Seasonal Hymns

[In_Hoc_Signo312]

I first heard the hymn “All Glory, Laud, and Honor” on Palm Sunday of last year. It has since become a personal favorite for me. I think it’s sad that a lot the hymns I like the most are reserved for certain Sundays during the Liturgical year, and then you don’t hear them again in Mass until a year later. I had made these same remarks to a fellow cantor and one the deacons at the Parish where I attend Masses.

I happened to cantor on Gaudete Sunday (the third Sunday of Advent) each of the past two years now. I sang the exact same set of hymns each year, interestingly. The music director had selected “Rejoice, the Lord is King,” which I think is listed as a Christ the King hymn, as the opening hymn. I had earlier come across a hymnal lyrics site, and the person who wrote the comments for “All Glory Laud and Honor” thought that the first and fourth verses of it make it appropriate for the Advent and Easter seasons, too. Is “All Glory, Laud, and Honor” an acceptable hymn for any occasion aside from Palm Sunday?

 

[Gertabelle]

Depends on the parish and on who is selecting the music.

We used a song from the “Advent” section of our hymnal on Palm Sunday.

We used a song from the “Funeral” section of our hymnal on Easter Sunday.

We used a hymn from the “Christ the King” section of the book yesterday, and some of our favorite communion hymns are in the “Devotional” section, rather than the “Eucharistic” section.

Go figure.

Those sections are all created by someone working in a publishing company with the hope of helping those of us looking for particular themes in our hymns. But in all honesty, at least in our hymnals, the categories often make little sense.

 

[peter26]

Matching the words in the hymn to the words in that week’s Bible readings, especially the Gospel, seems to be how it works in my parish.

 

[Chatter163]

I first heard the hymn “All Glory, Laud, and Honor” on Palm Sunday of last year. It has since become a personal favorite for me. I think it’s sad that a lot the hymns I like the most are reserved for certain Sundays during the Liturgical year, and then you don’t hear them again in Mass until a year later. I had made these same remarks to a fellow cantor and one the deacons at the Parish where I attend Masses.

I happened to cantor on Gaudete Sunday (the third Sunday of Advent) each of the past two years now. I sang the exact same set of hymns each year, interestingly. The music director had selected “Rejoice, the Lord is King,” which I think is listed as a Christ the King hymn, as the opening hymn. I had earlier come across a hymnal lyrics site, and the person who wrote the comments for “All Glory Laud and Honor” thought that the first and fourth verses of it make it appropriate for the Advent and Easter seasons, too. Is “All Glory, Laud, and Honor” an acceptable hymn for any occasion aside from Palm Sunday?

The chant that the Roman Missal and Roman Gradual provide for the Palm Sunday procession has for centuries been Gloria Laus et Honor, and the hymn “All Glory, Laud and Honor” derives from that 9th century chant, so liturgically, it isn’t just a hymn that would be sung at any point in the year; it is proper to today as part of the liturgy.