Znaczenie i funkcje introitu mszalnego

Throughout the centuries the Mass liturgy shaped its form of introduction and preface in the form of singing that is defined as “introit” from the Latin “introitus” (entrance) and introire (to enter), belonging to a group of proprium missae singing. Its origins should be searched in the 4th and the 5th centuries in the so-called papal station liturgies (penitent and festive), connected either with the singing of the litany to Saints (on the way to the station church), or on festive days the singing of antiphon intermingled with the lines of psalm (the liturgy of awaiting the pope in the station church), which is confirmed by Instructio ecclesiastici ordinis (Ordo Romani I). In terms of the selection of texts one may differentiate: the biblical introits (introitus regularis), where the antiphon is taken from the same psalm which is in the introit, or from the Epistle for a given day (the reading from the New Testament) and the non-biblical introits (introitus irregularis), taken from the texts of the early-Christian writers or the Apocrypha (e.g., Sedulius; the 4th Book of Ezra). In some cases their influence and significance became so strong that specific masses and even Sundays took their proper names from the first words of the text, e.g., Rorate, Gaudete, Laetare, Requiem. In modern times this type of singing is recalled by the books published following the Second Vatican Council, e.g., Graduale Romanum, Ordo Cantus Missae, and in particular, by Missale Romanum, where in Institutio Generalis it is recalled that the singing at the commencement of the Mass should be performed by a schola or a cantor interchangable with the congregation, or alternatively by a schola or the faithful, or it may be recited by the congregation, some of them or by a lector. In the music practice of the church in Poland following Vaticanum II the introits have been almost completely supplanted by the church songs, as well as by songs having nothing to do with the liturgy. While the above-mentioned rubrics of Institutio Generalis explicitly define the norms which stem from the function of the mass singing for the entrance: it is to open the liturgical action, deepen the unity of the congregation, introduce the minds into the experiencing of the mystery of the liturgical period or a celebration of a festive occasion and to accompany the procession of a priest and the entourage to the altar. That conditions specific requirements demanded of church musicians regarding the preparation and the appropriate selection of proper songs, hymns and chants, as far as they are not directly taken from the missal form in the form of an introit.