What is a Catholic Hymn?
  • Don9of11Don9of11
    Posts: 810
    Over the past year I’ve been working on two small projects that grew out of my decades singing in the choir at St. Mary’s Parish in Akron, Ohio. The first is a brief pastoral outline called What Is a Catholic Hymn?, written to clarify the characteristics that traditionally shape Catholic hymnody. The second is a Parish Hymnody Study based on every hymn sung in my parish both past and present. Both documents are descriptive rather than prescriptive, and they’re offered simply as resources for anyone interested in how devotional and traditional hymnody functioned in an ordinary parish setting. I’m sharing them here in case they’re useful for discussion or comparison with your own parish experience.

    https://www.motherofmercycatholichymns.com/what-is-a-catholic-hymn/
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  • francis
    Posts: 11,298
    An interesting perspective.

    In our parish, we do not include vernacular hymns within the mass, only hymns in Latin, taking up your idea that it must be universal. We do include vernacular hymns before and after mass. Do you have any further thoughts on this approach? Does your article address the TLM, the Novus Ordo or both?
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  • Don9of11Don9of11
    Posts: 810
    Thank you for your thoughtful reflection. My work on defining and studying Catholic hymnody really grows out of the Ordinary Form, since that is the parish world that formed me—I began first grade in 1966, so my musical and liturgical life unfolded within the early years of the reformed Mass.

    At St. Mary’s, where I sang in the choir, we occasionally used Latin hymns at the Offertory and Communion, but only at one Mass and only once a month, simply as a way of keeping older traditions alive within the rhythm of parish life. Because of that background, my focus has been on how hymnody serves prayer in the Novus Ordo rather than on comparing different forms of the Mass.

    My hope is simply to clarify how hymns can be understood and used well in the Ordinary Form, where so many of us first learned to pray through music.

    edited

    In my own parish experience, Latin was already a living part of the Ordinary Form—woven into the monthly sung Mass and carried by a choir that tried to preserve the older traditions with care—so my reflections come from that kind of setting rather than from comparing different forms of the Mass.
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  • Chrism
    Posts: 888
    Where does Faith of our Fathers fall in your categorization scheme: Liturgical, Devotional, or Non-Catholic?
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  • Felicia
    Posts: 152
    "Faith of our Fathers" was written by Frederick Faber, who was a convert to Catholicism, so it was originally a Catholic hymn, though the verse about Mary's prayers has been omitted in most modern hymnals. I would not call it liturgical, since the text is not part of the liturgy itself. However, Don9of11 uses a broader definition of "hymn" than I would use. FWIW.
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  • Don9of11Don9of11
    Posts: 810
    “Faith of Our Fathers” is a hymn that many Catholics know well, and it has been sung across Christian traditions for more than a century. In the framework I’m using, it falls into Category C3, which includes hymns that come from the broader Christian repertoire rather than from distinctly Catholic liturgical or devotional sources.

    The original Catholic editions—such as Fr. Faber’s Oratory Hymns—did include explicitly Catholic stanzas, including the verse invoking Mary’s prayers. But in American parish life, the hymn was transmitted largely through ecumenical and Protestant hymnals, and the Catholic stanzas were often omitted.

    For that reason, it wasn’t part of the core repertoire at St. Mary’s, which drew more directly from the classic Catholic hymnals of the early twentieth century. Even so, it remains a sound and prayerful expression of Christian faith, suitable for certain devotional or patriotic settings, even if it does not occupy the same place as the distinctly Catholic hymns that shaped the parish’s identity.”

    It may also help to remember that a hymn’s author does not automatically determine its category. Some hymns written by Catholics—Faber included—were embraced across many Christian denominations and gradually took on a more general devotional character.

    When a hymn no longer carries the distinctly Catholic themes, imagery, or sacramental worldview that mark our liturgical and devotional tradition, it fits more naturally into Category C3, even if its origins were Catholic. This simply reflects how the hymn has lived in the Church over time, not a judgment on its beauty or spiritual value.


    On another note, I just update the Parish Hymnody Study to clarify where the hymns from St. Mary's originated from. In the section "Hymns We Lost" I added "The repertoire of hymns used at St. Mary’s was drawn largely from the popular Catholic hymnals that shaped parish life throughout the first three quarters of the twentieth century — especially the St. Basil’s Hymnal, the Sunday School Hymn Book, and the St. Gregory Hymnal.”"
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