Catholic Hymnal

Most of us know the moment. The cantor announces a hymn, the books are at the far end of the pew, and you end up humming along. Or a hymn from your childhood parish comes back to you and you want the words again, to pray at home or to teach your children. Singing is one of the oldest ways the Church prays, and it helps to have the words close.

What the app does

Catholic Hymnal is a hymn book for Catholic worshippers, built around simple tools. The hymns are numbered, and a search lets you filter the list, so you can find a hymn by its number or by a word you remember. You can save favourites for quick access, which is useful if you sing in a choir or lead music and keep coming back to the same pieces. Everything works completely offline, so it will still open in a church basement or a rural parish with no signal.

The honest picture

The app is free to download, and a $4.99 in-app purchase gives you a lifetime ad-free version, so expect ads until you pay. It hasn't been updated since January 2024, and it has only two ratings on the App Store, which leaves little to go on from other users. The listing also doesn't say which hymnal tradition the collection follows or how many hymns it holds, so check that the hymns your parish sings are included before you rely on it on a Sunday morning.

It also helps to keep expectations modest. This is a text hymnal with search and favourites, not a music app with recordings or sheet music. For many people that is all they want: the words, quickly, without fuss.

Catholic Hymnal suits choir members, music ministers and anyone who likes to pray with hymns at home and wants the words at hand. It is a sensible free download to try. If it carries the hymns you sing, the offline access and favourites make it a dependable little tool, and the one-time upgrade is a fair price to clear the ads for good.