I had a real lightbulb moment about music last month, which seems pretty silly in hindsight. On the Solemnity of the Assumption, we had some of the strongest and most energetic singing since COVID. At first, I thought this was because, when one offers a 5:30 p.m. Mass on a Monday in a year when the Assumption is not an obligation, one tends to get the most ardent and energetic parishioners at Mass; and that was definitely part of the equation. But later, someone mentioned that the hymns we used (two of which were Immaculate Mary and Hail, Holy Queen) were hymns he had been singing since he was a kid. Okay, I filed that away… Then the next weekend at the Sunday Masses, I did not recognize any of the hymns or tunes, and I (who consider myself a competent musician) really struggled to sing along. It was not an enjoyable set of Masses for me. Put the two together and *Lightbulb*
As silly as it sounds in hindsight, whenever parishioners had lamented the loss of the Breaking Bread hymnal to me, I had almost universally interpreted their statements as an overarching commitment to a specific liturgical style, i.e. a statement that folk or contemporary music was inherently better for Sunday Mass, a commitment I continue to disagree with (as articulated in my hymnal letter from last year). For some parishioners that may still be their primary contention, but the lightbulb moment was that most people are just asking for comfort, for something familiar, regardless of style. Those two Marian hymns, after all, are in the traditional hymn style that our new hymnal uses. (Again, I feel very silly in hindsight.)
After the lightbulb, I immediately had a conversation with Dr. Mabalot, and we decided to change our approach to song selection,[1] with the new approach being to only have one new hymn at a time that we are learning, and have the rest be familiar in some way, either a direct carry-over from Breaking Bread or at least using a tune that was used often in Breaking Bread. When people have a tune memorized, putting new words to it is not very hard. But learning an unfamiliar tune takes a lot of work and having an entire Mass of new tunes makes that Mass more work than prayer. In order to facilitate this, I have been putting together a list of all the overlap between Breaking Bread and Brebeuf, and I thought I would share it here. The guide is not completed, otherwise I would link to the larger comprehensive document.
[1] Why our previous approach? A review of the timeline might help. (1) We introduced the Brebeuf Hymnal when congregational singing was restored in July 2021, but singing was shut down again in September 2021 with the Delta wave. (2) When singing is shut down, the strategy is to use songs that no one knows, so that they are not tempted to sing along. We made the deliberate decision to use the Delta shutdown to get people familiar with some of the new songs in the new hymnal, which we did by introducing a selection of new hymns, using them for a few months, and then moving on to another set of new hymns. (3) Congregational singing resumed in March, so our “new hymns” approach was interrupted by 3 months of very familiar Lent and Easter hymns that everyone is familiar with. (4) When we hit Ordinary Time again in June 2022, Dr. Mabalot returned to the “new hymn” philosophy we had been using because I never asked him to stop.
Common Hymns between Breaking Bread and Brebeuf
| Advent | ||
| Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus | O Come, Divine Messiah | On Jordan’s Bank |
| Creator of the Stars of Night / Creator of the Stary Height | O Come, O Come Emmanuel | The Advent of Our King / The Coming of Our God[1] |
| Christmas | ||
| Angels We have Heard on High | Hark! The Herald Angels Sing | Of the Father’s Love Begotten |
| God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen | Joy to the World | Once in Royal David’s City |
| Good Christian Friends, Rejoice/ Good Christian Men, Rejoice | O Come, All Ye Faithful | |
| Christmas and Epiphany | ||
| Silent Night | The First Noel | What Child is This? |
| Epiphany and Baptism of the Lord | ||
| As with Gladness Men of Old | Songs of Thankfulness and Praise | |
| Lent and Passiontide | ||
| Again We Keep This Solemn Fast / By Holy Custom Taught, We Raise[2] | Lord, Who Throughout These Forty Days | Stabat Mater |
| All Glory, Laud, and Honor | O Sacred Head, Surrounded | The Glory of These Forty Days |
| Forty Days and Forty Nights | Sing, My Tongue, the Savior’s Glory | When I Survey the Wonderous Cross[3] |
| Lift High the Cross | ||
| Easter | ||
| At the Lamb’s High Feast[4] | Come, Ye Faithful, Raise the Strain | Ye Sons and Daughters |
| Christ, the Lord, is Risen Today | Jesus Christ is Risen Today | |
| Ascension | ||
| Hail the Day that Sees Him Rise | ||
| Holy Spirit | ||
| Come, Holy Ghost[5] | Veni, Creator Spiritus | |
| Holy Eucharist | ||
| Adoro Te Devote | O Lord, I am not Worthy | O Saving Victim / O Salutaris Hostia |
| Humbly Lord, We Worship You | O Sacrament Most Holy / O Jesus, We Adore Thee | Panis Angelicus |
| Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence | ||
| Christ the King | ||
| Crown Him with Many Crowns | Hail, Redeemer, King Divine | To Jesus Christ, Our Sovereign King |
| Blessed Virgin Mary | ||
| Be Joyful, Mary[6] | Immaculate Mary | O Sanctissima |
| Hail, Holy Queen | ||
| Faithful Departed | ||
| The King of Love My Shepherd Is | ||
| General Use | ||
| All Creatures of Our God and King | I Sing the Mighty Power of God | On This Day, the First of Days |
| All People That on Earth do Dwell | Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Might Gates[7] | Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven |
| Alleluia! Sing to Jesus[8] | Love Divine, All Loves Excelling | Praise the Lord, Ye Heavens |
| Faith of our Fathers | Now Thank We All Our God | Praise to the Lord, the Almighty |
| Holy God, We Praise Thy Name | O God, Our Help in Ages Past | Soul of My Savior / Sanctify Me Wholly[9],[10] |
| Holy, Holy, Holy | ||
[1] Presented with different tunes: St. Thomas (Williams) in BB vs. Sean 8M in Brebeuf
[2] Different translations of the same Latin text
[3] Presented with different tunes: Hamburg in BB vs. Rockingham in Brebeuf
[4] Also recommended for Holy Communion by Brebeuf
[5] Different translations of the same Latin text, no matching tune (because the BB tune repeats the last line)
[6] Also recommended for Easter by Breaking Bread
[7] Suggested for Advent by Breaking Bread
[8] Also recommended for Christ the King by Breaking Bread
[9] The BB translation matches the text at the bottom of Brebeuf #838; note the slight metrical differences
[10] The Anima Christi is traditionally associated with the Holy Eucharist
Fr. Moore 