I know about half of the hymns on that list,and I love them all!Why dont you like them?

‘Here I am Lord’ is taken from that story in 1 Samuel 3,where God called Samuel 3 times.Whats wrong with it?And ‘They’ll know we are Christians’ is perfect,because they WILL know by our love,and Jesus told us to love people!How could you possibly dislike a hymn?God loves all hymns!Psalm 191 says ‘make a joyful noise unto the Lord’.If people are doing that,why wouldn’t you like it?I have written 5 hymns,and I suppose you’d absolutely hate them.
I grew up in a different era. I was 18 in 1969 and I am one of those of my generation who disliked the switch from traditional sacred music to music that was supposedly “more relevant and pleasing to the ears of the younger generation”.
Forty years later there are generations of folks who have no idea what traditional Catholic hymns sound like. There are folks who have been welcomed into HMC who fall in the same boat. Neither can be faulted because they have never heard what traditional Catholic hymns sound like. They’ve never heard Gregorian chant or sang the plainsong chants (e.g. Tantum Ergo, Ave Maria, Parce Domine) which the congregation knew and sang prior to 1969.
And then there is the myth that the congregation did not know Latin or that it was too hard for kids. Baloney! Such ideas demean children. As part of my preparation for First Communion in the second grade, Sister drilled us in the proper Latin responses and…dah da dah!..what they meant. At the end of third grade, I became an altar boy which meant that I had to learn the Latin responses.
There were no children’s hymns, no children’s Mass, etc. How insulting to the children of today! Are they any less capable than my generation? No. It’s all a matter of exposure and practice. I sang in a children’s choir in Latin for the TLM. It’s not rocket science, it is exposure and practice.
Scripture should not be confused with the music which conveys scripture. This is what I hear when I have to sing Here I Am Lord…
Here I am Lord, it is I Lord (ord), I have heard you calling in the night (i…i…i…ight). I will go Lord (ord) if you lead me (e), I will hold your people in my heart (ar…ar…ar…art). Four part harmony…yet, this is considered to be equivalent to a sacred Latin motet like this:
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My choir has sung most of these motets in both Latin and English (our Anglican bretheren translated a lot of these motets into English but let the hymnody remain the same). And before anyone jumps me, yes, we have four paid section leaders but the rest of our 30 voice choir are simply parishoners without degrees in music. The key is practice, practice, practice…if you can play the guitar, sing, and read music this type of music is the heritage of HMC and not inacessible.