Hymnals to Return in Late Fall  Same Kind, Different Approach

As we shared in a bulletin article earlier this year, I wanted our parishes to be intentional about deciding what kind of worship aids we choose to help us sing and pray as we worship the Lord together. When we resumed public Masses early in the pandemic, we had to remove our hymnals for a time. We eventually replaced them with QR codes (square images in the pews) to read on mobile devices, supplemented by weekly song sheets at most Masses. Once we could return to sharing materials in the pews, we did not want to buy the annual hymnals in the middle of the year - they are not cheap! This gave us time to study other options (such as permanent, hardcover hymnals, or projecting the words on screens) to determine which will be best for our parishes.

After consulting our Directors of Music Ministries, the Sunday Experience Team, and others about the pros and cons of these options, I have decided to return to ordering the annual issues of our Breaking Bread hymnals. These allow us the broadest selection of liturgical music, both familiar classics and offerings from contemporary composers to expand our repertoire and keep our relationship with God ever new. While verbal proclamation of the Word of God is the primary way of sharing the Good News in liturgy, the current readings are included in print for the hard of hearing and those of us who are “visual learners.” To minimize impact on the environment, we always recycle these annual volumes when the new edition arrives.

While the books will be familiar, we will take a new approach to distributing them. Instead of ordering enough to fill every pew rack, we will keep them in book shelves by the entrances for you to take on your way in and return there after Mass. This savings allows us to buy those shelves and still save almost 25% of what it would cost to fill all the pews (even more in subsequent years)! Our volunteer greeters and ushers will help us get used to this new approach when the books arrive, hopefully by early November. Meanwhile, please continue to use the handouts and your electronic devices to assist your participation in the liturgy.

Thank you for your immense patience as we waited for the new editions to be released and studied other options. We are especially thankful to our music directors who have worked hard to provide the weekly worship aid handouts and update the links used with the QR codes. May this step forward further help us fulfill the Church’s call for our “full, conscious, and active participation” in the Catholic liturgy (a word which literally means “the work of the people”) and our experience of the Word and Sacraments, which are powerful acts of God’s loving guidance and grace in the lives of those who participate.