Sunday, November 19, 2017

Brush up your rubrics for Advent - The canticle antiphons and collects in Advent

Image result for o antiphons


In the previous part of this series I talked about how the canticle antiphons and collects usually work; today I want to work on the canticle antiphons and collects of Advent.

Advent days and dates

The first thing you need to know is that during Advent, the antiphons for the Benedictus at Lauds and the Magnificat at Vespers are different each day, being either of the Advent day (eg Monday in the First week of Advent, Tuesday in the first week of Advent, etc) or of the date (unless, of course, displaced by a feast).

The trick is that between December 17 and 23, the Lauds canticle is generally (subject to two key exceptions) of the Advent day (not date), while the Vespers canticles of the Advent day are displaced by those of the date (viz the O antiphons).

So this year (2017) for example, at Lauds on Monday 18 November, the canticle is of Monday in the Third Week of Advent (Egredietur virga).

The O antiphons

At Vespers, however, you have to ignore the Magnificat antiphon set down for the Monday in the third week in your book and instead use the O antiphon of the date, O Adonai.
  • The Great O's as they are known, can be found in the Diurnal on page 35-6*, or in the Antiphonale on page 208-11.  In other books, look after the Third Sunday of Advent.
The O antiphons are ancient indeed, known to St Benedict's contemporary Boethius, and all have essentially the same melody, so are easy to learn, and there are numerous recordings of them available on youtube.

Lauds canticles

Although Lauds mostly sticks to canticles of the Advent day, it does have some canticles of the date as well, namely for December 21 (Nolite Timere, used in the commemoration of the day as it is the feast of St Thomas) and December 23 (Ecce completa).

The table below summarises the source of the canticles between December 17 and the end of Advent - and of course don't forget that the first word of the O antiphons working backwards spells out Ero Cras - tomorrow I will come!


Lauds
Vespers

Dec 17
Of the Advent day (2017: Third Sunday of Advent)

O Sapientia
Dec 18
Of the Advent day (2017: Monday in the third week of Advent)

O Adonai
Dec 19
Of the Advent day (2017: Tuesday wk III)

O Radix Iesse
Dec 20
Of the Advent day (2017: Ember Wednesday of Advent)

O Clavis David
Dec 21
Of the Advent day (St Thomas – for the commemoration of the Advent Day, Nolite Timere)

O Oriens
Dec 22
Of the Advent day (2017: Ember Friday of Advent)

O Rex gentium
Dec 23
Of the date – Ecce completa est

O Emmanuel
Dec 24
Of the Vigil of the Nativity
Of I Vespers of the Nativity

The collects

The collects for Advent follow the normal pattern, generally being of the Sunday each week (except at Prime and Compline).

The key exception is the three Ember days (Wednesday, Friday and Saturday in the third week of Advent), which each have their own collect.


2 comments:

Tom Ehnert said...

I just want to thank you for ALL your work, day in and day out, week in and week out. What a great gift you give those of us who pray with you around the world. I am so thankful for your work!

Kate Edwards said...

Thanks you - please keep me in your prayers.