About having a letter published in the Catholic Herald, concerning hymns at Mass

One of the proudest moments of my life occurred on Sunday, 20th December, 2015. As we came out of Mass, our priest made some comment about my having had a letter published in the above magazine!
I hadn't even looked so I rushed home to scour the pages and there it was. I read and re-read it in a state of disbelief, excitement and euphoria. I might just have been awarded the Nobel prize for Literature. There it was, "COMMENT OF THE WEEK" even!!
I had sent the email a few weeks before and had tentatively looked each week, never really expecting to see it on the letters page (but inwardly hoping/dreaming, of course, that I would) and had given up actually expecting it.
I had been raging about the topic to someone who said, "Well why don't you write." So I wrote, revised and sent and here it is. The by-line was, "I can't do without the four-hymn sandwich" which I didn't particularly like but refers to the cause of my rage, which I tried to tone down for the sake of showing myself in a reasonable light, I hoped.

SIR - As a life-long lover of my Catholic faith and practice, and of music and singing in general and hymns in particular, the letter headlined "Save us from the four-hymn sandwich" (November 13), which seeks to "do away with" the said item, upsets me greatly.
  In many places in the Scriptures we are exhorted to sing our praises to God. For nearly 18 years I have helped the children, aged from four to to eleven, at our local primary school to learn hymns for Mass, from "Love is something if you give it away" to "The Angel Gabriel from Heaven came" (One child came to tell me that her favourite line was "his wings as drifted snow, his eyes of flame"!)
  Many of the children leave the hall singing as they go. I hope and pray that most of them will, as I have, remember those words throughout their lives, even if, sadly, the majority of them stop going to church.
  There are beautiful hymns with beautiful words and melodies, both old and new. They allow us, the 'foot soldiers of the faith', to participate in the Mass in a way that nothing else does. Why would anyone wish to to take that away from us? If my family do not have Soul of my Saviour and Lord of all Hopefulness at my funeral, I'll be back to haunt them!

I only wish that I had added a postscript to the effect that I have left them a short-list for the other two hymns. Maybe, one day, I'll post that. Oh I do love a good hymn!