Back in St. Francis of Assisi’s day, minstrels of the Lord were central in society, according to Franciscan Father Isaiah Marie Hofmann. 

“We [Franciscans] were the original troubadours of God,” said the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal priest, known more commonly as Brother Isaiah — also the name of his musical group, which has produced five albums now. The latest, Mysteries and Medicines, has garnered more than 1 million streams across streaming platforms since its July release.

Father Isaiah recently told the Register that music has always been part of his life, including in middle school, when he began taking guitar lessons. Later, attending a Catholic high school, he and some friends formed a band, and the love of performance caught his heart. 

As he began a deeper seeking and discerning in his faith, he said, God reached his heart through music. “It’s one of the languages God used to call me closer to him and into religious life.”

One particular evening, music and faith merged in his heart in a life-changing way. Brother Isaiah had gone to Eucharistic adoration with the Catholic Underground, a cultural apostolate of his order, in Manhattan, and his fellow brothers were playing a reggae song he loved. “It was a moment of discovery at which I saw all the joys of my heart coming together — along with the source of that joy.” 

Though he’s tried different instruments, including hand drums, Father Isaiah predominantly plays guitar and sings. As a friar, music enters into his everyday work with at-risk youth, parish missions, and “just for fun.”

He never worried that entering religious life would mean abandoning his music, since music is part of Franciscan charism, he said, but neither did he imagine he’d go beyond playing guitar with the brothers. “I certainly didn’t expect to produce music.”

But in 2016, he started collecting music he’d been writing, and that morphed into his first album, Broomstick, which was recorded in a friend’s living room with a few other buddies and another brother playing “songs of the heart.”

After final vows, his second album, Poco a Poco, took form. “Then, during COVID, I recorded some live music with another brother on a rooftop.” That became The Shade albums, which were divided into two seasons.

Finally, while in seminary, Mysteries and Medicines, a collaboration between him, Father Mark-Mary Ames and J.J. Wright, a successful music producer, came forth. “When I became a brother, J.J. was a volunteer at a homeless shelter I helped at, and we all knew each other from that.”

After seminary, the question arose of whether “Brother Isaiah” the group should become “Father Isaiah,” but not only would it be nearly impossible to change a streaming name, religiously, it made sense to keep the original. 

“St. Francis was also a deacon, yet he went by ‘Brother Francis.’ Also, when we renew our vows, we renew them as ‘Brother,’” he explained. “It’s also a Franciscan dynamic in which we’re a brother to the world. That’s where I come from, and I’m sharing [my music] as a brother.”

He credits the albums as being a collaborative effort made possible through “God’s humble humor and goodness” in sending highly talented people in both music and media onto his path. “All I have is a guitar and songs, but the people I’ve worked with have put this thing in a slingshot to get it out there,” he said, eliciting “a ton of joy” in the process.

At the center of it all, God is leading others into his heart. “I love the way God teaches us to pray through psalms and song. They give words to our prayer so the heart can find its own words.” 

Most of his days still begin and end in community, where “prayer is the lifeblood; the lungs,” he said, which then flows into the fraternal dimension. “We try to live real relationships, with all the joys and challenges, sharing the load,” he said, explaining his work with impoverished youth and others in the inner-city community of Newburgh, New York.  

Father Isaiah joined the Franciscans at age 22 and eventually experienced a restlessness that led him into seminary. It was there that this newest album began percolating as he “worked out the mystery” of the priesthood, as is reflected in the album. 

Ordained at age 35 in 2022, Father Isaiah said celebrating the Mass has become a delight —and song remains a part of it. “In the Mass, Jesus perpetually sings his love of thanksgiving to the Father, and the priest gets to step into that,” he said. “We’re called to sing the song no one else can sing; to sing the mysteries and the gifts he gives us.”

Father Isaiah said he’s not surprised at how sacred music is taking hold in the wider culture, since human beings are religious by nature, “made for the transcendent, the mystical.” 

Everyone’s looking for mystics, he continued, adding, “[Music] is about taking us more deeply into our lives to see the wonder that’s hidden there and to make sense of the mystery of the ordinary.”

Additionally, he said, music can be a unifier, “a place where people are willing to listen. It’s not an argument, but a place where we propose beauty and share it for its own sake.” 

Music is also a healing balm, he’s found. “Where there’s pain, it’s helpful to play music. Beauty brings relief.”

“That’s what song can do,” he said, adding that some of the best singing he’s heard has come from those who’ve suffered. “People singing from a place of having found God in the midst of need and want; that’s what we’re here to learn how to do.” 

It all circles back to St. Francis, he said, whose greatest desire was to warm the heart. “The whole practice of devotion was to enkindle the fire of love,” which music can ignite, he said. “The Spirit takes it from there.”

 

Listen

Brother Isaiah’s music can be found on all streaming media and through the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal’s YouTube channel, where you can also find a documentary that helped launch Mysteries and Medicine.

An accompanying Monk Manual journal corresponding with the album can be purchased here, and, for old-school listeners, Mysteries and Medicine CDs are available here.