Vatican Directive on the Name of God
In 2008, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments
issued a letter to all bishops’ conferences prohibiting the use of “Yahweh” in liturgical
celebrations. Across our hymnals there are three hymns and songs, whose texts are from
other publishers, that use “Yahweh.”
PDFs of the assembly parts with edited versions of the texts, which have been approved
by the publishers, are provided for each of the three titles in question. They may be
downloaded and reprinted free of charge by parishes who have purchased a GIA hymnal
containing any of the three titles. Any other use must be accompanied by a license to
reprint, either directly from the publisher of the text and/or music or through a licensing
entity.
“Kneeling in the Garden Grass” by Thomas Troeger (Oxford University Press)
GIA materials:
RitualSong #560
Apply these changes to choir and accompaniment parts.
Verse 3: Substitute “Yahweh’s” with “Heaven’s”
“Sing a New Song” by Dan Schutte (OCP)
GIA materials:
Catholic Community Hymnal #315
Gather #230
Gather Comprehensive #537
Gather Comprehensive—Second Edition #544
Gather II #384
RitualSong #686
Apply these changes to choir and accompaniment parts.
Verse 1: Substitute “Yahweh’s people” with “Shout with gladness!” in measures 1 & 2
Verse 1: Capitalize “dance” in measure 3
Verse 1: Change period to exclamation point in measure 4
Verse 1: Change “him” to “God” in measure 10
“You Are Near” by Dan Schutte (OCP)
GIA materials:
Catholic Community Hymnal #340
Gather Comprehensive #604
Gather Comprehensive—Second Edition #590
Gather II #428
Apply these changes to choir and accompaniment parts.
Text changes:
Refrain: text on pickup is “O”
Refrain: Measure 1 text is “Lord, I”
Music changes:
Refrain: Song now begins with a pickup quarter note D. Accompaniment should be only
a quarter note D above middle C.
Refrain: Measure 1 is a dotted half note D followed by a quarter note G
Verses: Measure 9 should be 3 beats to accommodate new pickup. Change whole notes
on beat 1 to dotted halves. Change half notes on beat 3 to quarter notes.
Links related to the Vatican directive:
Letter to the Bishops’ Conferences on “The Name of God” from the Congregation
for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments:
http://www.nccbuscc.org/liturgy/NameOfGod.pdf
September 2008 BCDW Newsletter:
http://www.usccb.org/liturgy/innews/September2008.pdf
Publisher links:
Oxford University Press: http://www.oup.co.uk/music/rights/
OCP: www.ocp.org