So far in this series on how the calendar works in the 1962 Benedictine Office in the 1962 Office I've looked at:
- the daily cycle of 'hours' and the rationale for them;
- the days of the week; and the ranking of days and feasts.
In this post I will look at feasts that occur on weekdays; in the next we will look at the rules for Sundays; and the third I will look at adding in local feasts, as well as alternative calendars.
Some of what follows will be very familiar to some, but new to others.
Either way, it is important to make sure you thoroughly understand it, as even if you normally follow an Ordo, there are some local feasts that you will need to add in to your Office, and that requires you to apply these principles to them.
The base 'Ordo'
In the last post I noted that feasts and days can be ranked from Class I to Class IV, with the 'default' ranking of days such that Monday to Saturdays are Class IV; and Sundays (which start from I Vespers of Saturday) are Class II.
The base texts for these days are contained in the 'psalter' section of your Office book, supplemented by the texts for Saturdays Office of Our Lady (in the section with 'Commons of feasts').
So your starting point 'Ordo' looks something like:
Sunday - Class II
All as in the psalter for a Sunday
Monday - Class IV
All as in the psalter for Monday
Tuesday - Class IV
All as in the psalter
Wednesday - Class IV
All as in the psalter
Thursday – Class IV
All as in the psalter
Friday - Class IV
All as in the psalter
[I Vespers of Our Lady on Saturday]
Saturday - Class IV; Office of Our Lady on Saturday
Matins to None: All as for the Office of Our Lady on Saturday
Vespers: Of Saturday (=I Vespers of Sunday)
Compline: As in the psalter
The general calendar of 1962 for Benedictines
The next step is to overlay this with the feasts fixed to particular calendar dates.
The calendar contains two main types of feasts: the cycle based around the life of Our Lord, as well as the various Marian feasts; and those of the saints.
The feasts of saints are generally linked to the date of their heavenly birth, that is their death on earth, though in some cases for various reasons their feasts are moved to other dates.
Most Office books contain a table listing out all of the feasts attached to particular dates, arranged by month.
The version in the Diurnal, which you can find starting on page xi, is the officially approved 1962 calendar for the Benedictine Confederation (I'll come back to the question of alternate calendars and when they are permitted in due course).
The listing for the first half of August can be translated as looking like this:
1 August - Class IV; The Holy Maccabees, memorial
2 August – Class IV; St Alphonsus Mary de Liguori, memorial
3 August - Class IV
4 August - St. Dominic, Class III
5 August – Class IV; Dedication of the Church of Our Lady of the Snows, memorial
6 August - Transfiguration of Our Lord, Class II
7 August - Class IV; SS Sixtus II, Felicissimus and Agapitus, memorial
8 August - Class IV; St Cyriacus, memorial
9 August – Vigil of St Lawrence, Class III
10 August - St Lawrence, Class II
11 August - Class IV; St. Tiburtius, Memorial
12 August – Class IV; St. Clare, memorial
13 August - Class IV; SS Pontianus and Hippolytus, memorial
14 August – Vigil of the Assumption, Class II
15 August - Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Class I
Let's take a look at some of the key ones for Class IV (week) days.
Memorials on Class IV days
A good starting place is memorials, the lowest level of feasts of saints.
The key rule is that Memorials do not displace Class IV days, but are celebrated in conjunction with them by making a 'commemoration'* of the feast of the saint at Lauds (only).
If we were putting together an Ordo for August 2018, then just looking at the memorials for the moment, we find that the first day of August in 2018 was a Wednesday.
In the last post I gave as template for a Class IV Wednesday. To that we just need to add an instruction to observe the memorial:
Wednesday 1 August - Class IV; The Holy Maccabees, memorial
Matins: All as for Wednesday in the psalter
Lauds: All as for Wednesday in the psalter, with a commemoration of the Holy Maccabees.
Prime: All as for Wednesday in the psalter
Terce to None: All as for Tuesday to Saturday in the psalter
Vespers: All as for Wednesday in the psalter
Compline: All as in the psalter
or we could simply say:
All as for Wednesday in the psalter, with a commemoration of the Maccabees at Lauds.
Exactly the same principle applies to the memorials listed for August 2, 7, 8, 11, and 13 August, which fall on weekdays this year.Lauds: All as for Wednesday in the psalter, with a commemoration of the Holy Maccabees.
Prime: All as for Wednesday in the psalter
Terce to None: All as for Tuesday to Saturday in the psalter
Vespers: All as for Wednesday in the psalter
Compline: All as in the psalter
or we could simply say:
All as for Wednesday in the psalter, with a commemoration of the Maccabees at Lauds.
The actual texts you need to make these commemorations (ie add the antiphon, versicle and collect after the collect of the day in the closing prayers) are contained in the 'Proper of the Saints' section of the book (in the Diurnal, the pages with page numbers in square brackets).
For the memorial of the Holy Maccabees, you can find them on pages [209-10] of the Diurnal, page 988 of the Antiphonale Monasticum, or pages [76-7] of the 1962 Monastic Breviary.
Feasts and weekdays
The second category to consider is the Class I, II and III feasts of the calendar that fall on weekdays in any particular year.
Again the key principles are very simple:
1. Higher level feasts (Class I, II or III) displace lower level weekdays (Class IV).
2. Class I feasts normally start from I Vespers, ie the day before the feast (note: there are special rules for when two feasts occur in a row, and for Saturday Vespers, and I'll come back to these).
3. All other levels of feasts affect the Office from Matins to Compline only.*
*Note: In pre-1962 Calendars, the equivalent to Class II feasts started with I Vespers, and some monasteries retain this practice.
Let's start by overlaying the General Calendar for August with the days of the week in 2018, leaving aside Saturdays and Sundays for the moment.
On Monday August 6, the feast of the Transfiguration, as Class II, displaces the default Class IV day.
And the same thing occurs on Friday August 10 with the feast of St Lawrence.
Because the Feast of the Assumption is Class I, though, it also affects Tuesday 13 August, displacing its Vespers.
The actual way and extent to which a weekday's texts are displaced, depends on:
- the hour concerned. At Prime, for example, only the antiphon can change; at Matins, Lauds and Vespers, 'festal' psalms sometimes displace those for the day of the week;
- the level of feast; and
- whether or not the feast has its own ('proper') antiphons, or just uses those for the type of saint concerned (ie Commons of Apostles, Martyrs, etc).
The simplest approach, though, is to follow the Ordo notes provided on this blog, which basically tells you which things change because of the feast, and where to find the relevant texts.
Vigils and weekdays
The August calendar also provides an example of another type of 'day' in the calendar to take account of, namely Vigils, in this case relating to the feasts of St Lawrence and the Assumption respectively.
Vigils, like feasts, can be Class I (such as for Christmas), II (as for the Assumption) or III (St Lawrence) and simply displace or add texts to the celebration of the normal weekday Office.
On Class II&III vigils, the main effect is on Matins, where the readings are those of the Vigil; at the day hours, the only change is the collect (at the hours other than Prime and Compline), which is of the vigil.
Feasts and Saturday Vespers
Finally, to complete our consideration of feasts and weekdays, we need to look at feasts that fall on Saturdays.
For Matins to None, the rules for Saturday are exactly the same as for other Class IV weekdays.
Saturday Vespers, however, are normally celebrated as 'I Vespers of Sunday', and the rules for Sundays are slightly different to those for weekdays, as they have a higher priority than most feasts.
Let's look at the example of the feast of St Dominic in August 2018.
Normally on a Class III feast, Vespers would be of the feast.
But in this case, that would conflict with First Vespers of the Sunday, which is effectively considered to be Class II.
The key to working out potential conflicts between Sundays and feasts is the 'Two tables' in Diurnal (pages xxv - xxvii).
The second table, concurrence, deals with situations like the feast of St Dominic, and it can be read as providing these rules:
1. If (II) Vespers of a Class III feast coincides with I Vespers of a Class II Sunday (ie Saturday Vespers), Vespers of the feast is not celebrated.
2. If (II Vespers) of a Class I or II feast coincides with I Vespers of a Class II Sunday, Vespers of the feast is celebrated with a 'commemoration' of the Sunday.
So for Saturday August 5 our Ordo would read:
Saturday 4 August - St Dominic, Class III
Matins to None: Of the feast of St Dominic
Vespers and Compline: Of the Sunday
If the feast of St Dominic had been Class II or I, however, Vespers would have been of the feast with a commemoration of the Sunday (made exactly the same way a commemoration of a memorial is done).
Summary and Ordo for August 2018
The table below summarises the principles we've looked at so far for feasts and weekdays.
If a Class IV day coincides
with a feast ranked…
|
Office is of…
|
Vespers impact
|
Memorial
|
The Class IV day (or Office of Our Lady on Saturday) with a
commemoration at Lauds
|
Not affected.
|
Class III
|
The Class III feast
|
Vespers of the day is of the feast unless the feast falls on a
Saturday, in which case Vespers is of the Sunday.
|
Class II
|
The Class II feast
|
*No first Vespers; if falls on a Saturday, Second Vespers includes a
commemoration of the Sunday.
|
Class I
|
The Class I feast
|
Class I feasts normally have both first and second Vespers; if it falls
on a Saturday, Second Vespers includes a commemoration of the Sunday.
|
A good way to check your understanding is to put together some short Ordo notes for the days of August listed above (leaving aside the Sundays for now).
Once you've had a go, check it against the listing below.
Wednesday 1 August - Class IV; The Holy
Maccabees, memorial
All as in
the psalter for Wednesday with a commemoration of the Holy Maccabees at Lauds
Thursday 2 August – Class IV; St Alphonsus
Mary de Liguori, memorial
All as in
the psalter with a commemoration of St Alphonsus at Lauds
Friday 3 August - Class IV
All as in
the psalter
Saturday 4 August - St. Dominic, Class III
Matins to
None: As for the feast of St Dominic
Vespers: I Vespers of the Sunday
Monday 6 August - Transfiguration of Our
Lord, Class II
Matins to Compline: Of the feast
Tuesday 7 August - Class IV; SS Sixtus II,
Felicissimus and Agapitus, memorial
All as in
the psalter, with a commemoration at Lauds
Wednesday 8 August - Class IV; St Cyriacus,
memorial
All as in
the psalter, with a commemoration at Lauds
Thursday 9 August – Vigil of St Lawrence,
Class III
Matins:
Readings and collect of the Vigil
Prime: As
for Thursday in the psalter
Lauds, Prime
to Vespers: As in the psalter, with collect of the Vigil
Friday 10 August - St Lawrence, Class II
Matins to Compline: Of the feast
Saturday 11 August - Class IV, Office of
Our Lady on Saturday; St. Tiburtius, Memorial
Matins to
None: Office of Our Lady on Saturday with a commemoration at Lauds
Vespers: I Vespers
of Sunday
Monday 13 August - Class IV; SS Pontianus
and Hippolytus, memorial
All as in
the psalter with a commemoration at Lauds
Tuesday 14 August – Vigil of the
Assumption, Class II
Matins: As
for Tuesday in the psalter with readings and collect of the vigil
Lauds: As
for Tuesday in the psalter with collect of the vigil
Prime: As
for Tuesday in the psalter
Terce to
None: As for Tuesday in the psalter with collect of the vigil
Vespers: I
Vespers of the Assumption
Wednesday 15 August - Assumption of the
Blessed Virgin Mary, Class I
Matins to
Vespers: All of the feast.
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