The Sound of Pentecost

Here is the introit (or perhaps you can call it something else such as entrance song, processional, gathering song) as given for parishes and cathedrals by the normative music book of the Roman Rite, the Graduale Romanum, whether the form of the rite being celebrated is ordinary or extraordinary. There are English versions available as well. There are choral versions of English and perhaps the Latin too.

And yet, in the overwhelming number of parishes, the entrance music will be something else selected locally and by the music director or liturgy team, from one of the many published hymnals that not only fail to publish the chant for Pentecost but also exclude (or mutilate) basic people's hymns for Pentecost such as Veni Creator. And so we sing vernacular hymns or jingles.

Whatever else is chosen, let us not forget that this is the ideal, the way the beginning of Mass sounds in its most preferred form. Here is that art that Vatican II said has inestimable value, greater than all other arts.