Bishop Pat O’Regan, Chair of the Bishops Commission for Liturgy. Photo credit: Casamento Photography.

The Bishops of Australia launched a new liturgical worship book at the Catholic Leadership Centre in Melbourne on Friday 8 April 2016, thirty years since the last one was published.

The new Catholic Worship Book II will be the official liturgical music resource for the Catholic Church in Australia, Archbishop Denis Hart, President, Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, said during the official launch.

The Catholic Worship Book II hits all the right notes with a broad range of liturgical music, including the chants for the revised Order of Mass (2010), new and revised Mass settings and service music, plus music for the Sunday Eucharist, the various rites of the Church and Morning and Evening Prayer.

Prepared by the National Liturgical Music Board, an advisory board of the Bishops Commission for Liturgy, the worship book reflects the Catholic Church’s rich heritage of chant – in Latin and English – and traditional hymns and contemporary liturgical songs from local and international sources.

Fr Peter Williams, Archbishop Denis Hart, Bishop Pat O’Regan and Bishop Peter Elliott

Music featured includes old favourites like Praise to the holiest (by Cardinal Newman) and Christ be our light (by Bernadette Farrell) but also contemporary Australian music like Chris Willcock’s, If I could tell the love of God and Michael Herry’s, Lord, to whom shall we go?

Chair of the Bishops Commission for Liturgy, Bishop Patrick O’Regan, sang the praises of the new publication as ‘an essential resource for every parish, school, choir and chaplain in celebrating the liturgy’.

The book is available in two versions, a full music edition with two volumes, hard case, in a slip case and the peoples edition, also known as the pew edition, available in hardback for long life and durability in parishes.

Official launch with the choir from St Patrick’s Parish, Mentone.

Morning Star Publishing representative Hugh McGinlay said, ‘the original Catholic Worship Book was published in 1985 and since that time, there have been dramatic changes in available liturgical resources both at a local and international level’.

‘The new edition has been in the planning phase for almost ten years. From the beginning, the National Liturgical Music Board wanted to provide resources for Australian Catholics from the richness of the Catholic tradition as well as a range of sound, contemporary compositions.’

‘A special feature of the planning has been to promote the work of Australian writers and composers and they are well represented among the texts and music,’ McGinlay added.

For more information about the new worship book, including costs and availability, please contact Morning Star Publishing by email: cwb@morningstarpublishing.net.au