Feast of St Gregory the Great OSB

 

Today is the feast of St Gregory the Great, a key Benedictine saint, but this year the feast is not celebrated on its proper date due to the Lent Sunday.

1962 rubrics - the case for change

I mentioned last week that one of the 1962 changes that I think bears overturning is the changes made to the treatment of feasts below the highest level, that is those classified as Class II in the 1962 rubrics. 

There were two key changes - first the suppression of 1 Vespers of the feast, a rule change most trad monasteries now (rightly in my view) ignore; the second though, is the transfer rules.  Previously, if such a feast clashed with a Sunday it would have been transferred to the next available date, or at least had a commemoration at Lauds and Vespers.  Under 1962 rules though, Class II feasts are either reduced to a commemoration (for ordinary Sundays) or, as this year when it comes up against a Class I Sunday, not marked in the Office at all.

In the case of St Gregory, it seems to me that there a simple option - make the feast first class; he is, after all, effectively the second founder of the Benedictine Order by virtue of his Life of St Benedict..

But there is a more general issue here that needs to be addressed, either by changing the rubrics to allow commemorations in conjunction with Class I feasts/Sundays, or by allowing the transfer of Class II feasts.

If the feast is transferred...

For those who are following older rubrics, some notes on how to say the feast on Monday:

Matins: Three Nocturns: Invitatory, antiphons and psalms of a Confessor Pope; hymn (LR 434), readings and responsories of the feast.

Lauds: Festal psalms with antiphons, chapter, responsory, hymn, versicle, Benedictus antiphon and collect of the feast, MD [77]/AM 832 ff with a commemoration of the Lent day.

Prime: antiphon 1 of Lauds, MD [77]/AM 832.

Terce to None: antiphon, chapter, versicle and collect of the feast, MD [79]/AM 834 ff; 

Vespers: antiphons of Lauds (omitting the fourth), psalms of 2 Vespers of the Common of a Confessor Bishop, MD (68) ff, chapter, responsory, hymn, versicle, Magnificat antiphon and collect of the feast, MD [81] ff/AM 835 with a commemoration of the Lent day.