You will notice that at the Mass this weekend there is an addition to the Liturgy of the Word which is entitled the ‘Sequence’.
In music, a sequence is the immediate restatement of a motif or longer melodic (or harmonic) passage at a higher or lower pitch in the same voice. In Mathematics, a sequence is a series of numbers which follow on from each other, in dancing it is a set of ordered steps, which is almost like a ‘variation on a theme’. In the Liturgy of the Church all these definitions apply - and more !
The sequence is a chanted piece of poetry which would follow-on from the readings on a particularly Solemn Day , thereby allowing the community to reflect further but perhaps at a slighly different angle, on the particular ‘Mystery’ of theme of the day’s Feast.
Tradition has it that the Sequence for Pentecost , sometimes referred to as ‘ the Golden Sequence’ because of its beauty, was written by one Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury in the years 1207-1228, that is to say before the split from Rome during the English Reformation.
Today it is sung throughout the Catholic World on this Feast of Pentecost.
