It was 8:30 PM on Friday night before the 4th Sunday of Lent, also known as Laetare Sunday. 

I guess it's due to the missalette companies mentioning it that most regular church-going Catholics know about Gaudete and Laetare Sunday.  Both names are taken from the introits, or entrance antiphons, of those days.  On both days rose-colored vestments can be worn by the priest (if they are man enough to do so ) and both words mean "rejoice."  They both give us a little reprieve from the penitential nature of the liturgical seasons (Advent and Lent, respectively).  And for the most part, the introit chant has been completely ignored even on Gaudete and Laetare Sundays. 

But on this particular Friday night, inspired by our pastor's bulletin letter, I called Father and asked him if he would like the introit chanted for Sunday morning.  He said that would be cool, so I called my cantoring partner, Sr. Michele, and we arranged to get together Saturday morning for a crash course.

I found the chant in a borrowed Gregorian Missal.  I found an mp3 of it on the Brazilian monk's site... always very helpful!   So Sister and I were able to pull it off Sunday morning, chanting the introit right before Mass actually started.  Of course if we were doing things by the book, the priest would process in during the introit chant, but we are pretty firmly entrenched in the habit of using an opening hymn.  It isn't such a bad thing either.

It was the first time that I tried a Gregorian chant from the Propers without the whole schola, and I'm glad it was possible for us cantors to do it... the schola won't always be there, but cantors always are, so at the very least, we may look forward to Laetare or Gaudete Sunday in hopes of hearing the introit from which those words are taken!

Darcy