Guides & Resources

O Come, All Ye Faithful (Adeste Fideles) in English and Latin: its Catholic origins with John Francis Wade, its meaning, and when the hymn is sung.

Silent Night, the carol by Fr. Joseph Mohr and Franz Xaver Gruber (1818): English lyrics, the original German Stille Nacht, its story, meaning and a prayer.

Holy, Holy, Holy at Catholic Mass (the Sanctus) in Latin and English, its roots in Isaiah and the Gospels, and the lyrics of Heber’s hymn Holy, Holy, Holy.

Faith of Our Fathers, Frederick William Faber’s 1849 hymn honoring the Catholic martyrs of England: the lyrics, the story behind it, its meaning and use.

Hail, Holy Queen Enthroned Above, the joyful Marian hymn based on the Salve Regina: the full lyrics from an 1884 Catholic hymnal, its German origin, meaning and use.

Crown Him with Many Crowns, the hymn to Christ the King by Catholic convert Matthew Bridges: the lyrics, its roots in the Apocalypse, its history and meaning.

O Holy Night (Cantique de Noël), written for a French Midnight Mass in 1847: the English lyrics by John Sullivan Dwight, the carol’s story, meaning and a prayer.

Holy God, We Praise Thy Name, the Catholic hymn based on the Te Deum: Clarence Walworth’s lyrics, the German original Grosser Gott, its history and use.

The Adoro Te Devote, St. Thomas Aquinas’s hymn to Jesus hidden in the Eucharist, in Latin and in a classic English translation, with its meaning and use.

The Ave Verum Corpus, the short medieval Eucharistic hymn made famous by Mozart, in Latin with an English translation, its meaning line by line, and when it is sung.