For more solemn feasts of the church year, there’s a tradition of singing a poetic hymn, called a “sequence,” at Mass before the Gospel reading. In the Middle Ages there were numerous feasts with sequences, but these were winnowed down to just four during the Council of Trent in 1570 to Easter (Victimae paschal laudes), Pentecost (Veni Sancte Spiritus), Corpus Christi (Lauda Sion Salvatorem), and All Souls/Funeral Masses (Dies Irae). Later, a sequence for Our Lady of Sorrows (Stabat Mater) was added. In the current Missal, the sequences on Easter and Pentecost are mandatory, while the others are optional (note, sequences are only sung for the Mass of the day, so if you come to the vigil the evening before, you will not get to sing the sequence!).

Therefore, as we celebrate Pentecost this weekend, at Masses on Sunday, we’ll sing a musical setting of the “Veni Sancte Spiritus” sequence hymn, “Come Holy Spirit.” The music setting I’ve chosen to sing this year is a composition by Fr. Ricky Manalo called “By the Waking of Our Hearts”. Fr. Ricky is a Paulist priest, composer, liturgist, and theologian working out of San Francisco, and you’ll recall he visited St. Raphael back in February to lead our parish retreat and several other presentations on liturgy and culture.

With “By the Waking of Our Hearts” Fr. Ricky sets the text of the Veni Sancte Spiritus sequence as the verses, and has written an original repeated refrain. From his notes on the music, “In 1981, the United States Catholic Conference suggested the Solemnity of Pentecost as a context for both acknowledging and rejoicing in ‘the variety of ethnic roles found in the church.’ With this in mind, and being Asian-American, I set out to write a liturgical song that would join the text of the Pentecost Sequence with the musical elements found in many forms of Asian music (e.g., the pentatonic scale). At the same time, I wanted to write a piece that would be musically accessible to ‘Western ears.’ ‘By the Waking of Our Hearts’ expresses our unity with each other by marrying these styles together.”

The pentatonic scale that Fr. Ricky speaks of is, as you may have guessed, comprised of five notes (as opposed to the seven note major and minor scales we are more accustomed to in western music). This scale is common in music from Asia and also Africa, and sounds characteristically more “open” to since there are fewer notes covering the distance of the octave, and thus more distance in between each of the notes.

In “By the Waking of Our Hearts” Fr. Ricky used the pentatonic scale to build the entire melody. If you look at the music in the worship aid you’ll notice that he only uses five different notes: Bb, C, Eb, F, and G (sometimes in different octaves, but always these same notes). In fact, the first series of notes in the piece goes right up the scale from bottom to top, and immediately establishes the pentatonic sound of the piece. What’s great about this scale, besides its beautiful sound, with only five different notes as possibilities, it’s really easy for the assembly to pick up the melody.

The sequence hymn at Mass is one of the few times when singing IS the primary ritual action. At most other times the music is accompanying another action such as a procession (the exceptions would include the Gloria, the Responsorial Psalm, and the Sanctus). So this gives us an opportunity to sit back, sing, and meditate on the words of this ancient hymn, and invite the Holy Spirit to enter our hearts and minds this Pentecost. Veni Sancte Spiritus!