A Catholic Book of Hymns: Simple Organ Edition

Sacred Music Library's A Catholic Book of Hymns goes beyond merely being notes and words on a page for a congregation to sing. It has other books to assist organists in mastering the art of playing hymns by writing out the hymns as organ music.

There are techniques that are required to play hymns. As organ teachers are even harder to find than organists today, we have created this book which simplifies the hymns while still supporting the singing of the hymns. Our regular ORGAN EDITION has the organist playing the same notes the people are singing, but adapted to the organ to make the organ sound at its best and fully support singing as a trained organist with years of experience would do.

But in this book we have preserved the Soprano Melody and the Bass Line exactly as they are in the hymn and composed a middle part to carry the harmony, derived from the Alto & Tenor parts. This makes playing the hymn much easier for the new organist or organists who are short on time to practice and prepare the hymns each week. And it also gives confidence to the new organist.

To fulfill the needs of organists to accompany hymns, we offer two books with the hymns scored for organ - meaning that when an organist plays.We also provide suggested stop registration for all 295 hymns, once again, to give new organists suggestions that assist them in playing.For those who also play piano and keyboards for rehearsals and Mass, this book and the standard ORGAN EDITION can be very helpful as well. Hymnals are written for singers, not for organists pianists or keyboard players!

"Music and silence-how I detest them both!" --Screwtape, under-secretary to the devil, The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis

It's easy to see why the enemies of mankind would hate and fear both sacred silence and sacred music. Both bring joy, spur contemplation, and draw the soul nearer to the Lord. Both have been part of our private prayer as well as our communal liturgy for thousands of years.

The Psalms--biblical songs of praise, supplication, and wonder--have been sung for three thousand years. Naturally, Jesus, His disciples, and later the early Christian community also sang hymns (from the Greek word meaning "songs of praise"), as The New Testament makes clear.

We sing because we love, and sung praise elevates our words, takes them out of the realm of the commonplace, and increases our joy. The holy pleasure of singing to God involves the entire person--spirit, heart, mind, and body--and unites us not only with the Divine but also with one another as a worshiping community.

This collection of hymns for the singing Catholic congregation exemplifies the best of the genre. These songs are religiously orthodox, beautiful, sacred, and--for the most part--familiar. But here you will also find worthy hymn tunes and texts that are new to you.

This is a Supplemental Hymnal. It does not replace your current Hymnal/Missal but is instead a permanent hymnal, putting 295 hymns back in the pews, hymns that have over the last half-century, been replaced by modern songs in missal/hymnals. And they are in full harmony, which is rare in all but a few Catholic hymnals today.

Using a Printed Weekly Music Sheet? This hymnal has the potential to save you the expense of printing up to four pages a week in the bulletin, which can add up to a tidy sum annually and the savings will, in not too many years, pay them off. Instead, just print the number and name of the hymn in your bulletin.