Stated very simply, the function of the gathering rite is to prepare the assembly to hear the word of God and to faithfully share the meal of Jesus. To do this, it will be necessary for the assembly to begin to experience itself as a corporate entity, specifically, to become awakened to its true identity as the body of Christ. The gathering rite does this by a sequence of events which have function within the form. The gathering song gets us into the mode of communal action, of doing something ecstatic (or "outside of ourselves"), of establishing some of the ritual roles in the community (assembly, cantor, choir, instruments), and generally opening up the right brain of the gathering through metaphor and non-discursive interaction to a possible new way of being together: the reign of God. The sign of the cross names us as a baptismal people, the greeting announces the presence of God and the possibility of that presence in its fulness with its subjunctive verb: "The Lord be with you," "Grace and peace...be with you." The penitential rite names Christ as the power above all other powers in our world, as it asks the One who has conquered by surrender to lavish the spoils of victory on us who have our dying before us. The Glory to God explodes from the penitential rite, praising the triune God with unrestrained passion. All of this leads up to the opening prayer, which closes the gathering rites and in a proleptic way announces the need of the church and the world with imagery borrowed from the scripture of the day.
Of all of this, Music in Catholic Worship describes the gathering song and opening prayer as primary, and all else as secondary (#44) when it considers applying the liturgical judgment in choosing music for eucharistic celebrations. What is clear is that all of the above elements are difficult to do well every week, and in such a unified way that they really do look forward to the rest of the liturgy in a way appropriate to introductory rites. ICEL's proposals for the revised sacramentary give to presiders, musicians, and all preparers of worship new opportunities to shape the gathering in a way appropriate both to the assembly and to the season in which it is celebrating. This is a wonderful opportunity. We accommodate the environment of our buildings and the choice of music to the seasons. We gather differently at birthday parties and funerals. While there has been in the current sacramentary some flexibility to the rite (inclusion or omission of the "Glory," various forms of the penitential rite, the sprinkling rite option), the current proposal gives authority to what many have already discovered: even more flexibility is required.
What is essential is that we approach the planning of a season and the liturgies within a season with a vision of what will be required to gather appropriately with this community at this time, and what elements of the gathering rite will help us toward that goal.
What music can bring. If the function of the gathering rite is to arouse the community's identity as Christ, as a body one in its praise and service of Abba, then it should be apparent that one of the dynamics which music can bring to the rite is a unitive one. It is clear that singing together is unitive. When there is a diversity of roles in the music ministry, that is, when those who have special charisms of music are in positions of leadership and exercise that leadership in a way that enables the whole group, the kind of unity appropriate to Christianity becomes even more clear.
But even beyond this unitive dimension, music can bring a unity to the rite itself. The downfall of the gathering rites of the current sacramentary, when they are dutifully but uncritically applied, is that there can be at least three full-blown "songs" in the rite before the liturgy of the Word even begins. The ICEL proposal cuts that to two or even one, and these can further be unified by reprising songs and using thematic material of the gathering song to create litanies of praise, penitential litanies, and Kyries (see examples below.)
This allows for a much more flexible application of the principle of "progressive solemnity." In the current discipline, a certain amount of goodwill is necessary among the principals if the gathering rite of the feast of Epiphany is to be any different musically from that of the 13th Sunday of Ordinary Time. True, a community can sing or recite the "Glory to God," and may do a more or less ornate sung penitential rite, but if one were to follow the sacramentary to the letter, the three pieces (gathering song, penitential rite, and Glory to God) are required on both Sundays, and the only real options are the variations within those rites and the choice between singing and reciting. The proposed modification of the rite opens up the introductory rites to a virtually infinite number of variations, but all are clearly grounded in tradition: processional songs, litanies, psalmody, invitations, greetings, the Kyrie, the sign of the cross become instruments in a toolbox so that what is constructed for a gathering rite may be both representative of the community and sensitive to the solemnity of the day and/or the season.
Seasonal applications. Certain forms are immediately suggested merely by the nature of the liturgical seasons. The festive eight weeks of Easter might center their gathering rites around the mystagogical symbol of the font and baptismal water, so a connection between the gathering and sprinkling rites is an obvious start. In the current practice, this choice means at least two songs would be sung: one for the procession which might be extended and continued during the sprinkling of water ("Festival Canticle," by Hillert, for instance), and the Glory to God. More common practice would be three different songs. The new proposal would make possible a number of variations. Some other hymn of praise like "Song over the Waters" might form the music for the whole gathering rite. Singing the Glory to God at the conclusion of the Sprinkling Rite may still seem like an appropriate thing to do during this or other seasons. The point is that it becomes an option, so that we can shape an Easter Sunday differently from, for instance, one during the Christmas season.
What follows for the rest of this essay are some examples of possible ways of thinking about the gathering rites during others seasons and the season of the year (ordinary time). They are not exhaustive, but merely suggestions of the possibilities made available by the ICEL proposal. Some may also be useful in the current discipline, with or without slight adaptations based on liturgical and pastoral considerations. References are to the accompanying Resource Publications recording, "Promising Presence."
Example 1. Sprinkling Rite. The first event on the recording is a treatment of Marty Haugen's "Song over the Waters" (GIA), which fully demonstrates the composer's intentions that the piece be used as a gathering rite. After the verse-refrain style opening hymn is sung, the four-bar modal motif forms a subtext to the sign of the cross, greeting, and blessing of the baptismal water. Haugen has then provided a litany to be sung during the sprinkling itself. The litany leads to a reprise of the gathering song. When the sprinkling has been completed and the presider has returned to the chair, the singing concludes, and the opening prayer is spoken over the arpeggiated motif which fades at the prayer's conclusion.
A cry goes up: It's Hollywood! It's Broadway! It's not liturgy! I would respond that the human heart is drawn by simplicity. What it is drawn into here is not an overblown bravado of triumphalism nor the lie of style with its knee in the genitals of substance. It is drawn into the symbols of water and of people gathered singing, the wavelike mantra of the music's overarching motif, and allowing the whole time of the introductory rites to settle into a new frame of reference during which the mysteries of life and death and the call to conversion might be considered again. Liturgy is not just an art, but there is an art to its preparation, and doing its work well means paying attention to the psychology of those gathered to do it.
Example 2. Advent. Here is a possible form for the gathering rite (see GIA edition G-4639 "O Come, O Come Emmanuel&emdash;Gathering Rite") :
As is demonstrated in this piece on the recording, music might provide a subtext sometimes for the Presider's prayer. This technique when used with simplicity and reverence can help call attention to the importance of the prayer and draw the introductory rites to a close. Of course, it is still a welcome option in communities blessed with singing presiders that the opening prayer be sung.
Example 3. Christmas. Whereas one of the goals of the reform of the introductory rites clearly seems to be a making optional of a second hymn in the rite, namely, the Glory to God, a gathering rite during the Christmas season might actually center on it, or a Christmas hymn with a related text. The text refrain of the Glory to God is taken from the Lucan infancy narrative as read at the Mass at Midnight. The French carol "Angels We Have Heard on High" might be sung as an alternative "Hymn of Praise" in the proposed ICEL rite; another possibility is the Balhoff/Daigle hymn "Light in the Darkness." A different approach might be to begin the liturgy with "Angels" and, after the Presider's invitation, continue by singing Proulx's "Gloria for Christmastime," which has the congregation take up the refrain "Gloria in excelsis Deo" throughout the piece, using the carol melody. This is the form taken on the recording:
I have used this form during several Christmas seasons at St. Jerome's in Phoenix. I must confess that unless the opening hymn is limited (just one or two verses sung,) the experience of singing that refrain with its lengthy melismas eight or nine times can be trying. The Proulx Gloria is delightful, though, and the experience may be amplified by singing a different carol for the procession/gathering song.
Example 4. Lent. During Lent, the church's great penitential retreat, the option of a penitential litany or a sung "Kyrie Eleison" suggests itself as an option for the gathering rite. Sometimes we might opt for a form similar to the Advent form, with a gathering hymn like "Remember Your Love" or "Hold Us In Your Mercy" and then, following the presider's parts, a Kyrie or a penitential litany similar to the current form C.
This model is demonstrated on "Promising Presence."Penitential Litany" (Daigle/Cooney, GIA, edition G-4760) is sung as the processional or gathering hymn. After the sign of the cross and an invitation appropriate to the season, the cantors invite the assembly into a penitential litany, the response to which is "Kyrie eleison." In outline form, the rite looks like this:
Some communities might opt for no sung music during the processional, or just some austere instrumental music calling everyone to prayer. In this case, the litany, whose musical ideas come from "Hold Us in Your Mercy," could serve as a proleptic beginning to using that hymn later in the season or later in the same liturgy , perhaps even after communion or after the dismissal. The litany is strong enough musically to stand on its own, however, and invokes as does its parent hymn the memory of "Parce, Domine," which might be introduced by way of a flute or oboe solo, or an organ meditation before or during the liturgy.
Example 5. Passion Sunday. Some Sundays and other gatherings call for introductory rites suited to their nature. Preeminent among those would be celebrations of the RCIA and Passion Sunday.
This latter Sunday (in its solemn version) presents a number of challenges to our normally sedentary gathering. Gathering outside, we need to sing an antiphonal song, and for most of us, gathering outside means having no accompaniment and no worship aid. My solution in 1990 was the litany presented here ("Palm Sunday Processional, GIA, G-5012, recorded on This Very Morning, 1998) After a short rehearsal outside, we sing the first three or four verses accompanied by percussion only or with a flute. Following the greeting and the proclamation of the gospel, we process singing into the church, where the organ and brass join the litany, heightening the solemnity. At the litany's conclusion, when all have gathered, the collect is prayed by the presider.
Again, note the way in which the flute and drum recall the litany during the proclamation of the gospel. I find this very stirring, and the technique may in fact help to underscore the connection of past and present in the word proclaimed. The use of instrumental music with proclaimed text throughout this recording has been well done, and can help demonstrate to liturgy committees and presiders the power that creative use of music can lend to the spoken word.
Example 6. Ordinary time. The flexibility of the proposed gathering rites for the new sacramentary would be most useful during the season of the year, when the motifs of the lectionary are so varied in their mood and timbre. To be able, for instance, in the early Sundays of Ordinary Time to gather around the font again to celebrate our baptismal vocation as each of the gospels recounts the call of the first disciples, and to do so without imagining that we have to do so with the multiplication of hymns required by a legalist's reading of the sacramentary, would be a joy. A Sunday with a sprinkling rite, in other words, would not necessarily have to have the "high" festive quality of an Easter Sunday.
Similarly, the Sundays at the end of the liturgical year, with their strong motifs of judgment (that is, of divine justice, the light of radical equality, shone with revealing brilliance on the world) will benefit from penitential rites adapted to their atmosphere, not so personally focused as Lent, yet perhaps undiluted by the singing (or worse, reciting) of the "Glory to God." Adaptation of the introductory rites might allow us to wait until after the homily to sing a hymn in praise of that radiant justice, or to use more of our liturgical time for music and silence to "chew on" the liturgy of the word.
Ordinary time and ordinary music will be a good way to break into the proposed gathering rites. We all remember with wincing embarrassment the often heavy-handed way the first rounds of liturgical reform were introduced. A rerun of this pastoral nightmare can be avoided if we gently introduce the new forms of the gathering rites using familiar hymns and self-rehearsing litanies and other responses. A good example can be found in the treatment composer Michael Ross has given a gathering rite based on "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty" (Lobe den Herrn) on the recording "Promising Presence." This rite takes the familiar form of the current rite, minus the "Glory to God," and incorporating a self-rehearsing litany of praise based on musical motifs known by heart or ear from the preceding hymn. This litany of praise is identical to "form C" in current use, stripped of the confusing absolution prayer which follows it. Here is an outline of the rite:
Here the introductory rites can be very community-centered and community building, beginning with a gathering song which, the diatribes of Thomas Day notwithstanding, is familiar and singable and an invitation to the ecstasis of praise. The litany of praise, while offering some variations in the hymn motif in the cantor's part, uses a direct quote of the last four measures of the hymn melody for the assembly's response. Note that the role of the cantor here, in announcing the invocations of the rite, is not an innovation of the proposed ritual. In the current sacramentary, the invocations can be given by the priest, deacon, or another minister. Why shouldn't it be the cantor, or, when the rite is spoken or mixed (with the invocations spoken and the response sung) be done by another minister entirely?
In the current discipline, the Penitential litany and the Litany of Praise characteristic of Form C are confused by our aberrant understanding of penance. The use of the phrase "Kyrie eleison/Lord have mercy" in the rite has come to mean, in the popular imagination, "Lord, forgive me," a meaning which has acquired some validity by repetition. But it is a meaning which is clearly secondary in the hierarchy of meanings of that venerable acclamation, and not one familiar to those ancients who borrowed it from the cult of the pagan emperors and appropriated it into Christian worship. The proposed version of the introductory rite helps to clarify the distinct meanings by not attaching the words of absolution to the Litany of Praise, but it will be up to usage and liturgical catechesis to change the common perception of its meaning.
Caveat. Gathering is not easy. We should not imagine that the goal of this current reform is to minimize the rite, to impoverish it or desiccate it. The reason that there are so many elements in the current rite, I am sure, has much to do with liturgists' sensitivity to the multi-facetedness of the challenge of gathering. It is very important to understand that the introductory rite has a function in itself (to awaken the Christ-identity of the community), a function which serves the major rites to which it is a prelude (i.e., preparing us to hear and respond to God's word and to participate in the Eucharistic meal). We ordinary folks have an extraordinary calling, one which connects us intimately in ways we don't often consider, and one which connects us to the beyond One who lives in unapproachable light. The move from the parking lot into the reign of God is not far (the reign is, after all, "at hand") but it is nevertheless a plunge for us into the icy waters of faith and ecstasy.
Those of us charged with the responsibility of liturgy preparation must not imagine that the introductory rites are of little importance, any more than we should exaggerate them into a panoply of false triumphalism and pseudo-military pomposity. To graciously welcome, to acknowledge in one another the presence of Christ, to assent to a common awareness of our assembly as a sphere of divine rule, to begin to see our congregation as a whole greater than the sum of its parts, these are the tasks of the rite. If this is well done, we shall be ready for the word of God to be proclaimed among us, that we might both celebrate the work it has done in us and be called to deeper conversion. And we shall be ready for the meal of God's justice, in which the presence we promised one another in song and prayer earlier on is made visible in the sharing of the bread and cup. Here we will submit again to initiation into the mystery of Christ, into being God's word of healing and justice from Trump Tower to Disneyland, in classroom, bedroom, and city street, into being-for-others like a loaf divided and eaten, a cup passed around. "I shall be with you" is the name of God, evidenced in scripture from the Exodus through the exile to the ascension. In Christ, "I shall be with you" has become our name as well. To gather well is to promise presence, to move a body of people from just "being there" to being here, together.