It can't be any worse than Gather Reprehensive, which we used at school. I just retired from teaching, but I had this diabolical plot I always wanted to carry out. I theorized that if I threw one hymnal a day in the dumpster, they would eventually all be gone. Then I could look innocent and shrug when asked where they were. Needless to say, I didn't do it.

heres another idea

tear out all the songs by mh... i think thats about 100 pages and mail them back to the publisher

A famous quote has been attributed to several writers, artists, and politicians:
"I am sitting in the smallest room of my house. Your critique [latest publication; recent communication] is in front of me. Shortly it will be behind me." I suggest that this is the appropriate treatment for such 'hymnals' designed to subvert the Church's liturgy.

CharlesW - as an alternative, you could glue them together in groups of six or ten, or 12 or 15, and sell them to decorators who use books as never-read-or-looked-at-too-closely room decor - what more fitting fate: glued shut, they would never be opened, yea, never would an eye be cast upon their what-would-be-church music; no, nor would the holy beams of sun's radiant lumescence cast their halo of revealing warmth upon those pages upon pages of....... ...... .... ... .. drivel.

We have Gather at St Basil's Chapel at Houston's UST. It's despicable! There are fewer than 100 out of nearly 800 hymns and 'hymns' and other songs that one would ever, ever consider using at liturgy. It is my fervent hope that they are soon replaced by (at least) Worship IV, but preferrably by the Catholic Hymnbook from England, known to some as the Brompton Oratory Book. One could dream (and this would be quite a dream) of having The Hymnal 1940... though it's not near likely that it would be chosen, even though there ARE increasing numbers of Catholic churches which use it. Being the official hymnal of the Anglican Ordinariate now, no one can say now that it isn't Catholic. (We know well the few, very few, unfortunate items in it and have always known to avoid them.) Yet, even with it's few warts, it is far and away a more Catholic hymnal than nearly all 'Catholic' hymnals of which I have knowledge.

I rather sympathize with "From Geenland's Icy Mountains." In our over-ecumenized, politically correct culture, missionary activity seems frowned on. It is still needed, and could start in a pagan area we know well - the United States. You don't have to go to Africa to find pagans anymore. Many of the Africans are more Catholic than Americans and Canadians.

We could sing about how they are just as savage and ignorant as many of our people. ;-)

I haven't seen any skin flicks on the phones yet, but from the choir loft where I sit 20-feet above the congregation, I can definitely see them texting during sermons.

Hehehe :-)

(Ahem!... Cough... Adam:
You do mean 'strewn', don't you?

MJO-
"strown" was in the original (at least, the source I found).
I thought it was weird, but I try not to inflict my own grammar preferences on past generations.

CDub,
Don't discount the wisdom that JMO and AB have "realized" in the preparation of your own parish hymnal via LuLu. Consider bringing that up among your colleagues.

I just went through the Advent songs; quite a few legitimate ones, although too many altered texts. But where is "Wake, Awake" or anything using that fantastic chorale tune? And, of course, lots of drivel.