The Introductory Rite is the first of the four parts of the Holy Mass.
Its purpose is to gather all the faithful together, to prepare us to listen to and learn from God, and to receive him in the Holy Eucharist.
The Introductory Rite has 5 main parts:
- The Entrance Procession
- The Greeting
- The Penitential Rite
- The Gloria, and
- The Collect
The Entrance Procession
During the entrance procession, the presider (and deacon, if there is one) approaches the altar, usually following servers carrying a cross and candles. This procession tells us that something special is beginning.
The altar represents Jesus Christ himself, and so this procession towards it symbolises our own life-long movement, our pilgrimage, towards the truth of Jesus Christ and towards heaven, which is our true home.
As the procession begins, we stand. Standing is the traditional posture for greetings and for prayer, and marks our respect for what is about to happen.
We usually also sing. Singing serves many purposes: it focuses our breathing; it clears away distractions; it lifts our hearts above the ordinary; it promotes a feeling of community, and it helps us prepare our hearts and minds to receive Jesus in the Word and in the Eucharist.
Reaching the sanctuary, the presider bows or genuflects before the altar and then he kisses it, expressing his love for Jesus Christ. (We, too, should always genuflect or bow before the altar.)
Sometimes the presider incenses the altar. Traditionally, incense has been used for cleansing and purifying, and it has long been a sign of sacrifice [Mal.1:11]. It represents the cloud which is an ancient symbol of God [Ex.16:10], and it serves as a visual and aromatic prayer.
The presider then goes to his seat, which is prominently positioned and signifies the important role he holds in the community.
We then bless ourselves with the Sign of the Cross (Mt.28:19). This ancient gesture recalls our baptism and reminds us that we are children of God. It affirms our discipleship and it asks God to renew our baptismal graces. As well, the Sign of the Cross reminds us that all salvation comes from the Cross of Christ, and that we have a responsibility to get to know God (pointing to our head), to love him (heart) and to serve him all through our days (shoulders).
The Greeting
The presider then greets everyone with a blessing, using one of three formulas:
‘The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all’ (2Cor.13:14).
Or ‘Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ’ (2Cor.1:2).
Or ‘The Lord be with you’ (Ruth 2:4)
Grace is the gift of sharing in God’s divine life, so this blessing reminds us that we are divine, enlightened by Infinite Truth, empowered by Infinite Love, and living the Infinite Life of the Trinity.
As St Augustine said, at our Baptism we not only became Christians, but we became Christ himself. The priest’s greeting, therefore, invites us to become more aware of the divine life we share with Jesus.
To this greeting, we reply,
‘And with your spirit’ (2Tim.4:22; Gal.6:18).
Here we are referring to the ‘spirit’ of the presider, the very core of his being, where he has been ordained to offer the sacrifice of the Mass.
The Penitential Act
After the greeting, the presider continues:
‘My Sisters and brothers, let us acknowledge our sins, and so prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries…’
This is the ‘great equalising,’ when we all recognise our common sinfulness, and it reminds us that we are not the centre of the world. Thus, we begin the Mass as humble equals, publicly confessing our sinfulness before our Father God who we know always loves and forgives us.
The Penitential Act has three forms. The most common is the Confiteor (‘I confess’):
I confess to almighty God
and to you, my brothers and sisters,
that I have greatly sinned,
in my thoughts and in my words,
in what I have done and
in what I have failed to do,
through my fault, through my fault,
through my most grievous fault;
therefore I ask blessed Mary ever-Virgin,
all the Angels and Saints,
and you, my brothers and sisters,
to pray for me to the Lord our God.
This ancient practice of public confession comes from the Jewish synagogue long before the time of Christ, and it was continued by the first Christians. It reminds us of Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, in which the tax collector goes up to the Temple to pray, and he beats his breast saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ (Lk.18:13).
Was there a penitential act at the Last Supper? Yes. This was the Washing of the Feet. Jesus removes his outer garments, stoops down like a slave and humbly washes the feet of this disciples. In the Penitential Act, we, too, recognise who we really are by stripping ourselves bare by acknowledging our sinfulness, stooping down in humility and allowing ourselves to be loved and to be enabled to love others.
After confessing our sins, the presider says a prayer of absolution:
‘May almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and bring us to everlasting life. Amen.’
Then we say the Kyrie Eleison, ‘Lord have mercy …’ These words come from blind Bartimaeus who cried to Jesus for help in Jericho (Mk.10:46-52).
God wants our hearts to be humble – just like Jesus. Through the Penitential Rite, he teaches us how to let go of our egos and to practice this humility.
The Gloria
After focussing on ourselves, and realising how much God loves us, our attention now turns towards God and his glory in the Gloria. It is sung on Sundays outside Advent and Lent, and on solemnities and feast days.
To receive glory is to be in the spotlight, and here in this song the spotlight moves from ourselves towards God. Like Mary in the Magnificat singing a song of praise to God our Saviour, in the Gloria we proclaim that:
‘You are the Holy One, you alone are the Lord, you alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ …’
Here, we declare that God alone is holy, and that only God is deserving of our highest praise and attention, for he is the ground of all Being. This reminds us to put aside our false gods and to focus instead on what is most important in life.
It was Pope Telesphoros (d.136AD) who added the Gloria to the Mass. Often called ‘the angelic hymn,’ the Gloria begins with the same words the choir of angels used to praise God at the birth of Jesus before the shepherds of Bethlehem (Lk.2:14).
In ancient Israel, the shepherds were considered ‘unclean’ and were not allowed to participate in divine worship. And yet, despite being ‘outsiders,’ they were the very first to encounter these angels and to hear about the birth of Christ. Now, as we sing the Gloria, this becomes true for us as well. Having acknowledged our poverty and unworthiness, we can now praise God, who simply but profoundly manifests himself in that dark and musty cave we call our heart.
In the Gloria, we praise each member of the Trinity and we declare:
‘we praise you, we bless you, we adore you, we glorify you, we give you thanks for your great glory…’
In our godless world, it’s so important for us to keep speaking of God, to share what we know about him and to praise him, because what we praise we appreciate. What we talk about, we remember. But what we overlook, we forget. So, proclaiming the Gloria is an important act in strengthening our relationship with God. It lifts us up from the ordinary, and it prepares us to receive Jesus in the Word and in the Eucharist.
The Collect
At the end of the Introductory Rite, the priest briefly prays the Collect. This is a short prayer that reflects the theme of the Mass of the day. It gathers together all the individual prayers of the assembly and presents them to God in one single voice.
Having prepared our hearts and minds, we are now ready to listen to the Word of God in the second part of the Mass.
So, we all sit down. The act of sitting down means welcoming something: it’s the posture that helps us receive something. It also helps us relax, so that we might concentrate on what is coming.