Catholic Hymn Number 93

[Gwenda Arguin]

Adelightful, but now how-very-long-defunct (that top post is from December 30, 2011) blog, The Shrine of the Holy Whapping (most of the sites linked on the page's sidebar aren't even active anymore), once described Protestant hymnody as the "spoils of Egypt," fit to be carried off by the Church. This strikes me as a similar point regarding boating tunes.

A great mystery is the identity of the author of many of the choicest gems in the ECHB (e.g. In splendour arrayed...). No authors are given, and they are not in Julian. I have always assumed the ubiquitous Fr Twisaday.

As to ISAHTM and Eton, Fr Melrose got that from Brian Brindley, who (as I recall him telling me) learned it at Bourne Street. That takes the history back to the '50s. As also "THBTDS" and Linconshire.

Yes, Lincolnshire Poacher's the one, sung with gusto in the Shrine Church at Walsingham. But if one's going to sing "The happy birds" to Forest Green, why not ring the changes a little and have "O little town" to Lincolnshire Poacher next Midnight Mass?

I still possess a pristine copy of "The English Catholic Hymnal", bought after it was reprinted in 1973,though the cover of this one is blue, not green.

I seem to remember it being used at S Stephen's, Grove Street in Liverpool in the 1970s when Rev. Will Pugh was in charge. S Stephen's had been left isolated in a then fairly desolate landscape, not far from the University, after the slum clearances. Rev. Pugh kept the church going for a number of years with no stipend, providing an Anglo-Catholic witness in the centre of the city

Another tune for The Happy Birds was Holy Well, found in Ancient and Modern R., 277, dignified and yet folky-tuney. I am told that's what they used at St Paul's,Brighton. Wasn't the origin of Lincolnshire Poacher, St Paul's, Walton Street, Oxford ? But who wrote all those hymns ? The E.C.H.B. was often used at St Michael's Prep School, Otford Court.

Father, I would love to read sometime, your meditations or thoughts on that new devotion....the Divine Mercy....now inserted into the octave of Easter, (so we cannot call it some inconsequential simple devotion or memorial)....pretty lofty status. Seems a bit strange to me.

My Jesus as my saviour is above all other things and the song more than any other reminds me of the unquantifiable like ve Jesus Christ has for me, and my obligations of gratitude I owe to praise Him and submit total to him as minimal condition for His blessed assurance . Thank you God!

For some reason tonight I just feel like praising my Lord and this is definitely my song for. May the Lord Jesus Christ bless every single one stopping by and may he strengthen his body for this evil age ? Receive his Shalom

Jevon, Jesus Christ is the song. He died for your sins to save you from them ... so you don't have to pay for them yourself for an eternity in hell. By His wounds you are healed of sins and have eternal life with Him. It's so much more than not having sore fingers.

Since I was 6 this song has been a hymn I run to, I still love it and hope to keep singing it for as long as I live, Jesus is mine perfect submission brings perfect delight, perfect submission gives perfect all at rest

The well-known chorus of a gospel song says, "This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long." If we speak the fact that we are in the spirit, our story and song will be that we are in spirit. All day long we may praise the Savior that, because the Spirit of God dwells in us, we are now in the spirit. This will be a very effective inoculation against all the "bugs" sent by the enemy to trouble us in the Christian life.

Formerly we were busy planning. Now we are serenely trusting. Formerly there were constant sorrow and frustration. Now we are like a weaned child, who rests in his mother's bosom. Formerly we were filled with our own thoughts and had many cravings and ambitions. Now we consider God's will as the best and rest in Him. Indeed, "Perfect submission, perfect delight," and "Perfect submission, all is at rest" [Hymns, #308]. Ephesians 6:6 says more or less the same thing: "As slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the soul." No longer do we do God's will by the soul, which is self-assurance. Now we are doing God's will from the soul, which means carrying out His will practically and wholeheartedly. The soul-life which once rebelled against God's will is now brought into full submission to His will through the work of the cross and is willing to do His will wholeheartedly. Formerly everything was outward; we either walked according to our self-will, or we tried to do God's will according to our self-will. But now, in everything, we have become one mind with God.

We also need to live a rejoicing life, a happy life. We all have to be "hallelujah people," who rejoice in the Lord always (Phil. 4:4). Sometimes the most restful thing is to sing a hymn. Singing a hymn fills us with joy and helps us to enjoy Christ as our rest. The chorus of Hymns, #308 says: "This is my story, this is my song,/Praising my Savior all the day long." A rejoicing life is a life of enjoying God in Christ as everything; this enjoyment makes us happy and causes us to exult all the day. The Christian life should be a rejoicing life.

Now we need to consider the way to have a group meeting. Ephesians 5:18 tells us to be filled in spirit. We believers who love the Lord Jesus, who are seeking His purpose, and who are burdened for His recovery should be persons filled in our spirit all day long. We should be filled with the Triune God, who is today the all-inclusive Spirit to us. When we are filled within, surely we will utter something out from our spirit. Ephesians 5 tells us to be filled, speaking and singing. Our speaking and singing are not in common language. We may speak or sing a psalm, which is a long piece of poetry. It may be like Psalm 119, which has one hundred seventy-six verses. There are twenty-two sections with eight verses in each section. Twenty-two is the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet. Each section of Psalm 119 is according to a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. We may speak or sing a hymn, which is somewhat shorter than a psalm, or we may speak or sing a spiritual song, which is shorter still.We need to speak and sing these psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs long before coming to the meeting. Even in our home, it is very good to be speaking and singing. The husband may say, "This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior...." Then the wife may respond with, "All the day long" (see Hymns, #308). Or she may say, "I have passed the riven veil. Here the glories never fail." Then the husband responds with, "Hallelujah! Hallelujah! I am living in the presence of the King" (see Hymns, #551). If we are filled in spirit, we will have something to utter. The small group meeting may begin at 7:30 p.m., but if a couple begins to sing at dinnertime, around 6:00 p.m., the small group meeting will have already begun. Such a meeting can continue as they drive together to the meeting with the other saints.

As we read the Word of God, we should not only pray, but also sing to the Lord. This is to read the Word by psalming. (In ancient times the Psalms were sung and not merely read or spoken.) Praying requires more exercise of the spirit than speaking, and singing requires even more exercise than praying. By singing we can truly get into our spirit. We need more singing both in the meetings and in our daily life.The chorus of the well-known hymn 'Blessed Assurance' says:This is my story, this is my song,Praising my Savior all the day long.This is my story, this is my song,Praising my Savior all the day long.Many Christians have sung this hymn, but not many praise their Savior all the day long. What do you think would happen if we praised the Lord all day long? No doubt, we would be utterly immersed in the Lord.

The standard hymn-text edition of Seasonal Missalette maintained the original lyrics of a small number of songs in each seasonal issue. Due to significant declines in circulation, we have had to make the difficult decision to replace standard hymn text subscriptions with the revised text edition subscriptions, beginning with the Advent 2021 issue.

For customers who would like to continue using the standard hymn texts, we have created a free supplemental pew book called 55 Catholic Hymns & Songs. This book contains the original hymn texts of the fifty-five hymns and songs as found in the standard hymn-text version of Seasonal Missalette.

The doctrine committee of the US bishops' conference (USCCB) earlier this year produced a guide to evaluating the lyrics of hymns on the basis of their doctrinal content, noting that Vatican II declared sacred music's purpose to be "the glory of God and the sanctification of the faithful."

"It is all the more important, then, that hymnody selected for the liturgical life of the Church successfully draw out the beauty of the Christian mysteries themselves. This cannot be done if language is used that is out of keeping with the sensibility created by scriptural texts and universal liturgical usage."

The U.S. bishops' doctrine committee provided two general guidelines for determining whether a hymn is doctrinally suitable for liturgical use: whether it conforms to Catholic doctrine, and whether its images and vocabulary appropriately reflect the usage of Scripture and the liturgical prayer of the Church.

It adds that since beauty and truth are convertible, "there can be no competition, much less contradiction, between the two. The truth of the faith need not be -- and indeed must not be-- compromised or subordinated to the canons of compositional style or the needs of musical or poetic form. At the same time, the beauty of the faith cannot be neglected -- indeed it must be reverenced and highlighted -- in the desire to communicate effectively the truth of what has been revealed."

Hymn-writers are bound to honor and communicate "the mystery of faith in word and music, and this requires genuine artistry, industry, and fidelity," the bishops wrote. They added that "while there are a number of factors that affect the suitability of hymns for use in Catholic liturgy, such as singability, beauty of language, poetry, etc., in this resource we are concerned with their doctrinal content."

3a8082e126