There might be, for example, after the manner of the old service-books, an invitatory opening with versicles and responses, or if the present mode of opening by sentences were preferred, specially chosen sentences, different from those with which the Sunday worship has made us familiar, could be employed.
"A Short History of the Book of Common Prayer"
William Reed Huntington
By this change we should put each of the three great festivals of the year into possession of an invitatory anthem of its own; and we should obviate on the fasting days, by the simple expedient of omission, the futile efforts of choir-master and organist to transform Venite from a cry of joy into a moan of grief.
"A Short History of the Book of Common Prayer"
William Reed Huntington
This joyous salutation seems to be retained in our services, for instead of the Venite we have as the invitatory, the Easter anthem, in which we call upon one another to "keep the Feast," for that "Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us," and is also "Risen from the dead; and become the first-fruits of them that slept."
"The American Church Dictionary and Cyclopedia"
William James Miller