Donald A Howe

I have been singing as a tenor in the choir for over 40 years. I grew up in St. Mary’s Parish in Akron, Ohio and joined St. Mary’s Choir in my junior year of high school and continued to sing until St. Mary’s closed in 2010. After St. Mary’s closed, I became a parishioner at St. Paul’s Catholic Church and I joined their choir.

In March of 2018 as the Feast of St. Joseph approached, I looked through our parish hymnal and was disappointed by the lack of devotional hymns to St. Joseph. So, I set about to gather as many hymns as I could from my collection of Catholic hymnals and other sources.

Over the course of 3 years, I surveyed over 100 Catholic hymnals and found over 80 hymns to St. Joseph. The survey included both American and English public-domain hymnals like the SUNDAY SCHOOL HYMN BOOK, the ST. BASIL’S HYMNAL, ST. GREGORY’S HYMNAL and others of the late 19th and early 20th century period. From there, I set out to identify the melodies of these hymns and I have put together 14 of the most widely used Catholic hymns to St. Joseph. These hymns were sung by Catholic Choirs and in Catholic Schools for more than 120 years.

I prepared this collection of hymns to Saint Joseph for music directors, musicians, home educators, choir members, parishioners and those curious about Catholic hymnody. These hymns can be used to teach children, young adults, and men and women of all ages about Saint Joseph’s role in salvation’s history and in our own personal lives.

Each hymn has a melody and choir arrangement, a brief history of the hymn writers and composers. All the hymns are from public domain hymnals with text approved by the Catholic Church which make them perfectly suited for Mass and devotions.

It my hope that these hymns will become part of a parish repertoire and help to renew our understanding and devotion to St. Joseph.

www.motherofmercycatholichymns.com

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