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The sequence: After the second reading and before the Alleluia

By Adam Schwend
Liturgy & Ritual


Q.  The last two weekends there was another reading between the second reading and the Alleluia.  I think the book called it a “sequence”.  I think I’ve heard of it before, but am interested in what it is and why we read it.

A.  You are correct.  The piece of poetry to which you refer to is called the sequence.  Ideally, it is sung, but pastoral reasons and the resources of the parish may dictate that it be read.  The Sequence is currently sung, as the questioner noted, after the second reading and before the singing of the Alleluia.  This is a change from its original place before 1970; after the Alleluia but before the Gospel. 

Its origins go back to what is called the “melisma”.  A melisma is the singing of a single syllable of text while moving between several different notes in succession. 

The reason for this original placement was because the Sequence is a result of these melismas on the end of verse of the Alleluia getting so incredibly long that they were impossible to sing on one breath.  These melismas, being so incredibly long, began to take on a life of their own, so much so that the Alleluia began to be broken up into three parts:  1.  The “Alleluia” itself.  2.  The “versus alleluiaticus”.  3.  The “sequentia”, meaning “that which follows”, which was the long melisma at the end of the “versus alleluiaticus”.

As the popularity of this “sequentia” began to grow, Blessed Notker Balbulus, a Swiss monk, became the first documented person to begin to add verses (a practice known as “troping”) to the “sequentiae”.  This slowly developed into its own part of the Mass:  The Sequence.  So, the sequence initially came after the Alleluia because it, at one time, was part of the Alleluia.  However, as the times went on, the Sequence began to flourish on its own as an opportunity to insert poetry into the Mass.  Before the Council of Trent, there were many different Liturgies, generally based on the culture, language, and the region of their use and development.  The Sarum Rite in the British Isles, the Nidaros Rite in Norway, the Braga Rite in Portugal, the Ambrosian Rite in Milan, and the Mozarabic Rite in Spain, just to name a few.  All of these rites bore the culture, and the Sequences, of their native lands.  At the height of the Sequence’s glory, there were some 5,000 in use!

At the Council of Trent, the Church declared that, with very few exceptions, all local Churches were to conform to the Roman Rite.  This Rite became known as the Tridentine Mass, from the Latin “Tridentinus”, which means “pertaining to the city of Trent”.  At that time, the Mass was reformed and the number of sequences was reduced to four (pretty big jump from 5,000!):  The Easter Sequence (Victimae Paschale Laudes), written by Wipo of Burgandy, The Pentecost Sequence (Veni Sancte Spiritus), written by Pope Innocent III, the Corpus Christi Sequence (Lauda Sion Salvatorem), written by St. Thomas Aquinas, and the Sequence for the Dead (Dies Irae, Dies Illa), written by Thomas of Celano.  In the 18th century, the sequence for Our Lady of Sorrows was added (Stabat Mater Dolorosa), also written by Innocent III.  After the Second Vatican Council, Pope Paul VI moved the Sequence for the Dead from the Mass to the Liturgy of the Hours and made the Corpus Christ Sequence and the Our Lady of Sorrows Sequence optional.  This doesn’t mean all of those 5,000 sequences just blew away and were never heard from again.  Many are preserved in our hymns.  For example, in the 13th century, King John IV of Portugal wrote the sequence “Adeste Fideles”.  Set to a hymn-tune by John Francis Wade in 1760, its English translation was published as “O Come All, Ye Faithful”.  The “Stabat Mater” from Our Lady of Sorrows was set to a hymn tune and, in English, is translated “At the Cross, Her Stations Keeping”.  It is a common hymn sung at the Stations of the Cross.  Other “non-sacred” sequences were also written as satire by students and priests and sung for fun.  An example of this is the collection “Carmina Burana”, which was popularly set to music for choir, soloists, and orchestra by the composer Carl Orff.

Sequences contain some of the richest, most beautiful poetry in all Christendom.  If you are a fan of “Lectio Divina” (the slow and meditative reading of sacred texts, most often scripture), I encourage you to spend some time doing Lectio with the sequences that we use today.  They, like all things that contain beauty, have the primary purpose of leading us to God, who is the author and lover of all beauty.