1. Has your hymnal been approved by the Church ?
All of the Mass Settings included in the Vatican II Hymnal have been approved for Liturgical Use in the United States by the USCCB Secretariat of Divine Worship. The entire Vatican II Hymnal has also been approved by the Diocese of Corpus Christi.
2. Your book has the readings for all SUNDAYS and MAJOR FEASTS . . . what about daily Masses ?
Our book is designed for Sundays and Feast days, not daily Masses.
No Catholic pew book contains daily readings.
The “Lumen Christi Missal” does not contain daily readings. No pew book by GIA, OCP, or WLP prints the daily readings. Not a single one of the disposable missalettes used in today’s Catholic parishes includes Lectionary readings for daily Mass. Furthermore, disposable missalettes lack the Mass propers, which the Vatican II Hymnal includes in their entirety.
Daily Mass readings are never included in Catholic pew books for the following reasons: (A) Such a book would be thousands of pages long; (B) There are numerous readings that can be chosen by the priest for each daily Mass.
3. How long will the Vatican II Hymnal last ?
The Vatican II Hymnal is printed with the highest quality paper and binding. Because of this, we see no reason it could not easily last for twenty (20) or even thirty (30) years.
The USCCB Secretariat has said there will not be a new Lectionary for 10-20 years:
Source 1 — Source 2 — Source 3
The words of Cardinal Donald Wuerl USCCB (Spring General Meeting, June 14, 2012) seem to agree with the USCCB Secretariat: “The process . . . is going to take a long time. That’s just the nature, and you’re going to hear in a moment why . . .” “Now, as I began, obviously this isn’t going to be done overnight. But we’re asking simply to begin this process so that we will have all of this eventually to bring back. This isn’t being said facetiously, I don’t expect that I will … be presenting this. [laughter] But it’s the time to start . . . The sooner we get started, the sooner some of you will live to see it.”
4. Where can I find accompaniments to the music contained in the Vatican II Hymnal ?
Organ accompaniments for all the hymns, Mass Settings, Psalms, Alleluias, and more are available for free and instant download at ccwatershed.org/vatican. These are also available in bound books, for those who do not like to download hundreds of pages from the internet. The same holds true for SATB versions of the hymns in the Vatican II Hymnal.
5. How many pages is the Vatican II Hymnal ? How large is the print ? There is so much in your book: will it fit in the pews ?
The book is 750 pages long. The size of the texts (for the Readings) is slightly larger than that of GIA’s RitualSong. Our book uses super high quality, opaque, thin pages, which allow it to fit beautifully in the pews. See these comparisons between the Vatican II Hymnal and GIA’s Worship IV: Photo 1 • Photo 2
6. Does your book have songs like “On Eagle’s Wings” and “Be Not Afraid” ?
The hymns in the Vatican II Hymnal can be viewed here (PDF). Many beautiful hymns were included, including more than 100 Communion Hymns.
Songs like “Eagle’s Wings” were not included, but congregations who use such songs can certainly keep their old hymnals, to be used in tandem with the Vatican II Hymnal. In Catholic churches, it is very common to have more than one hymnal in the pews.
7. You kept the traditional language in hymns, including the “Thee’s and Thou’s“—why ?
In the 1960’s, the idea was put forward that congregations could not understand words such as “Thy,” “Thee,” and “Thou.” In a recent poll, Catholics were asked if they understood the word “Thy” (which occurs thrice in the “Our Father” at Mass). 100% of the people polled said they did understand the word “Thy,” and so we have retained the traditional language, since the Church desires the liturgy to be as reverent and elevated as possible.
8. Why doesn’t your hymnal include 800-900 hymns ?
There are only fifty-two (52) Sundays per year. We have about 200 beautiful, carefully-selected, solid, wonderful hymns. We do not see a need for 800-900 hymns.
9. What sets your hymnal apart ?
Probably the best way to find out is to order a review copy, but here are a few reasons why we believe you will love this Hymnal:
a. The Vatican II Hymnal is the first hymnal since the Second Vatican Council to include the texts of the Sung Propers, with Latin Incipit, for every Sunday and major feast.
(Click here to learn about Sung Propers.)
b. The hymns have been carefully and painstakingly chosen. The hymns included are solid, beautiful and beloved. No secular style music was included in this hymnal.
c. The Hymnal has been painstakingly typeset, with lovely fonts and beautiful engravings.
d. 100% of the Mass readings at Mass (First Reading, Responsorial Psalm, Second Reading, Gospel Acclamation, Gospel, etc.) for all Sundays and major feasts have been included.
e. Numerous Mass settings using the New Translation of the Roman Missal have been included.
f. The entire Mass Ordinary for both Ordinary & Extraordinary Forms have been included (Latin & English), as well as all four Eucharistic Prayers.
g. Numerous other wonderful items have been included (Antiphons, Motet Translations, Sprinkling Rite, etc.).
10. Why do you include so many hymns ? Shouldn’t we be singing the Gregorian Propers and Mass chants ?
It is true that Gregorian chant should be given “first place” in the liturgy, according the Second Vatican Council, and our book is the only pew book to contain the texts of all the Propers, to allow participation by the faithful as these chants are sung. However, we included so many beautiful hymns since it is not always possible to have a Gregorian schola sing all the Propers at every Mass. Indeed, many parishes have more than nine (9) Masses each weekend, and some of these Masses do not have choirs.
