EN YEARS AGO, when the first edition of the Saint Edmund Campion Pew Missal was released, I received a telephone call from a priest in Canada who was absolutely livid. At that time, the books were being sold for something like $15.00 apiece. The priest screamed into the phone: “A pew book like that, with 150 full-color pages, shouldn’t be sold for anything less than $60.00 apiece. You are cheapening your work, and I won’t stand for it.” In vain did I attempt to explain to him our mission was to help parishes celebrating the TLM. I believe the Extraordinary Form is very important for the CONTINUITY of the Catholic Church. As Cardinal Ratzinger said during a filmed interview: “We are today not another Church as 500 years ago. It is always the same the Church.” We wanted to offer “EF Catholics” rock-bottom prices because they already had so many obstacles.1 But he just kept screaming: “No, you are cheapening your work.”
Monsignor Martin B. Hellriegel • I have argued that Monsignor Hellriegel would have been enamored by the Brébeuf Catholic Hymnal, had he not died 38 years before its publication. I believe he would have loved its melodies, loved its harmonizations, loved the Choral Supplement, loved the color pages (which trace the history of Catholic hymnody, going back 1,000 years), and loved the various translation into English for the ancient Latin hymns.
Cheapening? • And yet … there’s something special the little book Monsignor Hellriegel produced all those decades ago, which was clearly a labor of love. I refer to his tome as “MMHH.” That is to say: Monsignor Martin Hellriegel’s Hymnal. I believe Monsignor Hellriegel would be sensitive to any effort to “cheapen” the liturgy. What I’m trying to say is, were Monsignor Hellriegel alive today, he might give us the following warning:
“The Brébeuf Hymnal is a beautiful production, of a much higher quality than was possible during the 1960s. But never forget that all the translations in the world (and all the beautiful melodies in the world) mean absolutely nothing unless they are used!”
Organ Accompaniment (102 pages) • About a month ago, we released Monsignor Martin B. Hellriegel’s hand-written organ accompaniment (102 pages) to the MMHH. I’ve since been informed that the person mainly responsible for the MMHH harmonies was a woman named Marie Kremer, who used its creation as part of her doctoral dissertation. The plainsong accompaniments were written by Sister M. Theodo, SSND. If you failed to download it, here it is:
* PDF Download • MMHH Organ Accompaniment (102 pages)
—Msgr. Hellriegel’s “Hand-Written” Hymnal (Organ Accompaniment).
Today’s Release • Mr. Jim Randazzo, of the Carmel of Saint Joseph (Saint Louis, Missouri), having noticed our article, kindly sent us the pew edition for the MMHH:
* PDF Download • HOLY CROSS HYMNAL (149 Pages)
—Collection of Hymns compiled and edited for use at Holy Cross Parish • 1963.
—Saint Louis, Missouri • Miss Marie Kremer, Organist • Martin B. Hellriegel, Pastor.
This book is being released for the first time in history. If you appreciate our efforts, please consider donating $3.00 per month. We need you!
Timothy Holden • Mr. Timothy Holden has provided some never-before-released photographs of Monsignor Martin B. Hellriegel, as well as a remarkable 1955 pamphlet called: “The Story of a Parish and Its Pastor in Words and Pictures.”
1 Think about something for a minute: all the church buildings, all the schools, all the colleges, all the seminaries, all the monasteries, and all properties are owned by the “Ordinary Form people” (I hate such terminology, but you know what I mean). In light of that reality, it’s something of a miracle the Extraordinary Form even exists. On the other hand, in many places, the TLM parishes are where all the growth (a.k.a. “springtime”) is happening. I recently learned of a diocese in the United States where just 1,400 Catholics attend Mass each Sunday. Of those Catholics, 600 attend the TLM parish. The rest of the Catholics—that is, the other 800—attend sixty (60) different churches! In other words, 600 people in the diocese go to the TLM church, whereas 800 go to sixty (60) different Ordinary Form parishes. Such a situation is completely unsustainable, as far as I can tell. Maybe that’s why ROBERT CARDINAL SARAH—appointed by Pope Francis as the Vatican’s chief liturgist—said on 23 September 2019: “Prohibiting or suspecting the extraordinary form can only be inspired by the demon who desires our suffocation and spiritual death.”
