Entry Songs and Introits: a fresh approach during Lent
We have been singing hymns at the start of Mass since Vatican 2 – and sometimes earlier -though the Missal suggests that the way to begin is with an Entry Song or Introit. We don’t seem to have many settings of the Introit texts in the Missal and most of them are perhaps better suited to choirs. Sometimes that is fine, but normally we want the whole congregation involved . I suggest that Lent is an ideal time to make a creative change.
Many of our parishes have been singing some of the Gospel Acclamations of Lent – such as ‘Not by bread alone’ or ‘The Father’s Voice was heard from the cloud’. Now if something is worth doing once, then it frequently is worth doing twice.
I suggest that it is very practical to sing the Gospel verse with a ‘Glory to the Father’ attached to it as an Entry song. There is a structure to our liturgy which is not unlike some structures used in classical music. Repetition and contrast are a dynamic force in both. So to use part of the text of the Gospel verse at the start of Mass with a Glory be to the Father attached should not inhibit our using the full Gospel verse later on. Of course, if the music fr the Glory to the Father can be used for several Introit texts the all the better.
So for the First Sunday in Lent we might sing:
Not by bread alone do we live, but by every word from the mouth of God;
not by bread alone, not by bread alone, not by bread alone.
Glory to the Father, glory to the Son,
glory to the Holy Spirit no and ever more.
Not by bread alone do we live, but by every word from the mouth of God;
not by bread alone, not by bread alone, not by bread alone.
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The ICEL Antiphonal suggested this text for the first Sunday of Lent
and we have sung it at the RCIA service in St Andrew’s Cathedral for many years::
He will call to me
and I shall answer with freedom and honour and length of days.
He will call to me. He will call to me.
All you sheltered by the Most High,
who live in Almighty God’s shadow,
say to the Lord ‘My refuge, my fortress,
my God in whom I trust.
He will call to me
and I shall answer with freedom and honour and length of days.
He will call to me. He will call to me.
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On the 2nd Sunday we could sing an introit re-using the words of the Gospel Verse:
The Father’s voice was heard from the cloud:
‘This is my Son, the Beloved. Listen to him. Listen to him’.
Glory to the Father, glory to the Son,
glory to the Holy Spirit no and ever more.
The Father’s voice was heard from the cloud:
‘This is my Son, the Beloved. Listen to him. Listen to him’.
The music for the Glory to the Father can be found at the Introit for the 1st Sunday of Lent
