The Salutation, Collect, and Readings

The salutation is more than a simple greeting. When the pastor says, “The Lord be with you,” he is announcing that the Lord is truly present with His people to bless them through the Word which is about to be read. The salutation comes directly from Scripture. As but one example, when the angel Gabriel greets Mary, he says, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you” (Luke 1:28). Gabriel is proclaiming the imminent presence of Jesus who would become incarnate to bring salvation to the world. In the liturgy, the salutation also occurs at the beginning of the Service of the Sacrament and before the benediction. In these instances, it also proclaims that the Lord is coming to His people with His blessing in specific ways. When the congregation responds, “And with your Spirit,” they acknowledge that God is working through the pastor to deliver His gifts.

The Collect of the Day is a brief prayer, chanted by the pastor on behalf of the people, that collects the prayers of the gathered faithful into one. The Collects were written anonymously and have been in use since at least the 5th century, with some being modified over time. The Collect is a Proper of the lectionary, appointed for a specific day or season of the Church year. It typically asks that God would bless the people in a specific way related to the theme of that day. The specific form used for Collects includes a basis for the petition that is made, so that we pray back to God what He has first spoken to us in His Word.

Following the Collect, we hear the Scripture lessons for the day—Old Testament, Gradual, Epistle, Alleluia and Verse (or Tract, during Lent), and Holy Gospel. The Church follows a lectionary which orders our life around the life of Christ and ensures that we hear the full counsel of God each year. Much of the one-year lectionary dates back to the 9th century or earlier, with some evidence as early as the 5th century, thus connecting the whole Church across time and space.

In the lessons, we hear the living voice of Christ as He speaks through the apostles (Epistle), prophets (Old Testament), evangelists (Gospel), and shepherds (sermon) to proclaim Law and Gospel to us for the forgiveness of sins and to equip us for Christian life (Ephesians 4:12). The Gradual and Verse are usually taken from the Psalms and put the language of faith on the lips of the congregation to reflect upon and respond to the three primary lessons. The reading of the Gospel is the first liturgical high point of the Divine Service. Through the proclamation of the Word, the Holy Spirit is active to “call, gather, enlighten, and sanctify the whole Christian Church on earth and to keep us with Jesus Christ in the one true faith” (Small Catechism II.3).

The Kyrie and the Gloria in Excelsis

Kyrie is shorthand for the Greek, Kyrie eleison, which means, “Lord, have mercy.” This prayer is found throughout Scripture, for example, the blind beggar Bartimaeus who called to Jesus on the road, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” (Mark 10:47). We are all beggars before God, having nothing of ourselves to offer Him. It is most fitting then, that having entered into the presence of God and having begun the Service of the Word, the first words on our lips are the oldest prayer of the faithful, the cry of the beggar, “Lord, have mercy.”

The Kyrie does not have a penitential function nor is it a continuation of the confession of sins. It is a prayer for help in all times of need. The earliest forms of the Kyrie that appeared in the liturgy were similar to the Litany that we are using as the Prayer of the Church on Sunday mornings during Lent. We still use this form of the Kyrie in Divine Service I, which is sung responsively between the pastor and the congregation (LSB p. 152). In the sixth century, the Kyrie was simplified to the threefold, “Lord, have mercy; Christ, have mercy; Lord, have mercy,” which is the form we use in Divine Service III (p. 186). In the Kyrie, we ask that the Lord would prepare our hearts rightly to receive Him as we also pray for His mercy to be shown to the whole world. It is a confident prayer grounded in Christ who intercedes for us that we might be shown mercy for His sake.

The Gloria in Excelsis—Latin for “Glory [to God] in the highest”—is the hymn of praise sung in answer to the Kyrie. The Gloria begins with the song of the angels that announced Jesus’ birth to the shepherds (Luke 2:14). Just as the angels proclaimed that God has come to rescue His people by taking on human flesh, so also in the Divine Service the Gloria proclaims that God is coming to His people for our salvation, now in Word and Sacrament. The Gloria confesses that Christ is truly present among us with His mercy.

The Early Church expanded the Gloria into a creedal hymn of praise in response to this proclamation. We honor and glorify God along with the shepherds for sending the Savior. Then we call upon Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, to have mercy on us. We ascribe to Him the honor bestowed on Him by the Father—that He is the holy Lord of all who is seated at God’s right hand. Finally, we close with a confession of the Holy Trinity. This hymn of praise proclaims that the glory of God is manifest in the work of Christ to bring peace (absolution) on earth, for which we thank and praise Him.

The Gloria is omitted during Advent and Lent as we focus on repentance and preparation for the feasts of Christmas and Easter.

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The Introit and Chanting in the Divine Service

Introit (pronounced in-tro-it) comes from the Latin word introitus, which means “entrance.” The Introit is the Psalm sung at the beginning of the Service of the Word as we enter into God’s presence. This entrance is signified by the pastor’s movement as he walks up the steps of the chancel and approaches the altar for the first time in the Divine Service.

The Introit contains three parts: the antiphon, Psalm verse(s), and the Gloria Patri. The antiphon is a Bible verse or liturgical text that announces the theme of the Scripture readings for the day, specifically pointing to the Gospel reading. The Psalm verses that follow the antiphon expand and reflect on this theme. The Gloria Patri (Latin for “Glory be to the Father…”) points us again to the name of the Triune God given to us in Baptism and proclaims that everything done in the Divine Service is done to the glory of God. The antiphon is repeated at the end to reiterate the theme we are about to hear in the readings.

The Introit has its roots in the Old Testament. Synagogue worship began with the singing of the Psalms, and the priests and Jewish pilgrims sang the Psalms of Ascent as they traveled to Jerusalem and ascended the steps of the Temple for festivals. Likewise, in the Early Church, the people gathered before the Divine Service and sang Psalms as they waited for the service to begin. When the pastor arrived, he led the people into the nave while chanting a Psalm. Specific Psalms were appointed for certain days of the Church year by the 5th century.

The practice of chanting the Psalms and the liturgy (as opposed to speaking) has been part of worship since the Old Testament. Chanting was retained in the Early Church and by Martin Luther in his reforms of the liturgy. Chanting marks worship as being holy; the Divine Service is not an ordinary or casual thing but it is set apart from the secular world. The practice of chanting the liturgy confesses that something is happening here which commands our reverence and full attention. Chanting also assists in proclaiming God’s Word. Chant is elevated speech which causes us to sing and listen more deliberately to the text. Chanting, like other forms of music, aids in learning and memory. Psalm tones and antiphons are simple and repetitive so that they are easy to learn and help us call to mind the Psalms throughout the week. Likewise, many parts of the liturgy are sung to allow for participation across all ages as we join our voices together as one body of Christ.