''Gotteslob'' ("Praise of God") is the title of the

hymnbook A hymnal or hymnary is a collection of hymns, usually in the form of a book, called a hymnbook (or hymn book). Hymnals are used in congregational singing. A hymnal may contain only hymn texts (normal for most hymnals for most centuries of Ch ...

authorized by the

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

dioceses in Germany, Austria,

South Tyrol it, Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano – Alto Adige lld, Provinzia Autonoma de Balsan/Bulsan – Südtirol , settlement_type = Autonomous province , image_skyline = , image_alt ...

, Luxembourg and Liège, Belgium. First published in

Advent Advent is a Christian season of preparation for the Nativity of Christ at Christmas. It is the beginning of the liturgical year in Western Christianity. The name was adopted from Latin "coming; arrival", translating Greek ''parousia''. In ...

2013, it is the current official hymnal for German-speaking Catholics, succeeding the first common German hymnal, the 1975 edition of the same name. Each diocese published a book containing a common section and a regional section. The first editions amounted to around 4 million copies.

History

''Gotteslob'' was developed as a sequel of the first common German hymnal, ''Gotteslob'' of 1975. It was developed over a period of 10 years by around 100 experts, who studied the use of hymns, conducting surveys and running tests in selected congregations. ''Gotteslob'' was published by

dioceses in Germany, Austria,

South Tyrol it, Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano – Alto Adige lld, Provinzia Autonoma de Balsan/Bulsan – Südtirol , settlement_type = Autonomous province , image_skyline = , image_alt ...

, and is also used by German-speaking parishes in Luxembourg and the Diocese of Liège, Belgium. It was introduced from

2013, beginning on 1 December. It is intended to serve as a hymnal for church services as well as for private use. The first editions were around 4 million copies. Each diocese published a book containing a common section called ''Stammteil'', and a regional section with hymns for the specific diocese. The common section includes a .

Changes in 2013

Some songs were composed for the 2013 edition, including the melody for " Heilig, heilig, heilig Gott" by Oliver Sperling. Some songs were moved from regional sections to the common section, including Christoph Bernhard Verspoell's Christmas carol "

Menschen, die ihr wart verloren "Menschen, die ihr wart verloren" (German, literally: Humans, you who were lost) is a German Christmas carol. It was originally written by the Catholic priest Christoph Bernhard Verspoell, both the text in ten stanzas and the . It became part of se ...

". Some songs were added, including Tersteegen's " Gott ist gegenwärtig", the penitential " Zeige uns, Herr, deine Allmacht und Güte", written in 1982 by to an older melody, the midsummer hymn " Das Jahr steht auf der Höhe", and " Herr, du bist mein Leben" (Lord, You are my life), a translation of a popular Italian 1977 " Symbolum" by

Pierangelo Sequeri Pierangelo Sequeri (born 26 December 1944) is an Italian theologian of the Catholic Church who has been dean of the John Paul II Pontifical Theological Institute for Marriage and Family Sciences since August 2016. He is also a writer, and a compo ...

Hymns

Hymns include " Den Herren will ich loben" and others by Maria Luise Thurmair. " Ein Haus voll Glorie schauet" is a popular hymn for consecration of a church and its anniversaries. Among the regional hymns are the Easter hymn " Das Grab ist leer, der Held erwacht", the Trinity hymn " Gott Vater, sei gepriesen" and the Marian hymn " Nun, Brüder, sind wir frohgemut".

Reception

''Gotteslob'' was critically received as a book by too few experts, with too little input from the practicing congregations.

List of hymns

This list is structured by the themes in the hymnal. The first column has the song's number in the hymnal, with an added letter ö for ökumenisch, meaning songs sung ecumenically, especially those also contained in the common Protestant hymnal '' Evangelisches Gesangbuch''. The second column has the title, the third the origin of the text, the fourth the origin of the melody, the fifth notes such as for which occasion a song is useful.

References

External links

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Das neue Gotteslob
(in German)

Diocese of Cologne The Archdiocese of Cologne ( la, Archidioecesis Coloniensis; german: Erzbistum Köln) is an archdiocese of the Catholic Church in western North Rhine-Westphalia and northern Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany. History The Electorate of Co ...

2013
Zur Einführung des neuen Gotteslob
(in German)

Diocese of Stuttgart The Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Germany. It is a suffragan in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Freiburg in Baden-Württemberg, '' Bun ...

December 2013
Videoclips zu fast allen Gesängen aus dem "Gotteslob"-Stammteil
(in German) kirchenmusikkommission.at March 2020
Abgleich Gotteslob 1975 – Gotteslob 2013

Diocese of Würzburg In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

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