Rubrics for Lent proper

Just a reminder that from Monday (following the First Sunday of Lent), the Ordinary is of Lent, and the necessary texts for it can be found in the 'of time' section of your Office book.

The Office in Lent

The key points to note are that:

• The antiphons, hymns (at Matins, Lauds and Vespers) and other texts on weekdays are those of the 'ordinary of Lent', to be found in the 'of time' section of Office books (MB 367/MD 190* ff);
• At Lauds and Vespers, the chapters, hymns, responsory and versicle of the Ordinary of Lent replace those in the psalter section, and the canticle antiphons are proper for each day;
• At Prime the antiphon is of Lent;
• At Terce to None the antiphon and chapter is of the season of Lent;
• Each day there are two sets of collects: the first for use from Matins to None; the second for Vespers; and
• When a feast displaces the Lent texts, a commemoration of the day is made at both Lauds and Vespers using the relevant canticle antiphon, versicle of the season and hour, and the collect of the hour of the Lent day.

Class III feasts during Lent: the pre-1962 option

Another key point to note is an important change made in the 1962 rubrics for the Roman breviary, namely reducing all Class III feasts in Lent to commemorations. This was, however, reversed on an optional basis in the decree Cum Sanctissima, at least for selected feasts.

In the Benedictine Office, this change seems to have been made much earlier (it is marked in the 1930 breviary), but it does mean we rarely if ever get to celebrate the feasts of some important saints.

Accordingly, in the Ordo I've given the instructions as per the 1962 rules (ie a commemoration at Lauds only, made by adding the Antiphon, versicle and collect of the feast after the collect of the day, and simply noted the option.

For those who would like to say the three relevant feasts as Class III this year (SS Perpetua and Felicity and St Thomas Aquinas, which both ranked as duplex, and arguably St Frances of Rome, previously a duplex, but reduced to a memorial in the Benedictine, but not Roman, calendar in the twentieth century), I will provide the rubrics later in the week.

Feast of St Gregory the Great

The other oddity this year is that becasue the feast of St Gregory the Great falls on a Sunday, under the 1962 rubrics, his feast is not marked at all in the Office this year.

Given the importance of the saint for Benedictines, this seems to me to be a bizzare outcome. Accordingly, one could reasonably, I think, consider adopting the pre-1962 practice of transferring the feast to the next available day, viz Monday March 13, and I have provided rubrics for this option.