Top Catholic Songs

OCP Flagship Hymnals

With the recent publication of Glory & Praise, Fourth Edition, we should take a look at the four major hymnals published by Oregon Catholic Press (OCP) to see how they stack up against each other.

Glory & Praise serves as a contemporary-leaning, cross-generational collection. In contrast, other flagship OCP hymnals favor heavy traditional repertoires or exclusively modern styles.

Core Structural Differences
The table below details how Glory & Praise, Fourth Edition matches up against Journeysongs, Third Edition and other core OCP options:

Additional Hymnals from OCP

These specialty hymnals are available from OCP.

Rise Up & Sing, Third Edition: Scripture-based, liturgically appropriate children's songs that parishioners love to sing. Great for Sunday school.

Never Too Young: Contemporary children's songs for middle schoolers to use in prayer, liturgy and the classroom.

Thánh Ca Dân Chúa: Music to support the rich culture and spiritual heritage of your Vietnamese community.

OCP Missals

OCP's extensive selection of missals gives you a variety of options, so you can provide your Roman Catholic community with the ideal resource to support the needs of their spiritual life.

Missals include official Mass propers, readings (Lectionary citations or texts), prayers, and a changing selection of music that aligns with the specific liturgical year.

Breaking Bread: Our most popular Catholic missal, which combines the best elements of a hymnal and a missal, updated annually.

Today's Missal & Music Issue: Seasonal missals with optional daily readings and a comprehensive, annual music resource.

Heritage Missal: A trusted, annual missal program with sacred music and Scripture readings for a more traditional Catholic repertoire.

Misal del Día: An annual Spanish-language Sunday missal with devotions, prayers and more.

Unidos en Cristo | United in Christ: A seasonal missal designed specifically for bilingual parishes, with English and Spanish presented side-by-side.

Choose a Hymnal or a Missal?

OCP missals are softcover, annually replaced books containing seasonal readings and shifting music selections, while hymnals are permanent, hardbound books with a fixed collection of songs. 

See testimonials for hymnals and missals: https://www.ocp.org/en-us/missal-hymnal-journey

With so many resources available, it can be difficult to know what makes one missal or hymnal different than all the others. The missal-hymnal comparison chart below aims to highlight the main differences between OCP’s missals and hymnals so that you can be sure to have the right Catholic resource for your parish’s liturgy and worship. Find out how many Mass settings are included, if a resource contains readings and more to ensure you select the right resource for your community.

https://www.ocp.org/en-us/product-comparison-table

How to Submit Your Songs to OCP

There are two ways to submit compositions for publishing review – online or via postal mail. Detailed instructions for submitting your music are here: https://www.ocp.org/en-us/submit-music

Please read OCP's list of frequently asked questions to help you prepare your submission for review. Should you have further questions regarding submissions and the review process, please email them to [email protected].

For more helpful tips, read "Getting Your Music Published." Featured in an issue of Today's Liturgy, this article offers expert insight from Rick Modlin, Music Development Manager at OCP.