Using an Ordo effectively - and how to do without one! Part I: The liturgical week and Sundays

 A few weeks ago I posted on reasons for using an Ordo, and this week I want to continue with some notes on how to use one more effectively, and ultimately how to be less reliant on one, with a particular focus on getting ready for Advent. 

In these notes I’m going to refer mainly to my own, the Le Barroux, and Divinum Officium Ordos. 

The week of the liturgical year 

The first key piece of information you need each week is which Sunday or week of the liturgical year it is, since most of the time this determines the default collect to use at the hours other than at Prime and Compline, as well as whether there are any seasonal texts that displace those normally used in the psalter. 

For this week, for example, my own Ordo tells you that this is the twenty-fifth week after Pentecost – so we are in time throughout the year, or time after Pentecost: 

Sunday 22 November– Twenty-fifth and last Sunday after Pentecost/Fifth Sunday of November, Class II

 Divinum Officium separates out the ‘temporale’ and ‘sanctorale’ cycles, and gives the same information, but in Latin.  The key difference is that where I've given the actual number of the Sunday this particular year, Divinum Officium gives you the number of the relevant Sunday texts (viz what the Diurnal labels as the 24th and last Sunday of the year). For 22 November, the entry is: 

Dominica XXIV et Ultima Post Pentecosten V. Novembris II. Classis 

The Le Barroux Ordo gives you essentially the same information in a more abbreviated form: 

Dom. 22 XXV & ultima post Pent. 5 nov. 2cl. 

From this, you can then look up the ‘temporale’ section of your Office book to find the collect you will need on most days, which in the Diurnal is at page 487* (MD 487*). 

Next week, though, the Sunday will be the first of Advent, so you will also need to look for the antiphons and other texts specific to that season. 

For Saturday Vespers and Sunday Lauds and Vespers. 

For Saturday Vespers and Sundays you also need to find the correct canticle antiphons. 

For most of the year, these have the same label as the relevant Sunday of the liturgical year. So from next week, with Advent, the canticles and other texts of Saturday Vespers can be found right at the beginning of the Diurnal, immediately followed by the texts for the Sunday. 

August to November

From August to November, however, the Magnificat antiphon for Saturday Vespers, as well as the Matins readings, are of the relevant week of the calendar month - in the example above for this week, the fifth week of November:

Sunday 22 November– Twenty-fifth and last Sunday after Pentecost/Fifth Sunday of November, Class II

 Dominica XXIV et Ultima Post Pentecosten V. Novembris II. Classis (Divinum Officium)

Dom. 22 XXV & ultima post Pent. 5 nov. 2cl. (Le Barroux)

And because the number of weeks this affects changes each year, most office books put some or all of the Saturday Magnificat antiphons for time after Pentecost in a separate section of the ‘temporale’ to the Sunday cycle. 

My own Ordo gives you the relevant page numbers (so for this week’s Saturday Vespers, MD 461*.

The Le Barroux Ordo just says ‘Vesp. De Dom. Seq‘ (‘Vespers of the following Sunday’), leaving you to find it for yourself. 

It is worth keeping in mind that in the period August to November, the relevant ‘calendar’ week may not correspond with the actual week of the month – under the 1962 rules, for example, there is never a second week of November (!).  

So you do either need to consult an Ordo on this, or sit down and read the rubrics!

More anon.