Showing posts with label After Epiphany. Show all posts
Showing posts with label After Epiphany. Show all posts

Sunday, January 7, 2018

The mystery of the numbers: 'Epiphany Sunday' and other liturgical problems


A celebration of 'plough Sunday'

This Sunday is one of those most affected by the liturgical wreckovations of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and not for the better, so I thought I would put up a little note on the various changes it has gone through.

In many places, the feast of the Epiphany is being celebrated today, creating the curious phenomenon of the 'thirteen days of Christmas' this year.

When Our Lord was twelve years old...

It is probably just as well, then that the Gospel of the day, common to the three previous versions of the Sunday (Sunday within the Octave of Epiphany, First Sunday after the Epiphany, and Feast of the Holy Family) is not used, since it emphasizes the importance of numbers in Scripture.

The text in question is St Luke 2:42-52:
And when he was twelve years old, they going up into Jerusalem, according to the custom of the feast, And having fulfilled the days, when they returned, the child Jesus remained in Jerusalem; and his parents knew it not. And thinking that he was in the company, they came a day's journey, and sought him among their kinsfolks and acquaintance. And not finding him, they returned into Jerusalem, seeking him. And it came to pass, that, after three days, they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, hearing them, and asking them questions. And all that heard him were astonished at his wisdom and his answers. And seeing him, they wondered. And his mother said to him: Son, why hast thou done so to us? behold thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. And he said to them: How is it that you sought me? did you not know, that I must be about my father's business? And they understood not the word that he spoke unto them. And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them. And his mother kept all these words in her heart. And Jesus advanced in wisdom, and age, and grace with God and men.
St Ambrose's commentary on the Gospel, read at Matins in the traditional Office, points out the importance of Our Lord's age, and the number of days Jesus was missing:
We read that when He was twelve years old the Lord began to dispute. The number of His years was the same as the number of the Apostles whom He afterwards sent forth to preach the Faith. He Who, as touching His Manhood, was filled with wisdom and grace from God, was not careless of the parents of the same Manhood, and, after three days, was pleased to be found in the Temple : thereby foreshadowing that, after the three days of His victorious Passion, He That had been reckoned with the dead, would present Himself, living, to our faith, in His heavenly Kingship and Divine Majesty.
Numbers in Scripture

Numbers in Scripture then, translated into the liturgical traditions of the Church, are not random, to be adjusted to suit our convenience; rather they are meant to remind us of the mysteries being celebrated.

The twelve days of Christmas leading up to the great feast of the Epiphany, when we celebrate the manifestation of the Incarnation to the nations, is not a random number, but encoded message about the spread of the Gospel, of the universality of its message, and the centrality of the Incarnation.

Christ's incarnation was made known at his birth to the Magi, the shepherd's and the angels; and again manifested when he had turned twelve years old, in his teaching in the Temple.

The current fashion of 'Epiphany Sunday' and its companion 'Ascension Thursday Sunday' are, I think, classic examples of inorganic development of the liturgy which needed to be suppressed as quickly as possible.

Feast of the Holy Family

By contrast, the prior feast in the EF calendar, the Feast of the Holy Family, illustrates a more natural type of development of the liturgy.  It had is origins in the seventeenth century in New France (now Canada), but was only introduced into the universal Roman calendar in 1921.

As far as I can discover, never made it into the Benedictine Calendar, though the Monastic Diurnal does provide texts for it in the supplement at the back of the book.

The feast, though, used the same Gospel as the old Sunday within the Octave of Epiphany, and thus simply provided some variety, through its antiphons, within the old Octave, relating closely to the themes of the Epiphany, in much the same way that the various feasts of the Christmas Octave do.

Octave of the Epiphany

The other major twentieth century change impacting on this Sunday was the abolition of most Octaves.

Prior to the 1950s, the Sunday was part of the Octave, reflecting the fact that the Epiphany is traditionally viewed as one of the most important feasts of the year.  Indeed in many places and times, it was seen as more important than Christmas, perhaps reflecting the Eastern tradition where the nativity is celebrated as part of the feast of the Epiphany.

The extension of a feast to eight days goes back to Jewish traditions: eight people were saved in Noah's ark; boys were circumcised on the eighth day after their birth; many purification ceremonies required eight days; and many feasts were celebrated over eight days, foreshadowing Christ's Resurrection on the 'eighth day'.

The association with the number eight isn't entirely lost in the 1962 calendar, since the old Octave day of the Epiphany is still celebrated as the 'Commemoration of the Baptism of Our Lord'.  Still, given that the Epiphany particularly celebrates Christ's baptism among its three main mysteries, it seems particularly unfortunate to downplay the association with the number of eight, given its strong baptismal associations (baptisteries, for example, traditionally had eight sides because of the eight saved from the Flood).

Accordingly, prior to the introduction of the feast (and in the Benedictine Office) the Sunday would have used the psalms and antiphons of the feast of the Epiphany, though with its own readings and related texts.

Most octaves, though, were abolished in the fifties, and this, unfortunately, was one of them.  It is one that should, in my view, be brought back!

Plough Sunday

It is also worth noting that this Sunday was traditionally, at least in England, known as 'Plough Sunday', when blessings of the relevant implements were done in anticipation of the start of planting the crops for the year.

Here in Australia, it is of course, the wrong season for this lovely tradition, by I gather it is making a bit of a come back in Northern climes!


Thursday, January 5, 2017

January 6: Feast of the Epiphany


The celebration of the feast of the Epiphany (the word means manifestation) on January 6 is very ancient as a decree of the Holy See dating back to 376 attests.  It is traditionally one of the great feasts around which the Church year is traditionally arranged (with Sundays after the Epiphany).  Sad then that in many Churches today it is actually celebrated on the preceding Sunday, and precedes only very ordinary time indeed!

The Feast actually encompasses three different 'manifestations' of our Lord's divinity:
  • the visit of the Wise Men from the East (the primary focus of the liturgy);
  • the baptism of Our Lord by St John the Baptist; and
  • the changing of wine into water at the wedding feast of Cena.
No wonder then that until 1955 it also had an octave.

It is also rich with devotional traditions, including the blessing of holy water (of the 'super-charged' variety!), frankinsense, gold and chalk (to be used in the annual blessing of your house).

Saturday, October 31, 2015

The Office in Christmastide and the Sundays after the Epiphany

The season of Christmas (or Nativitytide) has two parts: the 'twelve days of Christmas', from Christmas Eve (I Vespers of Christmas) to January 5; and the season of Epiphany, which officially runs up to 13 January.

There is a bit of a trick to it though, because older versions of the liturgy actually treated all of the time up until the Feast of the Purification on February 2 as the season of Epiphany, and the Office retains traces of that: the Sundays are still labelled 'after Epiphany' up until the pre-Lenten season of Septuagesima, and the readings on them reflect Epiphany themes. 

In fact the readings for the original six Sundays of Epiphanytide allowed for (before addition of Septuagesima under St Gregory the Great) continue to be said, with any Sundays displaced by an early start to Septuagesimatide moved to the end of the liturgical year.

In addition, the Office of Our Lady on Saturday continues to be said in its Christmastide form right up until February 2.

The other key point to note is that there are a number of texts to be said on particular dates in addition to the main (fixed) feast days.

The twelve days of Christmas

The Christmasy feel for the Office really starts on December 24, with the Vigil of the Nativity.  But in fact that day, at least up until None, is technically part of Advent.

Christmas has a second class octave, and so the Office is effectively that of Christmas for a whole week, but displaced to some degree by the series of second class feasts that occur in this period.

Between January 2 and January 5, the 'ordinary of the ferial office after the Octave of the Nativity', which includes chapter verses, hymns and so forth for Lauds to Vespers, is used, MD 119*.  

During this period, the antiphons and psalms are of the day of the week as set out in the psalter for ‘throughout the year and in Nativitytide’. At Matins, the Invitatory, hymn, versicles and chapter are of the season, and three readings are of the date.  At Terce, Sext and None, the antiphons is as for throughout the year; the chapter and versicle are particular to Nativitytide (set out in the psalter section of the Diurnal, as well as at MD 122-3*.  At Lauds and Vespers, the chapter, responsory, hymn, versicle and canticle antiphon are for the season, and can be found at MD 119-25*.

The Ordinary of the Office in Epiphany (January 7-12)

Epiphanytide is part of the greater season of Christmastide, hence at all hours, antiphons and psalms are of the day of the week as in the psalter for ‘throughout the year and in Nativitytide’.

At Matins, the Invitatory antiphon, hymn, versicles, responsories and chapter are of the season.  At Lauds and Vespers, the chapter, responsory, hymn, and versicle are for the season, and can be found at MD 133-9*.  

In the not too distant past the feast of Epiphany had an Octave, and the proper antiphons for the canticles set for each day are remnants of that octave.  Similarly, the feast of the Commemoration of the Baptism of Our Lord is said as if it were an octave day.

Office of Our Lady after Christmas

On fourth class Saturdays up until the feast of the Purification, the Office is of Our Lady after Christmas.

Matins: As for Office of Our Lady throughout the year except for collect.  Reading 3 is of Our Lady (the breviary provides readings for Saturdays 1, 2, 3, and 4&5.

Lauds to None: Office of Our Lady after Christmas, MD (133) ff.  

January 14 - Septuagesima: Ordinary of Time Throughout the Year

Nativitytide officially ends with the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord; from January 14 until Septuagesima, the Offices uses the default texts set out in the psalter section of the Diurnal or Breviary for ‘time throughout the year’.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Feast of Epiphany (January 6)


Vicente Gil, 1498-1519
January 6 is, in some countries, as well as in the Extraordinary Form, the feast of the Epiphany. 

Christmastide and the date of the feast

In many more places, unfortunately, where it is not a Holy Day of Obligation, it is celebrated this coming Sunday instead.  And that is unfortunate, because the celebration of the feast of the Epiphany (the word means manifestation) on January 6 is very ancient as a decree of the Holy See dating back to 376 attests.

It marks, among other things, the end of the traditional twelve days of Christmas, and is traditionally one of the great feasts around which the Church year is traditionally arranged (with Sundays after the Epiphany).

It is worth noting, though, that Epiphany does not in fact mark the end of the broader Christmas season: the 1963 breviary rubrics split  'de tempore natalicio' into two sections: Nativitytide and Epiphanytide, which runs up to and includes 13 January (ie encompassing the old and now abolished octave of the Epiphany).

Manifestations of the divinity of Our Lord

The Feast actually celebrates three different 'manifestations' of our Lord's divinity:
  • the visit of the Wise Men from the East (the primary focus of the liturgy of the feast of the Epiphany);
  • the baptism of Our Lord by St John the Baptist (especially remembered on the old octave day in the feast of the Commemoration of the Baptism of Our Lord, January 13; and
  • the changing of wine into water at the wedding feast of Cena.
It is perhaps worth noting that the recent publication of an early account of the Magi's journey, The Revelations of the Magi, which suggests that there were in fact quite a large group of wise men who travelled to worship the Christ child, in no way contradicts the Gospel, which is silent on the size of the group...

The feast is rich in devotional traditions, including the blessing of holy water (of the 'super-charged' variety!), frankinsense, gold and chalk (to be used in the annual blessing of your house).