Home | Join/Donate | Adoremus Bulletin | Archive | Index | Church Documents | Architecture | Posture | Music | Translation | What's NEW? | FAQ | Search Site

Introduction to
THE ADOREMUS HYMNAL

It has now been more than thirty years since the promulgation of the Second Vatican Council's Constitution on the Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium. The section on sacred music, De musica sacra, was the culmination of more than a century of theological reflection on liturgical music.1 But the important insights and principles these studies produced have never been fully realized in the Church's liturgical music.

What sort of music is appropriate for celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass? According to the Second Vatican Council, sacred music, as a combination of sacred melody and words, "forms a necessary or integral part (pars integrans) of the solemn liturgy" and "is to be considred the more holy in proportion as it is connected to the liturgical action" (SC §112). So the first principle of sacred music is that it needs a sacred text. The Council intended that certain liturgical texts of the Mass, for example, the Kyrie, the Gloria, the Sanctus, and the Agnus Dei , were to be sung by the congregation. The active participation of the people in singing this essentially liturgical music was to be the norm for Catholic worship.

To assure that authentic liturgical music would be an integral part of the Mass, Sacrosanctum concilium emphasized that Gregorian chant is "specifically suited to the Roman liturgy", and "should be given pride of place in liturgical services" (SC §116). Sadly, this counsel has been honored only in the breach. Recordings of this ancient Catholic music have become pheonmenally popular in the secular world; but few Catholics have heard Gregorian chant in a Catholic Church. The loss of this historic Catholic music is more than a cultural deprivation; it is a diminishment of a sublime form of prayer.

Another form of sacred music is hymnody. The texts of hymns are sacred, but are not, strictly speaking, liturgical. Although they are not a substitute for the sung parts integral to the Mass, the Second Vatican Council encouraged the singing of hymns -- the cantus popularis reigiosus ("religious singing of the people" [SC §118]). However, in an authentic "sung Mass" (Missa cantata), priority is given to the liturgical texts intended to be sung.

According to the 1967 Vatican Instruction Musicam sacram, congregational singing of the acclamations and responses of the Order of Mass is the ideal minimum for celebration of Mass. The Adoremus Hymnal's musical settings for these parts of the Mass use the official liturgical texts approved by the Church.

The Council fathers also envisioned that vernacular languages would be used in Catholic worship to increase people's understanding of the sacred action; but they did not intend that the ancient language of the Church should vanish utterly from ordinary celebrations of Mass.

The Adoremus Hymnal consists of three major sections:

It begins with the text of the Mass in both Latin and English, incorporating the liturgical music integral to the Mass, the acclamations and responses.

The second section contains the musical settings for the Ordinaries for Mass. In addition to a sacred text, the music itself must possess three qualities: holiness (not simply popular music with a sacred text) and artistry (Musicam sacram §4a), and universality (Tra le sollecitudini §8). Sacrosanctum concilium stated that Gregorian chant is "proper to the Roman Rite" and urged that "steps should be taken so that the faithful may also be able to say or sing together in Latin those parts of the Ordinary of the Mass which pertain to them" (SC §54). Thus The Adoremus Hymnal includes several Gregorian chant settings of the liturgical texts of the Mass in Latin, as well as musical settings for the Mass in English.

The hymn section consists of a carefully made selection of the best of English and Latin hymnody ever composed, appropriate for every liturgical season. The hymns were selected by the Editorial Committee in cooperation with the Adoremus Executive Committee and with the consultation of many parish priests, Church musicians, and religious and lay Catholics. The hymns were chosen on the basis of holiness, beauty, Catholic tradition, theological orthodoxy, and, insofar as possible, familiarity and simplicity.

Many traditional Latin hymns are given in both Latin and English versions -- chants such as the Ave Maria, and Veni, veni, Emmanuel (O come, O come, Emmanuel) set to ancient tunes, and others, such as Concordi Laetitia, in which the English translation, "Sounds of joy have put to flight", has been set to a recent metrical version of the melody. There are also classic non-chant Latin hymns, such as the O Sanctissima, and ancient Latin hymns, such as Salve festa dies (Hail Thee Festival Day), which were re-discovered, translated into English or set to music in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The English-language hymns in The Adoremus Hymnal come from a variety of traditional sources. They include translated German hymns, such as Now thank we all our God (Nun danket alle Gott), and beloved English Catholic hymns (Faith of our Fathers, Crown him with many crowns). Also included are some English Catholic hymns little known in America, such as Cardinal Newman's Help Lord the souls which thou has made, and other hymns more recently composed.

Adoremus has not tampered with the original English lyrics in this treasury of hymns. All the hymns appear exactly as in the traditional English texts. Standard English has been retained throughout. Words such as "thee", "thine", "hast", etc., are also unchanged, as are words like "righteousness", "beseech", and "blessed", which belong to the traditional Christian sacral vocabulary.

From its inception, Adoremus has been dedicated to authentic implementation of the liturgical reforms initiated by the Second Vatican Council. The Adoremus Hymnal is intended to contribute to this effort by providing an essential treasury of liturgical texts, chant and hymns drawn from the historic patrimony of the Church for ordinary parish celebrations of the Mass -- Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam.

Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat!

Adoremus -- Society for the Renewal of the Sacred Liturgy
Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
August 15, 1997

Adoremus Executive Committee
Father Joseph Fessio, SJ - Helen Hull Hitchcock - Father Jerry Pokorsky

Hymnal Editorial Committee
Kurt Poterack, Chairman - Calvert Shenk - Susan Treacy

Click to see sample TEXT page and HYMN page

The Adoremus Hymnal is published by Ignatius Press, San Francisco. Order by mail from

Ignatius Press, PO Box 3339, Ft. Collins, CO 80522

Credit card orders: 1 800 651 1531 - or order online: Ignatius Press - Adoremus Hymnal

**Adoremus operates solely on your generous donations. See the bottom of the Join Page for instructions to give by credit card using Network for Good.**

Site Copyright © 1999 - Present by Adoremus
All rights reserved.

PERMISSION GUIDELINES
All material on this web site is copyrighted and may not be copied or reproduced without prior written permission from Adoremus, except as specified below:

Personal use
Permission is granted to download and/or print out articles for personal use only.

Quotations
Brief quotations (ca 500 words) may be made from the material on this site, in accordance with the “fair use” provisions of copyright law without prior permission.  For these quotations proper attribution must be made of author and Adoremus + URL (i.e., Adoremus or Adoremus Bulletin – www.adoremus.org.)

Attribution
Generally, all signed articles or graphics must also have the permission of the author. If a text does not have an author byline, Adoremus should be listed as the author.  For example: Adoremus (St Louis: Adoremus, 2005 + URL)

Link to Adoremus web site.
Other web sites are welcome to establish links to www.adoremus.org or to individual pages within our site.

Home | Join/Donate | Adoremus Bulletin | Archive | Index | Church Documents | Architecture | Posture | Music | Translation | What's NEW? | FAQ | Search Site