INTRO TO INTROITS – PART 3
By Alex Hill, Director of Music and Liturgy
As you get used to participating in the Introit at Sunday Mass, you’ll begin to notice a musical pattern which may seem unusual at first. Most of us are familiar with singing a strophic Entrance Hymn or Gathering Song, consisting of multiple verses using the same melody for each verse. But the pattern of a liturgical Introit is different, typically something like this:
1. The ANTIPHON is sung by the assembly (perhaps intoned first by the cantor or choir)
2. A psalm verse is sung by the choir or cantor. Additional psalm verses may be added for longer processions, incensing the altar, etc., or the antiphon may be repeated between the psalm verses.
3. A “doxology” is typically added at the conclusion – “Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit…”
4. The ANTIPHON is sung by all once more at the conclusion.
A summary of the Introit might be: ANTIPHON – Verse – Doxology – ANTIPHON
Singing a strophic hymn as a congregation is nice, and if the tune is easy and familiar enough, you can fully participate by singing all the verses with the whole assembly. However, it is highly unlikely that you have all the words to the hymn memorized, which means that you and all in the congregation will be looking down at a hymnal or printed sheet, not watching the entrance of the ministers.
Remember that the Introductory Rites start with a procession of the ministers, beginning with the Cross and concluding with the celebrating minister – a priest or bishop who celebrates in the person of Christ (Latin “in persona Christi”). The Procession is not merely functional – getting the ministers from point A to point B – nor is it decorative or strictly symbolic. In a theological sense, it is our first encounter with Jesus Christ in the liturgy.
We meet Christ in our assembled brothers and sisters; we meet Christ in his crucified image on the Processional Cross; we meet Christ in His Word as the Book of the Gospels passes by; and we meet Christ in the person of the priest or bishop who, later in the Mass, will make Jesus Christ fully present to us in the Eucharist.
By following a singing pattern which alternates with a cantor or choir, we can better participate visually in the solemn procession. “Full active participation” as emphasized by the Second Vatican Council need not mean that everyone sings everything all the time! As the psalmist says, “To you I have lifted up my eyes, you who dwell in the heavens. Like the eyes of a servant, so our eyes are on the Lord our God, till he show us his mercy.” (Ps. 123:1, 2)