Hymns that Teach the Faith

These Catholic hymns which teach the faith are derived from various sources, such as the “Catholic” list at hymnary.org (before 1956), at Google Books or at archive.org.

According to John Senior, 250 years ago all education revolved around active memorization—deprecated as “rote” in the deliberate-dumbing-down movement of the late 19^th and the 20^th centuries. We can bypass those stumbling blocks by resuming the Church’s age-old, wise application of sound educational principles.

Good, everyday religious song in the vernacular–as distinct from its closely related superior, music for High Mass–may be more formally titled, “Catechetical Hymnody”. These are selections of hymns—some “hymns” are only poems without music—from old hymnals which are likely to be of use in catechesis—before the Council such hymns all actively taught the Faith, to one extent or another.

Our website presents online recordings to transform such printed hymns from silent “dots on a page” into active music to which you can sing along, with music that comes out of your phone. (This isn’t an academic exercise, it is an invitation for you to sing your faith–loving the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength–this is the first commandment.)

What does this mean? Learn to sing the following hymn:
(Bite the bullet, God is pleased with the voice He gave you.)

Click the ▶ Button to sing the prayer (key for Women), or play the song in a New Window ⧉

Click the ▶ Button to sing the prayer (key for Men), or play the song in a New Window ⧉

Our Father, which in Heaven art,
We sanctify Thy name;
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done,
In heaven and earth the same

Give us this day our daily bread,
And us forgive Thou so;
As we on them that us offend,
Forgiveness do bestow

Into temptation lead us not,
But us from evil free;
In past and present, and to come,
Safe shall forever be.

A more mature example of catechesis your family can absorb through singing it, is strong, true catechesis about The Sacred Heart of Jesus, in agreement with a common sentiment conveyed in many of The 21 Holy Hours by Fr. Mateo Crawley-Boevey–that our Blessed Lord is largely abandoned, even by consecrated souls who should be the most devoted to Him–most easily understandable in the hymn Upon the Altar, Day and Night. (This shortcoming is most easily remedied by consistent practice of the devotion of the “Golden Pennies” from the school-age League of the Tarcisians of the Sacred Heart.)

Before the Second Vatican Council, the purpose of music found in Catholic hymnals was to put prayers to God into song, to orient us to God through the Sacraments, with emphasis on traditional pious practices such as devotion for the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Stations of the Cross, the Holy Rosary, the commemorations of the Communion of the Saints, praying for the Holy Souls in Purgatory, and various intense, active personal prayer programs.

Using the full mnemonic potential of music for fully internalizing and ruminating upon the articles of the catechism, is an eminent principle of Christendom’s ancient cultural legacy, from before the time such educational commonplaces were dismissed as mere “cant“. Hymns in Church and at home that help us discover our Faith, to personalize them by repetition, and to remember and continue to correspond with what we have learned can be called Catechetical Hymnody.

“Oh, but isn’t music about the Faith the concern of choir masters and music educators, and formal catechists who already handle all that?” Not precisely; choir masters treat with exact expertise, the most solemn ritual music, with its proper orientation to God and with the laity’s full attention; yet the laity are so focused on the awesome proceedings of the Holy Mass when the choirmasters’ music is adorning the ceremonies, that the laity aren’t specifically taking in through the choir texts, the catechetical content that was approximately 50% of pre-Conciliar hymnals. The laity have a significant stake in their own active correspondence, in relation to, but also a suitable, slight distance apart from the actual Mass, closely considering the meaning of the Holy Mass and with properly directed personal piety. And our Priestly catechists have a vast scope of responsibilities. Such distinctions suggest that it is parents who individually help the catechumens in practices of memorization and comprehension. Not the least of the resources available for this, is catechetical hymnody, which isn’t restricted to direct involvement of often overtaxed choir-masters or Catechists, but is the legitimate practical concern of the parents.

For instance, it is explicitly stated in the 1918 edition of the venerable St. Basil’s Hymnal from Toronto, that it is also for use in the home. This was at a time when all music enthusiasm, serious and for appropriate recreation, was personally sung by people—when the U.S. entered World War One, there were 300 piano brands, ten 1-million sheet music editions per year, the average person knew the lyrics to 200 songs, and inexpensive, softcover music books called “parlor music” for use at home all prominently featured Church Hymns among their tables-of-contents, categories of song music.

Electronic media—radio and talkies—pushed out a once vigorous, active personal musical life on the part of the common people, by the mid-1960s rendering us culturally defenseless, preparing us for the cultural invasion of The Hootenanny “Mass”.

Because our ancestors passed through a cultural eclipse, becoming mere consumers of music around 1925, we’re not used to the idea, that home vocal music will be a discipline, which requires actual work to properly learn to perform lyrics.

Our pre-conciliar Catechetical music is the regular, even daily concern of Mothers at home, of Parents who are on the front line of the restoration of Christian culture, of families who have the responsibility and the privilege of propagating their Catholic viewpoint across generations. This issue dovetails with the concern to replace invasive, corrosive, commercially-marketed popular music with active, self-determined home music, social fun and hobby-practice controlled by the family.