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 music for High Mass) may be more formally titled, “Catechetical Hymnody”. These are selections of hymns 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.)

For example, a work recently rendered into music you can sing, is a hymn appropriate for the 5^th Glorious Mystery, the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth. The hymn, “Mary, Our Mother, Reigns on High/Regina Angelorum“, contains unambiguous Catholic catechesis in verse 5:  making explicit, for each Catholic singing the words to internalize and reflect upon deeply, that in His sacred Humanity, it was that Jesus bore the form of His Immaculate Mother, whom He envisioned for the purpose from beyond all time:

Her form He bears,
Her look He wears

This is not saying that she looked like Him, but that He looked like her. It seems permissible theological speculation, especially in view of the continuation of the record in Luke 2:51-52 that, after the Finding in the Temple, Jesus returning to Nazareth was subject to His parents. So His obedient submission to His mother is seen extending to the Wedding Feast of Cana, at which she had an invitation and Jesus was present along with her; and His submission to her, included not presuming on His own to initiate working the miracle of turning water into wine, but waiting for His mother to prompt Him.

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.

An important part of this orientation to God, is catechesis, our education in the faith, primary and continuing, to be able to love and serve God first by knowing Him. (After the Baltimore Catechism for First Holy Communion preparation, an excellent catechism for continuing adult education life-long, is The Catholic Catechism Explained by Spirago and Clarke.) 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, personalize them by repetition, and remember and continue to correspond with what we have learned can be called Catechetical Hymnody.

“Oh, but isn’t this 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 which 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.

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”.

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.