This Is Big

Kathy issued us our new St. Michael Hymnals last night. It is 11 inches high and 7 inches wide and has easily more than 900 pages, so it will be taking up a lot more room in our bags. It is a combination missal and hymnal which will replace the Cathedral's Vatican II Hymnals, which in turn supplanted Adoremus.

Here are some of Kathy's thoughts on the SMH:

It has been clear to me that we would at some point need to purchase new hymnals.  The "Adoremus" ones we are using are no longer available and the translation of the Mass in the front was changed several years ago, so it is badly out of date.  There is a revised edition that has more in it with the new translation but the issue there is that no parish in the area has it.  The "Adoremus" has served us well and it was helpful that many of the hymns in it were in Public Domain, so I could easily use them in worship aids, which are necessary when we sing st St. Peter Canisius [1] as well as a few other things (such as the Red Mass last year).  All of the choir editions we have are currently committed.  We have no more to issue to new choir members, if we get any. . . .

After an extended process, the cathedral made the decision to go with the  "St. Michael Hymnal."   This is a more balanced item, has the new translation, retained the original texts of the tradiitonal hymns and also has a lot of material which will be workable for the element  at the cathedral  that wants contemporary music.   There are quite a few Spanish hymns, also important for the cathedral.   I think it was the best possible compromise that could have been made.  A successful fundraising drive was done at the cathedral to raise the money so that no money had to come out of the cathedral budget for them.  The  St. Michael choir editions are expensive; about the same as the other hymnal under consideration,  but at least it is usable for us.  I am not opposed to spending the money. 

SMH graciously provided us with some discounted  "seconds" that may have had typos or misaligned pages. We will be using the Adoremus hymnals until the SMH gets fully distributed at the Cathedral, and then only occasionally after that.

[1] Get Kathy to tell you the story about how she singlehandedly transferred the Cathedral's supply of Adoremus hymnals to St. Peter Canisius. I cannot do it justice, and I wish I could have videotaped her while she told it to me.