I always recommend ADDING Communion antiphons first. And doing only that for a year. This way you're enhancing what is already there without taking anything away. Chant is meditative by nature, and it feels very natural at Communion. People will begin to acquire a taste for antiphons this way, without threatening the hymns they already know and love. It wets the appetite and then Introits (and eventually offertorios) can come later.

By contrast, if you launch right in with Introits, people will wonder why because they have no context for it. Worse still is if you only do introits and "take hymns away" from the people. That is absolutely a recipe for disaster unless they have been conditioned and CATECHIZED as to what the antiphons are and why you're doing them.

If you decide you must do the introit instead (which, to be fair, Masses are named after them, and they literally set the tone of the Mass) then consider doing them as a "prelude" while the bells are ringing or after a hymn, while the altar is (hopefully) being incensed. I personally prefer them after a hymn, because they flow much more nicely into the collect, especially if your priest opens the Mass with chant. The flow is seamless.

Communion first. Introit as a prelude to the hymn.

Must the congregation sing them? Just have the cantor/choir sing them?

As has been echoed before on this forum, don't sing the congregation to death.

I've never done antiphons in a setting without a choir. We don't have a regularly scheduled choir here, so it's generally just a cantor.

In that situation, would the cantor simply sing the antiphon once and stop there, or go straight into a verse? I'm used to having the cantor sing the antiphon once, followed by the choir and congregation repeating it, and then either moving into a verse or ending there. But it would perhaps be odd to have the cantor sing the antiphon twice through by themselves before stopping or moving to a verse?

In that situation, would the cantor simply sing the antiphon once and stop there, or go straight into a verse?

Entirely depends on the timing of the liturgical action. If you have time for a verse (or more), then by all means, absolutely sing them. If everyone is just standing there waiting for you to be done with it (as can happen with introits) then just sing the antiphon and be done.

For communion, just have the choir / cantor sing them. I've experimented with doing simple introits congregationally this last year, and it's a slog. People will do it, but they have to be UBER simple. It's a weird pie-in-the-sky ideal to have the "people" singing the antiphons. It just isn't practical in the slightest.

I disagree a bit here. Yes, the choir/cantor can do these alone, but with time, sometimes a lot, congregations do learn the basic patterns in most of the English chant settings.

10 years ago I started singing the antiphons, entrance, offertory and communion, at daily masses at our parish, and soon after started communion antiphons at Sunday Masses, using a variety of SEP, Weber, and Kelly. Now we use mostly Source and Summit. I would put the chant on the worship aid, and for the first year it was mostly just me and a couple in the congregation, and then the choirs, adult and children would lead them. Now we have most of our 40+ congregation at daily Mass singing them with us as well as great participation on Sundays. It took many years, but worth it. Now congregational singing of antiphons like "Hosanna to the Son of David" and all the antiphons of the Feast of the Presentation don't sound foreign when the congregation comes to those Masses. And few find it strange when we have a chanted introit instead of a hymn on some Sundays.

I disagree a bit here. Yes, the choir/cantor can do these alone, but with time, sometimes a lot, congregations do learn the basic patterns in most of the English chant settings.

A decade of daily mass goers chanting every day is not a representative sample of a Sunday congregation. Obviously, with repeated exposure, all things tend to become easier. We have people who sing at our Masses to. But there seems to be this idea that the proper way to restore participation is to have the congregation sing florid antiphons, and that just is never going to happen, save at monasteries. We need to be realistic about what we expect a congregation to do. Meinrad tones every week? Sure. They can do that. Florid antiphons in square note notation? Not so much. I am certainly glad that your congregation is acclimating, but remember it took 10 years and singing antiphons daily by a nice little chunk of the congregation. For a parish just getting started, we need to have a completely different conversation.

https://www.sourceandsummit.com/blog/5-ways-to-begin-renewing-the-liturgical-music-in-your-parish-this-year

This blog post on Source and Summit has a few paragraphs on Making the Antiphons Normal.

When I was hired as music director at the parish—where I also teach music at the school—about four years ago, we switched to the Source and Summit Missal. The introduction of antiphons was met with confusion, eye-rolling, and even hostility. Sometimes a change that seems radical takes years to be fully embraced.

Today, we begin every Mass, in both the parish and the school, with an Entrance Antiphon. The cantor intones it first, and the assembly joins in the response. We then sing some verses without any interruption ending with the Doxology and Amen. The assembly now sings *and to the Holy Spirit, and *world without end, Amen with the cantor. The music is simple enough for children to sing, much like a responsorial psalm. It is the liturgy. Start as soon as you can. The only way it will take hold is through regular, consistent use. Before you know it, it will feel normal—because it is.

We begin the Communion Antiphon as soon as the priest has received Communion. It usually lasts through the entire Communion procession, followed by a hymn.

We rarely sing an Offertory Antiphon, but I find it especially fitting for memorials, feast days, and solemnities.

Don't let anyone tell you that chant is too hard. It's universal and so easy a kid can do it.

https://praytellblog.com/index.php/2020/02/17/the-role-of-the-choir-in-catholic-liturgy/

Fr. Ruff makes a compelling case for how the choir ought to be utilized in this way. I often share this article with choir members and friends when asked about how I approach things.

Lots of useful input here. I'll provide a slightly different angle based on my experience in my current role. Obviously every parish and every congregation is different, so your mileage may vary.

When I started this DoM role a year and a half ago, we decided to designate one of our five weekend Masses as the Principal Mass of Sunday. Before my arrival, it was the standard 4-hymn sandwich with Respond & Acclaim psalm/alleluia and Mass of St. Benedict or Renewal for the ordinary. When I started, we agreed that we would "go big" on day one at the Principal Mass with a major increase in ceremony and solemnity (while only introducing small and gradual changes at the other weekend Masses), and teach by immersion and experience of beauty, letting the written and verbal catechesis follow the experience. So what did that look like? From my very first Mass here, this has been the structure at the Principal Mass:

>Organ prelude (usually improv on entrance antiphon)
>Single verse opening hymn during procession (as others said, don't take stuff away!)
>Entrance Antiphon (Bartlett or Weber) during incensing of altar
>Missa Primitiva + Gloria VIII at first, then full De Angelis for the ordinary (we'll move onto Orbis Factor soon)
>Source & Summit psalm & alleluia
>Full Offertorio chant from the Graduale Romanum (thus far I sing it solo, but the goal will be to hand it off to our budding schola when they're ready)
>Offertory hymn
>Communion Antiphon (Bartlett or Weber)
>Communion hymn or motet
>Recessional is almost always the seasonal Marian antiphon in Latin, unless it's a major solemnity, in which case I might substitute a fitting hymn
>Organ postlude (improv or appropriate literature)

And also from my very first week we completely abandoned the OCP/GIA/ILP materials and the sort of songs they tend to promote. We switched to Source & Summit, and stuck to solid metrical hymnody.

After a few weeks, I started doing the more active catechesis with bulletin columns, little tidbits printed right in the worship aids, I offered a free sacred music workshop, and we put together a series of short-form video content on YouTube and Facebook. But again, this was after an initial immersion, so the congregation had something to relate the catechesis to.

The obvious question is: how did it go? Overall, pretty darned well. A year and a half into it, it's our parish's most well attended Mass, with the largest contingent of young adults and young families compared to the other Masses. We had some of the usual complains at the beginning: too much Latin, it's unfamiliar, organ's too loud, I want Eagle's Wings, Mass is too long, etc. As usual, those complaints came repeatedly from the same 5 or 6 folks of a certain demographic. We did what we could pastorally to help them along. And now I hardly hear a complaint, but we do get a ton of positive feedback, especially from younger folks. Our congregation isn't particularly robust in their singing, but they do sing the entrance and communion antiphons, and they sing the Kyrie and Gloria VIII well. They're still catching on to the Sanctus and Agnus Dei, which are admittedly a little tricky. But we're getting there. The interesting thing is, in many cases they now sing the Entrance antiphon more robustly than the opening hymn that preceded it. So I may be well on the way to subtly eliminating the opening hymn in favor of a more florid introit, or organ procession followed by entrance antiphon.

Other things that we'll be adding soon: sung Credo (Creed III in English for now) and sung Pater Noster. More motets at Communion, and sometimes Offertory. Over time, increased frequency of full Gregorian introits. Again, over time, expand the chant settings of the ordinary and use them for their designated seasons/feasts.

For some parishes, I have no doubt this would be "too much too soon." But I'd also offer the counterpoint that moving too gradually is also a detriment to progress. You give way too much room for push back, way too many opportunities to quit before you've ever really started. I'm a firm believer in committing to a course, executing it with excellence, catechizing and courteously listening/discussing as needed, but staying the course. Would it work everywhere? I don't know. But it's going pretty well in this humble Appalachian small-town parish.

Now the question of congregational participation in the antiphons was raised, and Serviam has a valid angle. But as I mentioned, all congregations are different. With about a year of immersion, our congregation really started singing along with the antiphons. I print them in worship aids (chant notation!), so they can read and sing along if they want. Because we are using short antiphons, we currently treat them like responsorial psalms where we'll introduce the antiphon with a cantor, and the congregation repeats before verses. I wouldn't do that with a full introit, obviously. But it's really helped get the congregation on board and joining in. Whether it's the ideal or not is certainly open to discussion. But Musicam Sacram 16 does seem to suggest that participation in antiphons is desirable, and I've concluded that it's achievable in our particular case, so why not? That doesn't preclude opportunities for listening. My nascent schola will be singing the full Gregorian introit the first Sunday of each month, beginning this coming Sunday. So we're introducing that kind of interior active participation as well. But I think there's room for both.

So that's our principal Mass of Sunday. The others are simpler. Hymns at entrance, offertory, and Communion. We do sing the Communion antiphon at all Masses. And we also sing the Marian antiphons as recessional at all Masses. The ordinary alternates seasonally between the Mass of St. Philip Neri (Jernberg) and Missa Primitiva (retaining the Gloria from St. Philip Neri, or sometimes the Gloria from the Mass of St. Benedict).

The Principal Mass of Sunday model is particularly effective because it gives you the opportunity to offer your parish the fullness (or close to it) of solemnity the Mass has to offer, while still having the simpler Masses available. It makes it easy to respond to the occasional complaints: "well, you could always attend one of the other four Masses!" It's really just an application of the concept of progressive solemnity, and in [what I think is] a good way, reintroduces a sort of Low Mass / Sung Mass / Solemn Mass structure, albeit with the added flexibility of the current Missal.

@PaxMelodius, GIRM says:

In the dioceses of the United States of America there are four options for the Entrance Chant: (1) the antiphon from The Roman Missal or the Psalm from the Roman Gradual as set to music there or in another musical setting; (2) the seasonal antiphon and Psalm of the Simple Gradual; (3) a song from another collection of psalms and antiphons, approved by the Conference of Bishops or the diocesan Bishop, including psalms arranged in responsorial or metrical forms; (4) a suitable liturgical song similarly approved by the Conference of Bishops or the diocesan Bishop.

I've seen the debates. But to argue that ONLY one may be done is to impute meaning that is not supported by the text. If they meant "one and only one," they would have said so. Instead, it says "four options." Now I wouldn't try to do a hymn and an antiphon if we weren't incensing the altar. It feels, to me, rushed. But when there is incense, it works perfectly to sing a verse or two of a hymn (or have a brief organ procession) followed by the entrance chant or introit as father ascends the steps to the altar to incense.

We currently sing the Entrance and Communion antiphons at our school daily Masses. Because the texts are included in our missalettes and we use very simple melodies, such as the Meinrad tones, the congregation generally makes a good effort to sing along, especially for the Entrance antiphon.

At these Masses, we sing the antiphons in a manner similar to the Responsorial Psalm: I introduce the antiphon, the student cantors and congregation repeat it, and then we proceed to the verses, repeating the antiphon between them.

However, our Sunday missalettes do not include the antiphon texts, which makes congregational participation a bit more difficult. As we prepare to introduce the Communion antiphon at Sunday Masses, I'm considering having the cantor sing the antiphon once and then proceed directly to the verses, without expecting the congregation to repeat the antiphon as we currently do at daily Mass.

My concern is whether these two different approaches might confuse parishioners who attend both daily and Sunday Masses. We typically have around 30 parishioners at our school daily Masses, in addition to the students, so there is some overlap. Would it be better to adjust how we sing the antiphons at school daily Masses for the sake of consistency, or am I overthinking the potential confusion?

We do plan to transition to Source & Summit missals in Advent 2027, which should eventually resolve this dilemma. Once the congregation has both the antiphon texts and melodies available, I fully intend to allow for congregational responses, especially since some parishioners already show a willingness to sing along. However, that transition is still about a year away, so I'm trying to determine the best approach in the meantime.

I'd appreciate any thoughts or experiences with this!

I also think the Offertory shouldn't be ruled out as an introductory point. The Communion is most often the lower hanging fruit for any number of reasons, but I can think of pastoral situations where introducing a full Gregorian offertory chant would be the right move.

Is it just me or is the style of these responses surprisingly casual?

Consistency and continuity reign supreme when planning liturgies for both a parish and its adjoining school. Where I work, roughly a third of the school's population (around 70 kids) attend Saturday or Sunday masses with their families weekly. In order not to overwhelm or confuse them, the format must be the same between the school mass and regular parish mass. One experience helps reinforce the other, actually. The kids come to Sunday mass expecting to sing the Entrance Chant with the cantor. The kids are actually schooling their parents! They sing during the Doxology and Amen after the asterisk *.

Without the text in front of them, parishioners won't feel confident enough to sing the response, but that's okay. Cantors can sing the chant, and then go straight to the verses, which in the end saves time. We lump all the verses or small groups of verses (2-3 at a time depending on length, and insert the response in between the groups) to adapt to time constraints.

Every mass has different sized assemblies, so the communion procession is sometimes shorter or longer than the last, and the cantor may skip to the doxology as the line is winding down so we can get a few verses of a hymn sung before the Priest sits down.