Vatican II Hymnal

[Jon_in_the_Nati]

ccwatershed.org/vatican/

This beautiful new hymnal made its appearance in our pew racks on I Advent, but we have not used it yet. For whatever reason, we are still using Gather (easily the worst Catholic hymnal in widespread use) and have been subjected to “Christ be our light” at least twice this liturgical year.

Anyone have any experience with it? It looks like it has a lot of wonderful content, including some fine congregational mass settings and even (gasp!) some hymns in Latin!

I can only hope our new pastor, a very traditionally-minded priest, plans to put it to good use at some point; perhaps we will eventually be spared the ‘choir’ of three old women belting out Marty Haugen tunes Sunday after blessed Sunday.

 

[liturgyluver]

This is a great resource. Just to let you know, however, that there have already been 2 previous threads on this.

Best wishes

 

[mburn16]

I’m not aware of any popular, appropriate Hymns Gather is missing that the Vatican II Hymnal contains.

Use of the Gather Hymnal might make some congregations subject to music you find distasteful, but thats the fault of the music director, NOT the Hymnal.

 

[Mrs_Sally]

We have this hymnal. It does have beautiful Mass settings and the all the readings for the 3 year cycle. I love the Mass setting that we have started using.

However, what it doesn’t have is alot of hymns. That may be why the Gather hymnal is still in your pews also.

 

[Cavaille-Coll]

Gather has it’s theological flaws, but it is far better than anything from Oregon Catholic Press. The Vatican II Hymnal is truly among the best, and you are fortunate to have it in your parish. Your pastor is probably giving the musicians time to phase it in.

 

[YoungTradCath]

We have this hymnal. It does have beautiful Mass settings and the all the readings for the 3 year cycle. I love the Mass setting that we have started using.

However, what it doesn’t have is alot of hymns. That may be why the Gather hymnal is still in your pews also.

The group who made the hymnal used extremely strict guidelines with selecting hymns.

Basically, they were:

1. The hymn has to be truly traditional and not just a fad of the Fifties Church in America, which is what much music that traditionalists think is traditional actually is.
2. It has to be completely free of even the tiniest hint at theological perversion.

If you read their website, they explain a lot.

Think of it like this, there are 200 hymns in the hymnal. The average parish in America, although regrettable, uses the “four hymn sandwich” model for mass. You know what that means, I’m sure. Divide 200 by four. You get fifty. That’s fifty possible completely different combinations of songs. If you use all fifty combinations, I think it’s reasonable to say that when you finally recycle one of the combinations, most people won’t remember it. Most people don’t remember what was sung last Sunday, and most parishes end up singing the same twenty boring songs anyways.

 

[Mrs_Sally]

Think of it like this, there are 200 hymns in the hymnal. The average parish in America, although regrettable, uses the “four hymn sandwich” model for mass. You know what that means, I’m sure. Divide 200 by four. You get fifty. That’s fifty possible completely different combinations of songs. If you use all fifty combinations, I think it’s reasonable to say that when you finally recycle one of the combinations, most people won’t remember it. Most people don’t remember what was sung last Sunday, and most parishes end up singing the same twenty boring songs anyways.

I’m familar with the group that made the hymnal. I like the hymnal; however, it really doesn’t have a lot of hymns in it. 200 songs, doesn’t really mean 50 Sundays worth. Seasonal hymns should only be sung during the correct season, for example.

It’s true that many parishes don’t have terrific music programs. We’ve talked about that quite a bit on this forum. In a parish with a fair to average music director, I expect it will take a while to introduce new music. In the meantime Gather is better than other options.

 

[TheMc]

I’m familar with the group that made the hymnal. I like the hymnal; however, it really doesn’t have a lot of hymns in it. 200 songs, doesn’t really mean 50 Sundays worth. Seasonal hymns should only be sung during the correct season, for example.

It’s true that many parishes don’t have terrific music programs. We’ve talked about that quite a bit on this forum. In a parish with a fair to average music director, I expect it will take a while to introduce new music. In the meantime Gather is better than other options.

But the thing is, do you really use all the hymns in the other hymnals? Especially those 50/50 traditional/modern types, many parishes only use half the hymnal.