. During my time as the News Director, I did an internship with local radio station KYNN. During the internship, I attended a campus presentation by Israel’s Yitzak Rabin, former Prime Minister of Israel where he gave a speech predicting the end of the Middle East war within 3 weeks. I recorded the speech went to KYNN radio, edited the speech, and 7 affiliate radio stations nationwide carried the story. The story turned out to be accurate as Israel signed a peace deal less than three weeks later.  KYNN’s News Director offered me a job upon graduation, but I felt God calling me back to Philadelphia. I didn’t know why, but I obeyed God.

I enrolled in Temple University’s Communications Master’s Degree program for one year before switching over to The Annenberg School for Communications, University of Pennsylvania. At Penn, we held a couple of Graduate School Halloween parties. For one, I DJ’d with another guy, but half way through I went and changed. One of my female classmates helped put makeup on my face and I borrowed another friend’s ballet tutu. I then changed my voice to a high pitch to mimic a woman’s voice and with the loud music none of my classmates knew who I was. It made for some interesting pictures.

I completed the Master of Arts Degree in Communications and then attended Temple University Law School. While in Temple Law School, I met Karen Hiegl on a bus on my way home from school. Karen informed me about the musical group “Majestas” she was the lead singer of. Majestas had performed several hundred Christian concerts in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and Washington DC. Majestas needed someone to help be the sound engineer for their concerts. Knowing a little about audio, I chose to assist Karen and Majestas as their concert sound engineer operating the mixing board. Other than the concerts, I mainly saw Karen at church where she was the lead singer of the Sunday Guitar Mass.

One Sunday, I saw quite a few people going after Mass to tell Karen “Welcome Back.” I didn’t want to say “Hello” but I could not move a muscle to leave the church pew until I finally told the Lord “Okay, I’ll go over and say ‘Hello.’” After waiting my turn to speak with Karen, I leaned over to give Karen a hug and said “Welcome Back.” As we embraced, I felt a strong electrical heat surge go through my body from my chest, simultaneously down my legs and toes, and out my arms and fingers. I froze in place with a burning heat. I guess only God can freeze you with heat. I couldn’t move stunned by the frozen state. After we ended the embrace, I went back to the church pew. I asked God, “What does this mean? What are you telling me? Clearly You’re telling me something here! Are you telling me this is the woman you want me to marry?” The feeling in my heart was God saying “Yes.” Boy was I surprised. Neither one of us had any interest in each other.

I kept this to myself knowing that “God’s timing is perfect” and I waited for God to make things happen. I continued to be the sound engineer for Majestas concerts. On one Valentine’s Day, I felt the Holy Spirit move me to send Karen a recording on her answering machine of the last 30 seconds (the length of answering machine messages at the time) of the recent hit song Stevie Wonder’s “I Just Called to Say I Love You.” I didn’t speak but just left the music as the message. 

Afterward, I sat in the back of a car on the way to a concert performance with Karen next to me as Karen told the story that someone had left the song clip of “I Just Called to Say I Love You” on her answering machine. Karen said she knew it was for her because her roommate broke up with someone that night so the message had to be for her. I kept quiet and didn’t say anything. 

After two years while I was studying for a law school Final Exam, Karen called me and invited me to a friend’s Wedding. I couldn’t make it because I had to study for the exam, but invited Karen to a wedding the following Saturday I was invited to. Karen said “Yes” though years later she swears she did not want to and did not voluntarily say yes, but admits the word came out of her mouth. Karen claimed her tongue was under another’s control. Hmmm, okay Holy Spirit.

After we attended the wedding, we sat on a couch at Karen’s rental house. We read the Holy Bible together and prayed. Karen later said that night she knew she would marry me. Karen did not want to, but she knew she would. I did not want to either, but knew two years earlier God had directed me to do so. We both were obedient to God and did marry. At the wedding, Karen sang “Ave Maria” as we knelt in front of the Blessed Mother statue. Over the years, we both told each other numerous times that obeying God was the smartest thing we had ever done. 

I graduated Temple Law School and became an attorney in both PA and NJ. I worked for two judges in Philadelphia Family Court. We had two children over the next few years. Karen became disabled by the childbirths. She had numerous medical issues, Fibromyalgia, herniated discs in both her back and neck, carpal tunnel in both wrists twice, a rare true recurrence of carpal tunnel, ringing in the ear, and other issues. Karen was on 18 medications, nine to combat the side effects of the first nine. Sometimes her fingers just would not work when she tried to play the guitar. During that difficult time, I took Karen Communion every day for about two years until she was well enough to go to church again.

It was during that time that Karen started having memories of being sexually molested three times: the first at 3 years old by a bread delivery person, the second by a baby sitter who molested her many times on her way home from baby sitting, and third by a Catholic priest. Karen never held the abuse by the priest against the Church as she always said it was a human being who abused her, not the church. Karen’s faith carried her through this difficult time. Karen endured 10 years of psychological counseling as the memories unfolded. Eventually, the light at the end of the tunnel appeared and Karen became whole.

During the last couple years that Karen struggled with becoming whole, we started recording the Catholic Year 1 and Year 2 Weekday Daily Bible Readings, Responsorial Psalms, and Gospel Acclamations (Alleluia Verses). The Holy Spirit gave Karen the music, Karen played the guitar, and sang the Psalms and Verses. 

We turned our bedroom into a recording studio. Karen sat at the bottom center of our bed with one foot on a stool as she played the guitar and sang. I place a Blue Woodpecker ribbon microphone in front of her slightly above her head facing down so it picked up both her voice and her guitar evenly. We recorded for 2 to 5 hours almost every night for two years. Karen sometimes would fall asleep on her guitar and at 2a.m. while I was editing, I would need to wake her up to redo a musical section. Sometimes she would just tell me to fix it. What a challenge! I would need to find somewhere else where she played the same section correctly and would have to copy and paste so it sounded right and in the correct beat.

One reason we worked so hard for two years is we wanted other people who couldn’t get to church to have a way to hear the readings WITH MUSIC so they could feel fed by the Holy Spirit. As far as we knew, there was no music for weekday Readings. Karen and I both used the talents God gave us as a husband and wife team to serve God. 

We also recorded the Readings because we wanted to follow the directive to spread the Gospel to all corners of the world. You see, the Catholic readings are the same everywhere in the world every day so you can watch and listen to the Daily Bible Readings and be united with the Universal Church no matter where you live on earth.

In 2013, Mike expanded how he serves the church by joining The Ancient Order of Hibenians (AOH), the oldest Irish Catholic fraternal organization in the United States. The Ancient Order of Hibenians, founded on May 4, 1836, focuses on serving the church through Friendship, Unity, and Christian Charity. On October 13, 2013, the Isle of Erin Major Degree Team conferred upon Mike the 4th Degree of the Ancient Order of Hibernians in America, Inc. Mike is a member of AOH Division 88 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

In 2014, Mike and Karen attended a course at St. Helena church called “The Joy of the Gospel” which was about Pope Francis’ encyclical of the same name. As the course ended, Sister Sophie asked “Okay who needs to hear this next?” We felt the Spirit calling us to lead teaching the course to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia parishioners. We felt moved to prepare peoples’ hearts for Pope Francis’ visit to the United States in 2015. So we stopped recording the Daily Bible Readings even though we were only 80% finished.

With the help of the Archdiocese administration’s Fr. Dennis Gill, we reserved a room in the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in center city Philadelphia for five Saturday nights in January and February 2015. I organized discussions for each of the five chapters with guest panelists who were leading priests, sisters, educators, and high school students. We discussed one chapter per night. Karen led the music. Little did we know that at the end of the second night, this would be the last musical service Karen ever served God at. 

It was about 11:15a.m. Sunday (the next day) when God called Karen home. That also was the start time of the Sunday Mass Karen was the lead singer of for over 40 years at St. Helena Church though we were not scheduled to play that morning. The following three Saturdays, the Joy of the Gospel team and I completed teaching the course. I subsequently completed recording the Year 1 and Year 2 Daily Bible Readings by speaking the remaining 20% of the Responsorial Psalms and Gospel Acclamations since Karen was no longer available to sing them. So anytime you hear me speaking the Responsorial Psalm or Alleluia Verse you know it’s because God called Karen home before we had a chance to record Karen singing it.

So that’s a summary of how recording the Daily Bible Readings began. Next, we will discuss who helped me gain the skills to become competent at recording the Daily Bible Readings.

Who guided us.

While Karen was ill and unable to attend church, I continued Lectoring and even started Cantoring (leading the singing) at church services. The Holy Spirit led me to also start taking lessons from Chuck McKibben who had recently come to Philadelphia from New York. Chuck is a voiceover professional (Voiceover Island 215-677-2295) who taught me to become a voiceover artist and what equipment I needed to buy to make it happen. I took lessons from Chuck for a couple of years. Chuck helped me pick out the equipment, and I learned how to use the equipment. 

As Chuck taught me, I then started recording Karen playing the guitar and singing the Daily Bible Reading Responsorial Psalms and Gospel Acclamations. I also recorded me speaking the First Reading and the Gospel. I have continued editing the music sound files to this day. I also added a video editing program. With this program, I take a still picture of a scene from the Gospel so you have a visual while listening to the Daily Bible Readings.

Through our prayer life, Karen and I felt the Lord calling us to record the Daily Bible Readings. This gave us the confidence and the strength not to doubt our mission as we discuss in the next section.

Why do we believe in our mission and why should you believe in our mission?

Knowing that God directed us to build this arc, an audio-visual arc, we believe this project is in good hands...God’s hands. God gave Noah a physical arc to build. Noah obeyed God. God gave us an  audio-visual arc, and we obeyed God. 

So I continue working hard to this day with these Daily Bible Readings. From all the one-on-one personal lessons learning how to use the new technology sound equipment and the nights we worked until 2 a.m. falling asleep serving God, we have given our best to serve God and help others Praise and Glorify God in both the spoken word and music. We now make the recordings available to all.

As we discuss in the next section, we did come up against many obstacles. The devil was not going to allow us to be untested during the years it took to record the Daily Bible Readings. With God's help, we persevered.

Who or what got in our way, and what did we do to break through it?

What obstacles did we face in making these Daily Bible Readings? Well, I needed to learn what equipment to buy to record Karen singing and playing the guitar and me speaking the readings. 

Another obstacle involved me needing lessons to learn how to use the equipment. Thankfully, God placed a seasoned professional in my path to teach me. It took years, but God saw me through.

I found it interesting that I needed two different microphones in recording us. The beautiful gold Woodpecker ribbon microphone made Karen’s guitar sound full and rich while also making her singing voice sound special. That microphone did not work for me. My voice sounded raspy and distorted in the Woodpecker microphone. I needed a different kind of microphone for the deeper pitch and tones. Getting the correct microphone for each of our unique voices and the guitar was one obstacle we overcame. 

Also, I had to deal with unexplainable “electrical glitches” that would appear in the recordings which I would have to edit out. Sometimes the unexplainable glitches were so bad, we would have to rerecord the music. 

Finally, the biggest obstacle involved God calling Karen home before we had finished recording. I had to deal with the loss of a spouse and ask God “What do you want me to do with these recordings now?” I waited five years for an answer. Then the pandemic came and churches were closed. People started coming to me asking me to post the recordings because they needed to be fed with God’s Word. So I obeyed God and finished recording the remaining 20% of Readings. I continue editing the recordings and listening for God’s voice as to what He wants me to do with His recordings. This is why we have created the website MikeandKarenMusic.com and the YouTube page Mike and Karen Music, LLC.

Closing

In conclusion, this is the story of how the Daily Bible Readings have come about and the obstacles we had to overcome. We are God’s slaves called to be apostles acting in obedience to faith and set apart to create these Monday through Saturday Daily Bible Readings WITH MUSIC. These are the only Readings for Monday through Saturday that we know of with music for the Responsorial Psalm and Gospel Acclamations. In addition, Karen used the same musical tune for both the Responsorial Psalm and the Gospel Acclamation which is unlike Sunday music. Sunday has two completely different musical pieces for the Responsorial Psalm and the Gospel Acclamation. Having the same music for both is a second unique aspect of these Daily Bible Readings. So if you want to Praise and Glorify God, please join us especially if you cannot get to church as often as you would like to. We understand.

Finally, we are offering for personal enjoyment the Responsorial Psalms for purchase as a means to pay administrative expenses and advertising costs in maintaining this website and spreading the Gospel. The more people who buy the music, the more we can spread the Gospel around the world. Please consider praying with us, purchasing Responsorial Psalms, enjoying the music, and joining our team spreading the Gospel!

Come Pray with us and spread the Gospel – Mike Campbell