Understanding the calendar VIA - The liturgical year Pt 1

St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 390: Antiphonarium officii (Antiphonary for liturgy of the hours) (https://www.e-codices.unifr.ch/en/list/one/csg/0390).

The cycles in the Office

So far in this series on how the calendar for the Office works we've looked at:

• the hours, each of which have some fixed texts generally said every day at that particular hour;
• the day of the week, which dictates changes to either the psalms and a few other texts (antiphons, responsories), and in some cases the chants used (for example the hymn tune used for Compline changes on Saturdays and Sundays);
• the date - feasts which have fixed dates;
• the month. There are days and offices that are fixed to particular days of the week in particular calendar months (such as Matins readings for the Office of Our Lady on Saturday, the September Ember Days and Matins reading from August to November).

The last cycle we need to cover is that of the liturgical year cycle, which is largely dependent on the date of Easter, which varies each year depending on the date of the 'Paschal Full Moon'.

In this post, a little background, and then in the next I'll work through the cycle of  'movable feasts' and liturgical seasons and the key rules associated with them.

The Office and the liturgical year - the ferial character of the early Office

Today we take for granted that the Office and the Mass cycles are and should be closely linked.

As I noted earlier in this series, however, most if not all of these connections are the result of the later, gradual development of the Office rather than necessarily having been in place in St Benedict's time.

Although St Benedict specifies that a Gospel reading be included at Matins each Sunday for example, we don't know if this was always one of the accounts of the Resurrection (as was the case in the Office in Gaul described by St Benedict's contemporary Caesarius of Arles), or (more likely in my view) a continuous reading of the Gospels over the year (the remnants of which are suggested in one of the earliest Mass lectionaries, the Wutzburg Sacramentary), or, as is now the case, the reading used at the Mass.

The development of the connections

We do know however that the practice of using the third nocturn for Patristic readings related to the fixed Gospel cycle is a ninth century Frankish development, rather than reflecting Roman practice of the time.

Similarly, the addition of collects to the Benedictine Office (as for the Office used in the Lateran) seems to have been a relatively late development.

Even the special forms of the Office used during the Sacred Triduum, for example, have actually been imported from the Roman Office, and their use has been resisted strongly by Benedictines at times (since it means that all 150 psalms can't be said in a week, contrary to RB 18).

The liturgical year in the modern Office

The cycle we are now looking at, which depends each year on the calculation of the date of Easter, is often described as that of the movable feasts, key dates of which are solemnly announced each year on the feast of the Epiphany, a remnant of a period before the ready availability of Ordos.

In fact you can find a list of these key dates (Ash Wednesday, Easter etc) for many years to come in the front section of the Diurnal.

The texts that are linked to these dates can be found in the 'temporale' section of the Diurnal (or breviary) and includes:

• (in the breviary) the readings used at Matins from Septuagesima to July, and the cycle of Gospels and third Nocturn readings from August to November;
• the collect used at Matins, Lauds, and Terce to Vespers each day, except where it is displaced by a feast;
• the canticle antiphons used on Sundays that are not feasts;
• the texts needed for the observance of various 'movable' feasts; and 
• texts for the specials seasons and times of the year.

In the next post we will start working through the key parts of the liturgical year.