E SACRIFICE OF THE MASS

THE INTROIT. 37
indeed two introductions to the Mass, general and
special. The prayers before the Introit are the general,
while the Preface forms the special introduction to the
Canon, the fixed and more solemn portion of the
Mass.
Since the Introit begins the Mass, the priest makes
as he recites it the sign of the Cross. In Masses for
the Dead the sign of the Cross is made over the Missal ;
it forms thus a suitable accompaniment to the Church s
prayer for rest and light for the souls in Purgatory.
The Introit consists nearly always of a passage
from Holy Scripture with a verse of a Psalm and the
Gloria Patri, after which the introductory passage is
repeated. The Scripture passage forms an antiphon
to the Psalm, which was formerly said entire. When
the prayers of the Mass were shortened the first verse
of the Psalm was retained often as an epitome of the
whole.
Le Brun and Benedict XIV. attribute the intro
duction of Introits to Pope Gregory the Great, 590,
others attribute the Introit to Pope Celestine L, 420.
The Introit gives the key to the Mass. The
character of the Mass is known by the Introit. Joy,
sorrow, hope, desire, fear, gratitude, contrition, in
and the Litany of the Saints, as the procession drew near to the
Church. In the Station Church, before the celebration of the
Holy Sacrifice, a homily was often delivered by the Pope.
The Stations were usually penitential, though we find them also
on joyful festivals, as in Easter Week, on the Ascension and
Pentecost. The Catholic Dictionary (Sixth Edition, p. 857), quoting
from Fleury, says that Gregory the Great marked these Stations,
as we now have them in the Roman Missal. In the Office for
that Saint on March lath, in the sixth lesson we find the following
reference to the Stations: "Litanias, Stationes, et Ecclesiasticum
officium auxit." (Dr. Gihr, The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. English
translation, pp. 377 379.)