An article on the America Magazine site lately:
Bishop Shawn McKnight of Jefferson City, Missouri, had apparently put out a list of about a dozen hymns in common use in US parishes, that he thought were inappropriate for some reason. Not surprisingly he got a lot of spirited pushback.
From the article
"Bishop W. Shawn McKnight of Jefferson City issued a new decree Nov. 5 on the use of hymns in the liturgy, after determining a synodal approach on the issue -- one of listening and communal discernment -- was necessary, he said."
"The new decree replaces an earlier one, which prohibited specific songs and composers and led to a spirited discussion, including on social media, as well as stories and opinions shared in some Catholic media outlets outside the diocese."
"On the list in the initial decree were 12 specific hymns that were found “doctrinally problematic” by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine: “All Are Welcome” by Marty Haugen; “Ashes” by Tom Conry; “Bread of Life” by Bernadette Farrell; “Celtic Alleluia: Sending Forth” by Christopher Walker and Fintan O’Carroll; “Covenant Hymn” by Rory Cooney and Gary Daigle; “For the Healing of the Nations” by Fred Kaan, John Wade and Randall DeBruyn; “God Has Chosen Me” by Bernadette Farrell; “Halleluya! We Sing Your Praises,” an anonymous South African composition; “Led by the Spirit” by Bob Hurd; “Many and Great” by Paulist Father Ricky Manalo; “Table of Plenty” by Dan Schutte; and “Three Days” by M.D. Ridge and Casey McKinley."
"In a policy promulgated by the new decree, the bishop established a set of common Mass settings for use by all diocesan parishes. Like the previous decree, it also prohibits the use of hymns by composers who have been found credibly accused of sexual abuse."
"In addition, the diocese will open a conversation about the possibility of phasing out certain songs that may be inappropriate for Catholic liturgies, using criteria established by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops."
“It is inspiring to see such passion and enthusiasm about the music that enlivens our Catholic liturgies. Whenever we see this kind of fervor among the faithful, our church gives us the perfect way to respond -- a synodal response,” said Bishop McKnight.
"....Rather than the faithful being relegated to the outside as commenters on a decision, with their only response being either obedience or disobedience, it is better to invite everyone in our diocese into a discernment process,” he continued. “The Holy Spirit is working through each one of us. "
"...Like the previous decree, Bishop McKnight’s new decree prohibits the use of music by composers who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse, including David Haas, the late Father Cesáreo Gabarain and Ed Conlin. Such bans have already been in place in a number of U.S. dioceses, with allegations against all three composers emerging during the past several years."
"...This is a step toward fostering a common repertoire that we see as helping the church to grow in unity and communion,” stated Father Daniel Merz, pastor of St. Thomas More Newman Center Parish and Sacred Heart Parish in Columbia, and chairman of the Diocesan Liturgical Commission."An important part of the doctrinal criteria is promoting a fuller understanding of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.“Part of the concern is that a lot of the songs that we sing overemphasize one dimension of the Eucharist,” Father Merz noted. For example, he cited highlighting the communal and social dimensions of the Eucharist, without giving proper emphasis also to the sacrifice of Christ and the Real Presence, and the need for continuing conversion among every communicant.“It’s about the Great Commandment,” he said. “Love God first, and that enables you to love your neighbor. When we get the first part right, the second part will follow.”
Some personal thoughts; I will give Bishop McKnight credit for walking back the ban after getting a lot of feedback from people. But maybe the consultation with the people who are asked to sing the liturgical music should have happened first, and not only after a top-down decree.
I do understand and agree that we should retire music that was composed by people under credible accusation of misconduct. David Haas is one that springs to mind. But as far as I know none of the dozen hymns on the blacklist were in this category. I am familiar with most, but not all, on the list. Several are on our regular rotation in the music in our parish. I looked at the words in our music edition (All but one of the hymns are there) and was unable to discern anything problematic.
From the objection cited above, "...highlighting the communal and social dimensions of the Eucharist, without giving proper emphasis also to the sacrifice of Christ and the Real Presence, and the need for continuing conversion among every communicant.“It’s about the Great Commandment,” he said. “Love God first, and that enables you to love your neighbor. When we get the first part right, the second part will follow.” This just comes across as theological "straining at gnats". Not every song has to emphasize the Real Presence. None of them denied it or de-emphasized it.
The local priest has shut down the carillon that used to play a variety of generic hymns (Blessed Assurance, Rock of Ages) throughout the day because they were "anti-Catholic," i.e., Protestant.
ReplyDeleteGiven that there were no words to the hymns, were they "anti-Catholic"? Certainly, nothing bad was intended; the program purchased for the carillon didn't have specifically Catholic hymns.
I could hear the carillon from my house at noon and would usually say the Angelus when it went off.
Now I don't.
Is silencing the carillon a net good? Or a net bad? I guess Father will find out if there is any judgment in the Hereafter. I like to imagine him given 1,000 years in Purgatory trying to preach to Unitarians.
Meantime, I await the American Catholic Church's purge of all of the criminal Carravaggio's pictures, and the works of gay artists like Michaelangelo and DaVinci. Oh, and the disinvitation to the adulterer Donald Trump from the Al Smith Dinner and other Catholic events.
Yah, right.
Jean I'm sorry to hear that they silenced the carillon. One of the churches near us has one, and I enjoy hearing it. Sounds like your priest is a barrel of laughs. Our priest is somewhat conservative, but takes the attitude that whoever isn't against us is for us. He would rather people be Protestant if the alternative is being unchurched.
DeleteThis guy is still fighting the Reformation and Vat2. I should just set my phone to go off at noon to remind me to say the Angelus and quit bellyaching about this guy. No skin off his nose if I stay away. I got no money.
DeleteOur church doesn't have a carillion but it does have two bells, "Johannes" and "Antoninus". When Pope John Paul II died our priest at the time had the big one toll 86 times, for each year of his life. Bet the neighbors got a little tired of that!
DeleteIt’s about the Great Commandment,” he said. “Love God first, and that enables you to love your neighbor. When we get the first part right, the second part will follow.”
ReplyDeleteI have problems with this reasoning. There are plenty of people who loudly proclaim their love of God but fail to love their neighbors. The book of Isaiah begins with the solemn condemnation of the official temple worship because Israel had failed to take care of the poor, the widows and the orphans. Isaiah said get that right, then your worship will be acceptable.
In a way the converse is better. You only get love of God right when you love your neighbor.
Jack, yes that thought occurred to me too. We can cerebralize God, whom we can't see, and easily ignore our neighbor, whom we can't see. A little too easy to let ourselves off the hook.
DeleteAnd about the song "All Are Welcome", I can't find anything wrong with the words. Seems like maybe they don't want to welcome everyone.
Typo, should be "our neighbor whom we *can* see."
DeleteFighting about hymns is not new. There was enormous controversy about hymns in the early church.
ReplyDeleteThe book of psalms had always been read in the early church because some of the psalms were seen as prophetic. However, there was a large movement to make it the prayer book of the Church during the Christological and Trinitarian controversies.
The psalms were always part of the Liturgy of the Word. In order for Christians to know their Jewish ancestry they needed to understand the Law, the Prophets, and Wisdom literature. The psalms were seen as Wisdom literature depicting the ideal Christian life.
The monks and virgins who were withdrawn from village and city life saw the Psalms not only as their wisdom literature but also as their daily worship. The Psalter kept them safe from accusations of heresy not only in their beliefs but also in their prayers.
The psalms (and some biblical canticles) became the hymns used at the Entrance to the Liturgy of the Word, the Procession of gifts before the Eucharist, and the Communion Procession. They with their mostly biblical antiphons are still the official texts for these events.
Since Catholics sang English hymns at these times even when the (Low) Mass was in Latin, they were continued after English was approved. The bishops decided they would not as a conference get into the hymnal business but would allow the marketplace to sort things out.
That is where we are now. Bishops who want to regulate hymns are going to have to fight that marketplace. Publishers are going to make it very expensive for individual dioceses to have their own hymnals. I suspect everyone is going to fight the bishops if the conference takes up regulating hymns. The liturgy wars over hymns will likely be far more divisive that those over the text of the liturgy.
I think this particular Bishop's edict is a one-off. The USCCB document he was referring to was first published in 2020. I haven't heard anyone else make a big deal about it.
DeleteIf he applied his somewhat narrow criteria to all church music, would most of the Marian hymns and Christmas carols pass muster?
Re: bishops regulating hymns: every major hymnal in use in the US (and probably most/all of the not-so-major hymnals) has an imprimatur. IIRC, the responsibility belongs to the bishop in whose diocese the publisher is located. I have no problem with these bishops checking to ensure there are no doctrinal problems, that the songs express Christian faith, etc. They do have a responsibility to regulate the liturgy, such as translating the bible and the ritual books. This is the same kind of thing.
DeleteBut when the bishop of Diocese B bans a composition to which a bishop of Diocese A has given an imprimatur...I guess maybe Bishop B has the legal right, but I don't think it's pastorally wise to have different permissions in different places. Wouldn't it be better for Bishop B to trust Bishop A, as well as the publishers who make a conscientious effort to avoid doctrinal problems, as well as the parish music directors and pastors who program these songs for worship? These worship wars have been fought at least as long as I've been paying attention (which started sometime in the '80s or '90s, and probably were going on long before then). For goodness sake, let's consider lowering the temperature rather than perpetually trying to crush one's opponents in church culture wars. But Catholic liturgy has been top-down since Trent, as far as I can tell.
This is an area where we could use less "top down". I think some of the powers-that-be have a hard time with that. This bishop seemingly wanted everyone to learn the same four Mass settings (but not limited to that) for more uniformity in worship. Okay, certain things need to be the same. But I think they are anyway (liturgy of the Word, liturgy of the Eucharist, old and new Testament readings, etc.) I notice the Mass setting most commonly in use here, the Mass of Christ Our Savior by Dan Schutte, was not on his list. It is a lot of work to introduce new Mass settings to a congregation, and not all of them are suited to the abilities and instruments of available musicians.
DeleteGood point about the music in the hymnals being previously vetted, and also about trusting one's fellow bishops.
DeleteI can't begin to express how much I *love* this application of synodality. Really! Imagine getting church conservatives and church progressives (and some just "normal Catholics") to sit down in a synodal process, praying together, listening to these songs, singing them, discussing them, and coming together in some sort of mutual understanding.
ReplyDelete"I can't begin to express how much I *love* this application of synodality". Me, too. Jim. Those who think synodality is a waste of time should pay attention.
DeleteRe: "All Are Welcome": church "reform-the-reform" types really don't like this song. Ironically, it's set to a sort of four-square hymn tune that you'd think would appeal to the nostalgic types.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I can tell, their primary objection is simply the title of the song. They disagree that all are welcome. Think about the Catholics who grew up in my parents' generation, believing that Protestants and Jews weren't allowed in Catholic churches. And then there are gays who are married. Adult children living in sin. Not to mention the divorced-and-remarried-without-a-decree-of-nullity.
Plus: even if we admit that these folks are permitted to darken the doorway of the church, the title sounds like an invitation to open communion. Which, admittedly, church progressives would be all in favor of.
It's also suspicious in that it refers to "water, wine and wheat" but never quite gets to the Real Presence and Transubstantiation.
Finally, it's suspicious because the composer and lyricist, Marty Haugen, isn't Catholic. Huge red flag.
I was surprised to find out that Marty Haugen wasn't Catholic, because we have several of his songs in our music edition, (OCP), including Eye Has Not Seen, and We Walk by Faith And Not by Sight. The article on Wiki says he is Lutheran. I notice that OCP also includes A Mighty Fortress, the signature Lutheran anthem. We also have borrowed a bunch of hymns from the Wesley brothers. And the Anglican tradition. We church musicians are a promiscuous lot. If we find a good song, we'll appropriate it.
DeleteIf I go to a funeral or wedding in another church I always take a look at their hymnal in the pew. The Lutherans have borrowed some Dan Schutte and St. Louis Jesuit stuff ( Here I Am, Lord). Not to mention Weston Priory ( Hosea). So it goes both ways. We may not share sacraments, but we share music.
Katherine, our sister in law died at the end of September while visiting her family in Florida. There was a small group memorial service there at a traditional Episcopal church which I liked very much. Including some very familiar hymns like St Louis Jesuits. A couple of weeks later my husband and I, accompanied by a son, flew to Colorado for the Memorial Service at the evangelical Christian church that George’s brother and our sister in law belonged to. Totally different than the EC liturgy of course. But they also used some Catholic hymns. Music is music. If it’s good, it wouldn’t make sense not to use if just because a person of a different denomination wrote it. The Catholic Church sometimes spends a lot of time and energy on tempests in teapots. Losing Sonja was one more blow to our family. She was a wonderful person. She grew up Catholic, but joined her husband in his evangelical faith. He and my husband grew up in the Congregational church , now the United Church of Christ - very progressive, the exact opposite of the evangelical church. Now of my husband’s family four siblings, one is Methodist, one is evangelical, and two are Episcopalian ( my husband and his older sister). Following the faith journeys of people is very interesting.
DeleteAnd speaking of bells, this is cool. The bells of Notre Dame are ringing again!
ReplyDeletehttps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Sn9GZsILeHY
Plenty Good Room by Florence Quivar from the album Ride On, King Jesus.
ReplyDeleteScandalize My Name by Jessye Norman and Kathleen Battle.
Thanks David! Good ones.
DeleteSome good news from the bishop's conference, especially for liturgy!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.ncronline.org/opinion/ncr-voices/us-bishops-conference-elections-mark-defeat-arch-conservatives
Archbishop Alexander Sample of Portland, Oregon was a candidate to lead the Committee on Divine Worship but his longstanding affinity for the pre-Vatican II rite was a bridge too far for the rest of the bishops. He lost to Bishop Michael Woost, auxiliary bishop of Cleveland, by a vote of 112-128, the closest margin. Woost has only been a bishop for two years so his victory can only be interpreted as a rejection of Sample.
Maybe it was more than a rejection of Sample. Maybe all the auxiliary bishops appointed by Francis have decided to elect one of their own! Woost's appointment as a bishop was well received here. He has strong marks both for being for the reformed liturgy as well as being pastoral. Unfortunately, this election looks like he might become high on the list for moving on to bishop or maybe archbishop in the near future.
I take it as a sign that the legacy Benedict bishops are aging out, and the legacy Francis bishops are ascendant in numbers across the conference.
DeleteOff topic - I’m not sure that trump could have assembled a worse bunch of top henchmen and women than he has. The man who will be in charge of Defense - some mi litany experience, mostly Fox News experience, and lots of tattoos including slogans that go back to the Crusades, an OT quote about not bringing peace but a sword, and a flag entwined with an AR-15. Top man in the largest, most powerful military in the world
ReplyDeletehttps://nypost.com/2024/11/13/us-news/all-of-secretary-of-defense-nominee-pete-hegseths-tattoos/
Then there is his choice for AG, a man who is being investigated in the House for ethics violations because of sleeping with a 17 year old - his instant resignation yesterday stops that investigation.trump wants recess appointments because he fears even some republicans won’t go along with his choices.
They are all terrible picks - every one of them so far
I did not know Gaetz had stepped aside from the AG nomination, I'm very glad to hear that.
DeleteSo far it seems like the nominations have come in threes. First three were Elise Stefanek for UN ambassador, Susie Wiles for whatever that WH staff position is called, and Marco Rubio for Secretary of State. Not that great, but within the parameters of normal. Next three, not so much. Gaetz, Homan for Homeland Security (really bad), and that guy for Defense Secretary, I forget his name, likes to whine on Fox and pardon insurrectionists.
I think he will get Senate pushback for a lot of them. Am relieved that Thune is going to be Senate majority leader rather than Scott.
No, he didn’t step aside from AG.he resigned his house seat because a negative ethics report was to be published very soon.
DeleteYou can read the NY Post story for the Defense guy, illustrated with photos of his tattooed body. Apparently military leaders are totally appalled, unsurprisingly, and even GOP members of congress are appalled especially by the Gaetz nomination.
DeleteOh, I'm sorry Gaetz has not withdrawn from the AG nomination. I hope there is enough pushback from Congress members to stop some of the worst nominations. Of course some of them are going to be "acting" interim appointees, and they can drag that out for a long time.
DeleteTrump certainly is putting Senate Republicans to the test with some of these nominations, of which Gaetz is the least conscionable. Over the last 8-10 years, most Republicans have failed the test. The ones who have passed and have survived politically probably can be counted on the fingers of one hand. I'm thinking of a couple of state officials in Georgia. Not immediately thinking of any others.
DeleteI heard he has a problem with woke generals. I guess he figures gays weaken the ranks. I don’t think the serious people in the War Department would miss the silly sexual harassment training and “consideration of others” training. From what I hear, it’s not working. What works are things like this. I remember a sassy admin who started answering her boss’ phone with “Mr. Hole’s office”.
DeleteAnyway, for the new Secretary of War, it’ll be “fool around and find out”. This should be interesting. Having a dingbat like this in charge when Netanyahu drags us into a war with Iran.
One of my news-rationing strategies is avoiding stories that speculate on what-ifs and that focus on irrelevancies.
DeleteEx, I don't care if Hegseth is the Illustrated Man. Sec of Defense George Schultz reportedly had a tiger tatt on his behind. So what? Hegseth's lack of military and government experience should disqualify him.
I am also not going to feed my sense of doom with stories about what Kennedy *might* do. I prefer to know what he has done in the past and what his stated policy is. That's scary enough.
Apparently he’s not happy with inclusivity in general, not just gays, but women too. I agree that most diversity and sexual harassment training courses are worthless, based on those I’ve seen. You don’t change people’s hearts with those courses, but if the organizations have a diverse workforce, having day to day contacts as pers often does. But they want to get rid of diversity in hiring too, including in the private sector now that they’ve gutted diversity in college admissions. People like Clarence Thomas forget what helped them get a good education.
DeleteJean, you might be interested in what some see as him using white supremacist symbolism in his tattoos. He denies it of course but some white supremacists use the same. He’s sending messages. His open prejudices and lack of substance are enough to disqualify him. He has almost zero managerial experience and now he’s in charge of one of the biggest organizations on the world.
Delete"His open prejudices and lack of substance are enough to disqualify him."
DeleteYes.
Gaetz's weird adventures into cosmetic surgery, Hegseth's tatts, Elon Musk's weird baby names and sperm offers, the lip plumper preferred by women of MAGA, and whether Baron Trump's height makes Daddy Trump jealous--all fun topics for late night comics, but distracting from what makes these people truly awful.
The lip plumper, plus most, including women at trump rallies and on Fox News are fans of blond hair dye. Melania and a couple of others excepted. Yes, those things are just distractions. His first choices are very scary. I don’t worry too much about Kennedy. He will not have a whole lot of power, especially regarding vaccines for schools because that’s usually a state issue. And these folk are allegedly big on states’ right, right? 😉
DeleteI'm not thinking Elon will be around long term. Not room for two consumate egotists, and we all know who is the head consumate egotist.
DeleteHa, yes, we'll see.
DeleteMeantime, in the good news arena, The Onion has purchased Infowars, which brings Alex Jones one step closer to ruin. Apparently, a group of Sandy Hill victims' families agreed to take a smaller payout for the asset, which a court ordered liquidated. In exchange Everytown Gun Safety will be the outlet's advertiser for several years.
Should be "consummate".
DeleteThere is the possibility that Trump is playing a game of putting candidates up who are not likely to be passed smoothly, in order to substitute slightly less objectionable ones who might slide through more easily. But I don't know if he is smart enough to do that.
DeleteElon is also a believer in climate change apparently. And trump is not. I have read that trump is asking to make appointments during congressional recesses in order to push his extremist candidates forward. I’m not sure how that would work since he needs to start on January 21 when Congress has finished the Christmas-New Year recess. Kennedy is anti- vax but he’s also anti oil and gas pollution and apparently had been told to keep his mouth shut on that. I have no disagreement with him wanting to remove chemicals that are banned from the food supply in the EU from our food supply but I suspect big ag won’t be in favor of that. And they will prevail.
DeleteKind of a weird state of affairs when the CEO of Exxon Mobil says it is a bad idea for Trump to pull out of the Paris accords climate agreement:
Deletehttps://www.yahoo.com/news/even-exxon-mobil-horrified-trumps-221246489.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYmluZy5jb20v&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAMobYVGIQThK2bU9JWEQC7GSWyqtUl3fAqjBrQDAj0F-hjPVhcvrtEfwmBdgBkZAJ4G8HUyShYcGt6PoNpfsm4XQYiEDJRVVyinkDLxQOanspK3xho7y5BJMPPdjmm1awTNN97AgxHaZY5Z7eczX0o8yKskLNo9DgvPotOpX6uT5
May be just virtue-signalling and green makeup by the CEO. COP 29 is being held in another fossil fuel country. I call it COPOUT 29. Exxon Mobil will do fine over the next few years.
DeleteGaetz looks like the Twilight Zone Cliff Robertson dummy after he switches places with the dummy. Someone beat me to this already. Tell me you can unsee this:
Deletehttps://youtube.com/shorts/wCCmI_Dik9U?feature=shared
Looks like the second Trump administration even more than the first will be four more seasons of the Apprentices. Trump loves to throw interesting people into interesting situations and have them figure out how to please both him and other people.
DeleteTrump is a television entertainer. Of course, he entertains both by making people love him and hate him.
What will really go on in the various departments will be hard to track since the media will be fixated on the Apprentice show.
My sense last time was that the changes in many departments were not great because of the established bureaucrats who understand well how to look like they are doing something when they really are doing nothing.
I don't plan to watch the Apprentice show.
While the Republicans have all four centers of power in their hands, I suspect that forces beyond them will shape the next four years much more than they will be able to shape things.
I think history in the form of Covid did Trump in far more than the Democrats last time around; I suspect history is more likely that the Democrats to defeat the Republicans in 2026 and 2028.
DeleteFrom the diocesan website this morning:
ReplyDelete“Congratulations to Bishop Michael Woost on his recent election as the chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Divine Worship. For years, Bishop Woost has dedicated much of his ministry to teaching sacramental theology in our seminaries and sharing his love and knowledge of liturgy throughout our diocese,” said Bishop Malesic. “Please join me in continuing to pray for Bishop Woost as he assumes this new role for the bishops' conference.
Reached in Baltimore, Bishop Woost said it has been a busy week with numerous meetings, work sessions, liturgies and other gatherings.
“I will take over as the chairman of the Committee on Divine Worship at the end of the USCCB’s Plenary Assembly in November of 2025,” he said, adding the term lasts for three years.
“In the meantime, I will shadow the current chairman, Bishop Steven J. Lopes of Dallas, Texas, and learn my responsibilities from him. Being chairman means working with the staff of the Secretariat of Divine Worship at the USCCB,” Bishop Woost explained. Director of the secretariat is Father Dustin Dought.
“I will also act as the USCCB’s liaison with the Vatican’s Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments,” he added.
All the information about the job in the article is simply boiler plate, nothing about what might be going on in the next four years:
https://www.dioceseofcleveland.org/news/2024/11/13/bishop-woost-elected-to-chair-usccb-committee-on-divine-worship
However, one long awaited event that will likely occur is the roll out of the new Breviary. Last year in 2023 they completed the New Hymnal for the Breviary.
https://giamusic.com/resource/hymnal-for-the-hours-hymnal-g3366
A new hymnal for communities that celebrate the daily office.
The hymnal, containing 316 hymns, has been prepared by a committee of poets, liturgists, and musicians under the chairmanship of Andrew D. Ciferni, O. Praem.
Begun in 1983, the project has collected, commissioned, and carefully edited hymns for morning, evening, and general use throughout the entire church year. One hardcover edition includes all harmony and accompaniments.
I would like to get a copy of the Hymnal for the Breviary. Our prayerbooks only have the lyrics, not the musical notes.
DeleteI hope they haven't changed the Grail Psalms. We are so used to those that I doubt if we will get the newer prayer books. I hate it when they mess with words that are already in my head.
Unfortunately, they did mess with the Grail Psalms. All that concern about "correct" translation but little concern about the rhythm of the words which was the great advantage of the Grail Psalms. The did two revisions of the Grail Psalms both of which ignored the rhythm problems.
DeleteOf course, priests and deacons don't sing the office daily. And most parishes don't sing the office except rarely. Our only hope is that they will grandfather in the present Grail Psalms as an option.
I don't think most deacons and priests are going to go to the trouble and expense of buying a new breviary.
DeleteA lot of people have memorized the prayers such as the Benedictus and Nunc Dimitus. I am still working on the Magnificat. I can still memorize things but I do it differently than I did when I was younger.
I went to buy the Breviary hymnal. But the cheapest shipping option GIA offered is USPS express delivery, with a shipping price of $12.25, which practically doubles the cost of the hymnal. What a rip-off. No thanks.
DeleteAren’t there Catholic bookstores at whatever churches and cathedrals are near you? Or colleges?
DeleteI looked on Amazon. It isn't there yet. Just tell one of your kids you want it for Christmas. Always hard to come up with Dad gift ideas, they'll be glad to have a suggestion.
DeleteJim,
DeleteWhy buy the breviary hymnal, when SingtheHours is singing them. They have the text but not the music.
Simply go to my website https://saintgabrielhours.blogspot.com/2024/11/ordo-week-32-thursday-morning-prayer.html
scroll down to the Sing the Hours option where underneath the link I have pasted
Hymn: "Iam lucis orto sidere."
English Translation ICEL ©2023,
Which means Paul is singing the text which is at the bottom of the page.
You don't need a Hymnal, or even a Breviary.
Now I am beginning to encounter problems on my iphone which sometimes wants me to go the youtube site (and their adds). However, on my desktop computer I usually still have no trouble. It plays the youtube site without adds.
Tomorrow's morning prayer has another ICEL 2023 translation. For each of the hymns they have both a chant and SATB version. Paul, of course, sings the chant version.
Delete