We also use "vidi aquam" rather than the Kyrie during sprinkling. For an English setting, look at the ICEL site. They have one and it is free.

The one the priest directs you to do, assuming he specifies one over the other.

According to the rubrics, it's impossible to have both the sprinkling rite ánd the Kyrie. The sprinkling rite starts right after the greeting, and after it, the Gloria is sung (if it is prescribed).

Another suggestion made above is to sing the Kyrie during the sprinkling. While de rubrics indicate that, next to the suggested antiphons, "alius cantus aptus" can be sung, I wouldn't consider the Kyrie a suitable song in this case.

If your intention is to "call to mind the superabundant mercy for which Christ was made obedient unto death", I would suggest the fifth antiphon for the Easter Season from the Missal:

E látere tuo, Christe, fons aquae prorúmpit,
quo abluúntur mundi sordes et vita renovátur, allelúia.

From your side, o Christ,
bursts forth a spring of water,
by which the squalor of the world is washed away
and life is made new again, alleluia.

... at least, if someone has already set it to music ...

Well, just use the EF and do both :)

For the Nth time, the missal says it is the 2nd Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday or something thereabouts. In a sense, it is an extraliturgical liturgical addition. Nothing to the liturgy itself was changed (other than the changes in 1969 of the unfortunate deletion of the Johannine Comma to the Epistle, and a reading from Acts, I believe, for the 1st reading), as the texts were already so appropriate. St. Faustina of course had her visions when that was the principal form of worship in the Roman Rite, and the promises apply generally; the FSSP Ordo mentions them.

Technically, in the OF, you can't do both: it's in the rubrics. The Kyrie is also not the proper text for the Rite of Sprinkling: either Asperges Me, or during Eastertide, Vidi Aquam. Technically speaking, the Rite of Sprinkling wasn't part of the Mass, it occurred before, and was a completely separate rite. I believe the OF puts it as part of the Mass, which is a shame because they removed the Penitential Rite in order to include it, which might be why the Rite of Sprinkling isn't performed on a more regular basis. For me, there is no reason to exclude the Penitential Rite when the Rite of Sprinkling is performed: the Rite of Sprinkling is not a suitable substitute for the Penitential Rite. However, that's not what the rubrics say, that's just my own view on the topic.

Anyway, if you're doing the Rite of Sprinkling during Easter, the correct text is Vidi Aquam, or "I Saw Water Flowing" if you're looking for an English version. The Kyrie is not part of the Rite of Sprinkling, and its text should not be sung during. Whichever Rite is performed is technically not your choice: it's the priest's. It's his responsibility to make that call. Another example of the confusion caused by the many options and opportunities for clericalism that the OF provides. As Ben Yanke mentioned above, the EF would allow for both.

The Kyrie is not part of the penitential rite, it comes after the 'absolution', and could be legitimately still be used between aspersion and Gloria. At least that's just looking at the missal, there may be clearer rubrics elsewhere.

The Missal is very clear: after the absolution ("May almighty God cleanse us of our sins, ...") the rubric indicates: "Then, when it is prescribed, the hymn Gloria in excelsis (Glory to God in the highest) is sung or said."

So, there's no room to legitimately sing the Kyrie between the sprinkling and the Gloria; the Gloria starts right after the absolution.

The Missal is very clear

But notice the semper early in no. 52 of the following

Institutio Generalis Missalis Romani 2002

Actus pænitentialis

51. Postea sacerdos invitat ad actum pænitentialem, qui, post brevem pausam silentii, a tota communitate formula confessionis generalis perficitur, et sacerdotis absolutione concluditur, quæ tamen efficacia sacramenti Pænitentiæ caret.

Die dominica, præsertim tempore paschali, loco consueti actus pænitentialis, quandoque fieri potest benedictio et aspersio aquæ in memoriam baptismi.

Kyrie, eleison

52. Post actum pænitentialem incipitur semper Kýrie eléison, nisi forte locum iam habuerit in ipso actu pænitentiali. Cum sit cantus quo fideles Dominum acclamant eiusque misericordiam implorant, peragitur de more ab omnibus, partem nempe in eo habentibus populo atque schola vel cantore.

Acclamatio quæque de more bis repetitur, maiore tamen numero non excluso, ratione ingenii diversarum linguarum necnon musicæ artis vel rerum adiunctorum. Quando Kýrie cantatur ut pars actus pænitentialis, singulis acclamationibus « tropus » præponitur.

What seems clear to me is that "they" are muddled.

Yes, but I stand corrected on my original statement. The Kyrie is, indeed, not a part of the Penitential Rite, but occurs afterward. This is reflected in the quotation above from the GIRM. Now, the Kyrie can be included in the penitential act, as when it is troped, also as evidenced from the above quote, but I'm not necessarily sure that it necessitates its omission when the Penitential Rite is omitted. After looking at that quotation from the GIRM again, it seems that the two are separate and that even if you do a Rite of Sprinkling, the Kyrie eleison would follow immediately, and then the Gloria in excelsis.

But I'm the one who will be providing him with the information to make the decision.

My apologies, but perhaps I am misunderstanding, unless the priest wants to know which music will be sung, he should be able to make that decision without input from anyone else.

This might be clear, but it isn’t followed, and I wouldn’t be annoyed if I had to go to the OF (I rarely do so on Sundays) and the Kyrie was sung after the aspersion. Fr. Kocik also says it can be done before Mass...

Vilyanor, I also didn’t mean to be so testy. It just is a pet peeve of mine that the promotion of the mercy of the Lord and the practices recommended for such devotion on the Sunday following the Easter Octave via St. Faustina are automatically consigned to OF-land just because John Paul II made a slight change to the Sunday’s name, which, as it happens, is the sixth way to refer to it (1st Sunday after Easter, 2nd Sunday of Easter, Low Sunday, Bright Sunday, Dominica in albis, Divine Mercy Sunday).

I absolutely agree it is providential. I think this is why the Lord made such a request, for although the whole calendar is about his mercy, that Sunday focuses on it especially.

As far as the priest making the decision, priests don’t always make the most well-informed decision, nor do they necessarily make the best decision. If say the choir and a few parishioners were the driving forces for chant but the priest wanted another chant (instead of Vidi aquam), one recognizes he has the option and power, but that’s a poor decision for those expecting the traditional chant and who would actually care.

As far as the priest making the decision, priests don’t always make the most well-informed decision, nor do they necessarily make the best decision. If say the choir and a few parishioners were the driving forces for chant but the priest wanted another chant (instead of Vidi aquam), one recognizes he has the option and power, but that’s a poor decision for those expecting the traditional chant and who would actually care.

Yes, that's true, that priests don't always make the best or most-informed decisions, but they are still the parochial authorities and can override any request or preference with his own. The priest is the boss: it's his decision to make. If he asks for input, okay then, you can give your input, but it is still his decision to make. I stand by my original comment that the priest should not require outside input to make this decision, but that doesn't mean he is prohibited from seeking it.

@smvanroode: That whole thing is just so confusing to me. Thank you for your insight and clearing some of it up. I never understood why the Kyrie was omitted when the Penitential Rite was, because they are separate. Where does the rubric say that the Kyrie only follows the Penitential Rite? I'm not arguing, as I believe you, but I just want to know for future reference.

The problem with the Kyrie in the west is that all you have left are the responses. Where is the rest of the litany? Go to an eastern church and listen to what it is supposed to be.

I would say follow it. The papal Mass is no longer distinct. Rather certain usages were carried over, e.g. the Greek Gospel.

Yes to returning to the litanic form of the Kyrie. Step one: restore the tropes to the EF (organic development/convergence!).

Exactly. No wonder the question comes up each year about whether or not it is penitential or where to put it. So many don't even know what it is, or is supposed to be.

Do we have the original tropes anywhere on this site? If not, would one of our colleagues direct me to where I might find them?

Those liturgies were more alike than different before the barbarians invaded Rome. Afterwards, they drifted apart. The liturgies celebrated by St. Patrick and contemporaries were more like the eastern liturgy than the later Roman liturgy. Given the chaos and culture disintegration after the fall of Rome, it is amazing anything survived.

@kenstb
This book will be of interest, Tropen zum Gloria, Sanctus und Agnus Dei im Graduale Romanum hg. von Anton Stingl jun., 2012, EOS Verlag Sankt Ottilien

The Sarum Chants can be found here,
https://macsphere.mcmaster.ca/bitstream/11375/16331/6/SM-kyriale.pdf

Also 2 volumes of the Analecta Hymnica are on Tropes,
https://archive.org/stream/analectahymnica47drevuoft#page/n1/mode/2up
and
https://archive.org/stream/analectahymnica49drevuoft#page/n5/mode/2up

As far as I understand Tropes can now only be used as part of the Sarum Rite, and only those found in the last edition of the Sarum Graduale. While Tropes were popular across northern Europe, they don't seem to have been used in Rome. With the gradual take up of the Trent Missal (based on earlier Roman? usage) Tropes (and most of the Sequences) fell into disuse. I am convinced that Troped chants can only be used as motets or as music outside the liturgy.

N.B. I have not read the above two volumes of the Analecta but doing so will clearly show those places that used Tropes and those that did not.

@MatthewRoth

I would say you could also use tropes in liturgies revived based on their status under Quo Primum

Now that would be an interesting list...

Lord Jesus, save us from guitarists and liturgists, Lord have mercy.
Lord Jesus, restore to us lost chimes, Christ have mercy.
Lord Jesus, save us from NPM, GIA, and OCP, Lord have mercy.

By way of a trope on what Charles said above: In the popular mind all of western Europe was, naturally(!), evangelised by or from Rome. The truth is that there was as much as, if not more, influence from the East, particularly in Gaul; and, eastern elements in Gallican chant and liturgy bear witness to this. Add to that that most of the southern half of Italy was Greek, not Latin. Until Charlemagne (whose motives were purely political and dynastic) there was no universal feeling that the usage of the Roman church should have pre-eminence. It was given respect in varying degrees, but few saw any reason at all to substitute Roman practice for their own. And, as we know, Augustine of Canterbury found a vibrant Christian tradition already flourishing in the England that he was sent to 'evangelise'.

And, Vilyanor asks why the (kyrie) tropes were dropped and what sense kyrie makes without them. Going further back than the era of tropes, kyrie was, centuries before, the people's response to something akin to our modern 'universal prayers'. This happened at the beginning of the liturgy, more or less where kyrie remains. Well, saving time and shortening stuff is nothing new to our age. It has a very ancient pedigree, which is evidenced by the elimination of the prayers to which kyrie eleison was the people's supplication. It may have been Gregory the Great (I really don't remember right now) who added Christe to the ancient kyries sans petitions. So now, after a few hundred years the kyrie melismas were graced with words (tropes!), which really sort of made 'propers' out of the kyrie itself. (In fact, due to its tropes, kyrie was considered a part of the propers in the Sarum Use - which is why kyrie remained in chant in England throughout the 'polyphonic era'.) Some hundreds of years further along, and the tropes were suppressed, leaving the original kyries with their melismas.
All this is, admittedly, sketchy, but, hopefully, gives some bit of perspective.
And, as far as what sense does kyrie have without tropes OR petitions? I think that, in itself, it is a petition that is appropriate at the beginning of mass. It is as much an exclamatory acclamation of God's greatness and power (why else would we say 'have mercy upon us'?) as it is a supplication. So, it makes sense, leading from the poenitential rite to the Angelic Hymn of Gloria. Too, we may, privately and mentally, have in mind certain petitions (or even laudatory tropes!) of our own - so long as they don't add a flicker of time to the mass. That's why we just say 'kyrie'.

Ben and I were obviously joking above, but it does make a point. For all practical purposes, the tropes have been reestablished in the west. Unfortunately, they are not always very good tropes, but are made up on the spur of the moment. I have heard some that were not only outlandish but skirting heresy.

To the original point, I would not be comfortable with a form of "Kyrie" as the music for the Sprinkling Rite, nor would I push for "Kyrie" to be included before singing the "Gloria". For better or for worse, the Liturgies of the Western Church have lost the multiple litanies that still exist in the Eastern Church and the Ambrosian Rite. We've lost the tropes to all the parts of the Ordinary, and those that are being reintroduced are sub-standard. We are left with four very minor litanies: the "Kyrie", the restored triple petitions within the "Gloria", the Prayers of the Faithful/General Intentions, and the "Agnus Dei". That's really not bad, considering the overall history. Meanwhile, both of the musical settings for the Sprinkling Rite speak directly to water, "Wash me thoroughly with hysop" and "I saw water flowing". The former includes a verse from a penitential Psalm that speaks of "mercy", the latter from a more upbeat Psalm that praises God for his mercy. IMO this makes the alternative "Springs of water, bless the Lord" a poor substitute for what Holy Mother Church has given us, and that we have used consistently for centuries.