Raise your hand if you know what the Introit is? The point of the question is not to encourage a self righteousness for those liturgically or musically aware folk, but instead to get us thinking about the people in the pews each Sunday. Does the average parishioner know (or care) about the Introit (or the rest of the Propers)? Should they?

I started thinking about this after I received a recent eBay purchase – “The Concordia Liturgical Series for Church Choirs: The Introits for the Church Year” from Concordia Publishing House (1942) – now long out of print. I ordered the book because of the introductory essay by Walter Buszin – one of the prominent leaders in the restoration and renewal of Lutheran church music in the mid 20th century. Here’s a link to a previous blog post on Buszin.

The introductory essay by Buszin is alone worth having this collection in my library. A side benefit is having the Introits for the one-year lectionary set to Gregorian chant tones. Here are several excerpts regarding liturgy in general and the Introit in particular

The revival of interest in matters liturgical which is found in many sections of the Christian Church today is largely responsible for the restoration of liturgical practices which had been abolished during eras in which, unfortunately, the Church was largely insensible to the beauty and import of her liturgical heritage.

. . .

The Introit was among the first elements of the liturgy dropped in the eras dominated by an antiliturgical spirit. In the era of Pietism it was regarded as superfluous and the Rationalists of the 18th and 19th centuries saw as little need for Introits as they did for other constituent parts of the Christian Liturgy.

. . .

The Introit marks the beginning of the church service proper. The word Introit means entrance, so called because it was chanted while the officiating clergyman entered the chancel and took his place before the altar.

. . .

The Introit consists of three parts: the Antiphon, a Psalm verse, and the Gloria Patri. From a liturgical point of view, the Antiphon is the most important part of the Introit, since from it sounds forth the keynote of the day. Friedrich Lochner, a trustworthy and well-informed authority said: “The Introit should be regarded as the herald of the day of divine worship, who announces to the assembled congregation from the very beginning of the service proper the import and significance of the Sunday, the festival, and the festival season. Its most important part is the Antiphon, which in a short passage from the scriptures proclaims not only the significance of the day, but also the cardinal truth concerning eternal salvation which is to be stressed on that particular day of worship.”

Now back to my initial set of questions. Does the Introit have a place in weekly worship? Yes — it heralds the significance of the day. In the case of today, the Introit’s Antiphon for the 4th Sunday of Easter was “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, and I lay down my life for the sheep.” That is quite the message to open a service with — succinct, yet so much to learn.

It is the responsibility of pastors and church musicians to introduce and reinforce why we do what we do as Lutherans. We are not being arbitrary or capricious, but walking in the footsteps of the past; not for the sake of history, but because it is beneficial, has worth, and assists in the proclamation of the Word (in the case of the Introit, it IS the Word).