[Opinion] What happened to our Catholic Hymns?

Beloved in Christ, to those of us who were privileged to attend Catholic Secondary or Senior High Schools, one of the fond memories is the beauty, spiritual richness, and transformative power of our Catholic Hymns, especially those sung in Latin. It was like being in the seventh heaven, as the spiritual giant, St. Teresa of Avila describes it.

Catholic Hymns contain, in profundity, the spirit of the Church, bringing to bear the true and sound beliefs and unadulterated doctrines of the Church. They are theologically woven into music to strengthen the weakened faith of believers, restore hope to the hopeless and helpless, console the downtrodden, and stir the flame of God in the believer.

Interestingly, each hymn has a history, for which it was composed, and for what Christian ritual it is sung. Hymns accompanied each unit of the liturgical celebration. For example, one could not sing the Entrance Hymn for Benediction or Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, nor could one sing an Offertory Hymn during a recession!

The Church, in Her wisdom, has specific hymns for specific times and rites. For this reason, it is well categorized in hymnbooks, with Latin hymns for Benediction and Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament maintained and categorized in one part.

Although the preservation of (Latin) Gregorian chants appear to be only a recommendation by the Church (cf. Sacrosanctum Concilium, Part VI), efforts must be put to realise the true preservation of such treasures in the Church’s liturgy through continuous patronage.

It is very sad that our Catholic hymns are not adequately promoted and utilized in most of our parishes. They are sung only in the Seminaries, in our Catholic Senior High Schools, and in the few parishes that have English Masses.

Even though great Catholic musicians like the late Bro. Pius Agyemang, SVD, J.P. Johnson, Yaw Brefo, and many more have done their part in selecting, categorizing, and compiling the Catholic hymns for us, with some hymns appearing in the hymns of other denominations, what stops us from translating our rich, old Catholic hymns into Asante to have an Asante Catholic Hymn, Ga to get a Ga Catholic Hymn, Frafra to get the same, and so forth, if pastorally possible and feasible?

Even if that is difficult, what stops us from promoting the Catholic Fante Hymn and that of the English? In as much as we encourage choral music, I think, as a church, we need to blend it with the Catholic hymns during Mass. At least two hymns at every Mass, if not three, for the hymns alone, is enough of a homily.

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It is amazing how eloquent and excellent hymns, which align with the theme of the homily, communicate the message so well. These hymns sink deeply into the hearts of the faithful and remain on their lips even after Mass. That is the power of music.

Beloved in Christ, it is high time the Liturgy Office of the National Catholic Secretariat (if there is one) initiates the Hymn at Mass Project. This project should bring music experts, liturgists, pastoral theologians, linguists, publishers, and others together to help us with a refined translation of the Catholic hymns into the major dialects for liturgical use.

Church authorities, pastors, hospital and school chaplains should be advised to encourage the singing of our hymns at Mass in the language the lay faithful can sing with ease.

As Christmas is upon us, let us make good use of our beautiful, rich Catholic Christmas hymns in the Catholic hymn book: both the Big Version (BV) and the Celebration Hymn (CH)!

Which Catholic hymn is your favourite?

St. Augustine says, “He who sings, prays twice” because, as believers, when one sings, he or she does not sing with the lips alone but with and from the heart. This means that singing is not just a physical activity but also a spiritual exercise.

It is an unpardonable oversight to note that the great traditional hymn of Thanksgiving, “Te Deum,” written by St. Ambrose of Milan has been overlooked and not translated and sung in our major local dialects on Christmas, 31st December, and other great occasions of Thanksgiving as a Church. The Methodists and the Anglicans sing it both in English and Twi.

Let us not even talk about the “Pange Lingua”, another great hymn sung on the eve of Easter when the Blessed Sacrament/Holy Communion is transferred from the Tabernacle to the Adoration Chapel or a garden to give a picture of Jesus who spent the night in prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane before His arrest: a night of watch and prayer by the faithful, as I call it.

We ought to take up these devout practices and make the most of our Catholic Hymns as we continue to celebrate and honour the rich musical heritage of our church.

God bless you all.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.