The U.S. bishops' doctrine committee in a forthcoming report suggests guidelines for bishops in evaluating hymn lyrics and for selecting hymnals being considered for use in churches.

Deep in the ‘Gather’ hymnal is a treasury of distinctly Catholic meaning set to music. We could use a lot of more that.

“It might be a good thing to discard this piece whose popularity is becoming unhealthy,” one early critic wrote.

Ray Repp was there during a great transition between the Latin Mass and the early post-Vatican II liturgy. Ray stepped in, not simply to fill a gap, but to call the church to wake up and sing.

We asked America readers for their 10 favorite hymns of all time, as well as their favorite St. Louis Jesuit hymns, to mark the farewell concert by the St. Louis Jesuits. There was some crossover on both lists.

“Someone once said to me that the St. Louis Jesuits wrote the spiritual soundtrack to our lives,” said John Limb, former publisher of Oregon Catholic Press, the publisher of the St. Louis Jesuits. “For those of us of a certain age, that was true.”