Our new St. Anne’s Parish Hymnal – “REJOICE: Anne-gelic Voices”.

The Need for a New Hymnal: A Journey from Vision to Publication

About a year ago our Parish Priest Fr. John Lobo requested me to help compile a new revised hymnal for our parish, St. Anne’s, Mazagaon. Our existing parish hymnal was printed on the occasion of the feast of St. Anne’s on 26th July 2004 and has lasted us over 20 years.

The need for a new hymnal became evident as we observed the changing landscape of praise and worship and the changes brought about in the New Roman Missal. Parishioners often felt the need for contemporary and diverse hymns and a variety of musical styles. We realized that while classic hymns have timeless value, there was a growing hunger for new expressions of faith that could bridge the gap between tradition and modernity.

The composition for the new hymnal was clear: to create a resource that celebrates theological depth with musical diversity. More than just a collection of hymns, it had to be a tool that nurtured spiritual growth, fostered community, and inspired both the heart and the mind to bring us closer to God.

With the help of Fr. John Lobo, we took the permission of the Archdiocesan team represented by Fr. Lawrence to use the most recent official Archdiocese of Mumbai’s hymnal “Joyful Celebration”, which I understand was in-turn compiled by-and-large from “The Celebration Hymnal” brought to life by the music maestro and ace composer Fr. Aniceto Nazareth, my guru and inspiration. So the journey of constructing our new parish hymnal began ….. meticulously carved-out from many hymnals across India including “Joyful Melodies”- a Northeast Jesuit hymnal, and hymnals from other countries. We also embellished our hymnal with additions from several online resources.

The Journey to Publication

1. Gathering a Team: Learning from our previous experience of constructing our current Parish Hymnal, we recognized that this endeavor required more than just our own perspective and invited and assembled a diverse team of musicians, priests and theologians, worship leaders, and dedicated volunteers. Their insights ensured that the hymnal would be both theologically sound and musically rich.

2. Curating Content: The layout of the hymnal, the prayers and hymn selection process was meticulous. Selection of Prayers ensured we covered the Eucharistic Celebration, the Rosary and Novenas. We formed smaller teams and distributed sections amongst us based on each individual’s strengths and areas of expertise. The teams gathered together and reviewed libraries of hymns while curating the most appropriate hymns. We also sought hymns from popular and emerging composers the world over, thus ensuring a wide range of genres, voices and styles knowing fully well that we in our human imperfection sought to make our hymnal crisp yet as perfect and comprehensive as possible. Popular Psalms, Songs and important Scriptural Texts sung as hymns are also included throughout the hymnal across sections.

3. Theological Review: The prayers that would lead us in worship at the Holy Eucharistic celebration underwent a rigorous theological review to ensure alignment with sound doctrine and suitability for a variety of occasions.

4. Hymns Arrangement: We reviewed a plethora of hymns that could be easily adapted for both traditional choirs and contemporary groups. We paid special attention to including hymns and arrangements that were both beautiful and practical for various worship settings. The hymns were compartmentalized into separate sections, a General Section and differently coloured sections for the liturgical seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter. A separate section for sung parts of the Mass according to the New Roman Missal have also been included. A spiritual awakening to pray, learn and sing Latin Hymns motivated the inclusion of a separate section for it. A few important and popular Konkani Hymns and Hymns to Mother Mary and The Saints for important occasions that are celebrated with fervor in our Parish have also been included. An Alphabetical Index is featured at the start of the hymnal and a well-structured Thematic Index has been placed at the end of the Hymnal to enable quick and better selection of hymns.

5. Design and Production: The final step was designing a hymnal that was functional, visually appealing and user-friendly. The font had to be large enough to be legible to all parishioners and small enough to ensure the hymnal did not end up being heavy and bulky. Shalom used her expertise in photography to capture pictures of our church and its highlights. Yolande, used these pictures and created layouts for the front and back cover that enhanced its beauty. We chose hardcovers with best quality materials including durable 70 gsm maplitho paper, perfect binding, section stitching and double cloth binding to withstand the rigors of frequent daily use.

6. Printing and Publication: A number of printers were evaluated and invited to participate in the bidding and selection process to print our hymnal. We narrowed-down on Printania, as their quote was the most competitive, while promising to deliver a high quality hymnal with the materials and specifications we desired. Another reassuring fact was that the printer had worked with and was known to Fr. Lawrie. The job was handed over to the printer under strict timelines for typesetting, proofing, printing, section binding, cover binding, trimming and finishing with delivery scheduled on April 19, 2025 for launch at the Easter Vigil Eucharistic Celebration.

In Conclusion:

The project bears witness to the collaboration of several respected and key members of our Jesuit Community: our Parish Priest Fr. John Lobo, Fr. Lawrie Ferrao, several choir members and individuals who volunteered their services to help in scanning pages, typing and proof reading. Thanks to Sangeeta, Joselyn, Hugo, Rachael, Moreno, Ambrose, Nisha, Clinton, Suzie, Rita, Pio, Roopina, Alice, Dominic, Franz, Irene, Sandra, Benison, Alicia, Nelson, Clarissa, Joyce and Ivora. Special thanks to Mario Nazareth, Director and Conductor of The Holy Name Cathedral Choir for his guidance.

As worship continues to evolve, I am hopeful that this hymnal will remain a cherished resource - a testament to the enduring beauty of faith expressed through song. We pray that you will enjoy using the new Parish Hymnal as much as we’ve enjoyed giving it new life!

Alfred Allan Mendes