June 2023

Notes on the Office for June. 

From 1 Vespers of Trinity Sunday, the Office returns to the 'throughout the year' texts for the Ordinary of the Office.

If you would like more detailed notes, you can purchase the full ordo through Lulu in hardcopy or PDF form.

You can also find notes on how to say the Benedictine Office according to the 1962 calendar and rubrics here.

June 2023

Thursday 1 June – Pentecost Thursday, Class I 

Canticle antiphons and collect, MD 405*/AM 529-30. 

Friday 2 June – Ember Friday of Pentecost, Class I 

Canticle antiphons and collect, MD 405-6*/AM 530-1. 

Saturday 3 June – Ember Saturday of Pentecost, Class I 

Lauds to None: As for Pentecost Sunday, with festal psalms at Lauds and Vespers, except the Benedictus antiphon and collect, MD 406-7*/AM 531; 1 Vespers of the Most Holy Trinity: Sunday psalms with antiphons, chapter, responsory, hymn, versicle, Magnificat antiphon and collect of the feast, MD 407*/AM 532 ff (no commemoration of the Sunday); Compline: Marian Antiphon Salve Regina, MD 268-9/AM 176 or 180, henceforward. 

Sunday 4 June – Feast of the Most Holy Trinity, Class I

MD 409*/AM 535 ff (no commemoration of the Sunday). 

Monday 5 June – St Boniface, Class III 

MD [152]/AM 914. 

Tuesday 6 June – St Norbert, Class III 

MD [152]/AM 915. 

Wednesday 7 June – Class IV 

Collect of the First Sunday after Pentecost, MD 418*/AM 535; 1 Vespers of Corpus Christi, MD 419*/AM 543 ff. 

Thursday 8 June – Corpus Christi, Class I [Previously: with a Privileged Octave of the second order] 

MD 427*/AM 550 ff. 

Friday 9 June – Class IV; SS Primus and Felician, Memorial [**In some places, St Columba] 

For the commemoration at Lauds, MD [153]/AM 915. 

Saturday 10 June – Class IV; Saturday of Our Lady [EF: St Margaret of Scotland, Class III] 

1 Vespers of the Second Sunday after Pentecost, MD 432*/AM 556-7. 

Sunday 11 June – Second Sunday after Pentecost (Sunday within the Octave of Corpus Christi), Class II

 MD 461-2*/AM 557-8. 

Monday 12 June – Class IV [EF: St John of Facundo; SS Basilides, Cyrinus, Nabor and Nazarius, Memorial]

All as in the psalter for throughout the year with collect MD 462*/AM 557. 

Tuesday 13 June – Class IV; St Anthony of Padua, Memorial [EF: Class III] 

For the commemoration at Lauds, MD [154]/AM 916. 

Wednesday 14 June – St Basil the Great, Class III 

MD [155]/AM 917. 

Thursday 15 June – Class IV; St Vitus, Memorial [EF/Gower: also SS Modestus and Crescentia, Memorial] 

For the commemoration at Lauds, MD [155]/AM 917; 1 Vespers of the Sacred Heart, MD 432*/AM 560 ff. 

Friday 16 June – Feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Class I [Previously: with a Privileged Octave of the third order] 

MD 439*/AM 565 ff. 

Saturday 17 June – Class IV; Saturday of Our Lady [EF: St Gregory Barbarigo, Class III] 

1 Vespers of the Third Sunday after Pentecost, MD 445*/AM 571. 

Sunday 18 June – Third Sunday after Pentecost (Sunday within the Octave of the Sacred Heart of Jesus), Class II

MD 462-3*/AM 571 ff. 

Monday 19 June – Class IV; St Gervase and Protase, Memorial [EF: St Juliana Falcionieri, Class III] 

All as in the psalter for time throughout the year with collect, MD 463*/AM 572; for the commemorations at Lauds, MD [157]/AM 918. 

Tuesday 20 June – Class IV [EF: St Silverius, Memorial] 

Wednesday 21 June – Class IV; St Aloysius Gonzaga, Memorial [EF: Class III] 

For the commemoration at Lauds, MD [157-8]/AM 918. 

Thursday 22 June – Class IV [EF/Gower: St Paulinus, Memorial; in England and Wales, SS John Fisher and Thomas More] 

Friday 23 June – Vigil of the Nativity of St John the Baptist, Class II 

MD [158]/AM 919; 1 Vespers of the Nativity of St John the Baptist, MD [159]/AM 920 ff. 

Saturday 24 June – Nativity of St John the Baptist, Class I [Previously: with a Common Octave] 

MD [161]/AM 924 ff; 2 Vespers of the feast with commemoration of the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost, MD 445*/AM 575-6 & 593. 

Sunday 25 June – Fourth Sunday after Pentecost, Class II

 MD 463-4*/AM 593. 

Monday 26 June – Class IV; SS John and Paul, Memorial [EF: Class III] 

For the commemoration at Lauds, MD [166]/AM 929. 

Tuesday 27 June – Class IV 

Wednesday 28 June – Vigil of SS Peter and Paul, Class II 

MD [166-7]/AM 930; 1 Vespers of SS Peter and Paul, MD [167]/AM 931 ff. 

Thursday 29 June – SS Peter and Paul, Class I [Previously: with a Common Octave] 

MD [169]/AM 934 ff. 

Friday 30 June – Commemoration of St Paul, Class III 

MD [173]/AM 941 ff.

 

The feast of the finding of Holy Cross (May 3)

 

St Helena finding the true cross, Italian MSS c825, Source: Wikicommons.

 For those who use the traditional Benedictine Office and follow one of the monasteries that have revived this feast, I've put together the texts for both Matins and the day hours of the feast of Finding of Holy Cross arranged as for the Benedictine Office, and you can find them over at my Lectio Divina Notes Blog.

The feasts of the sign of the Cross

This feast was suppressed in the 1962 Benedictine and General Roman calendars, but is being revived in many places.  

Most of the texts are the same as for the feast of the Exaltation of Holy Cross (September 14), save for the addition of alleluias because of the season.  

But there are a few differences, reflecting the fact that while both celebrate the sign of the Cross (rather than the Passion per se), they celebrate two different events.  

The feast of the Exaltation of Holy Cross celebrates the recovery of the true Cross in AD 629 by the Byzantine emperor Heraclius, after it had fallen into the hands of the Persian Emperor Chosroes II in the AD 614 Sasanian conquest of Jerusalem.

The feast of the finding of Holy Cross on May 3, by contrast, celebrates its initial recovery by St Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine the Great, in 327.

The finding of Holy Cross

The Matins (Nocturn II) readings describing the events celebrated in the feast of the finding of Holy Cross read as follows:

After that famous victory which the Emperor Constantine gained over Maxentius, in the year 312, on the eve of which the banner of the Cross of the Lord had been given to him from heaven, Helen, the mother of Constantine, being warned in a dream, came to Jerusalem, in 326, to seek for the Cross. There it was her care to cause to be overthrown the marble statue of Venus, which had stood on Calvary for about one hundred and eighty years, and which had originally been put there to desecrate and destroy the memorial of the sufferings of the Lord Christ. The like work Helen did at Bethlehem, by cleansing from an image of Adonis the stable where the Saviour was born, and from an idol of Jupiter, the place where he had arisen from the dead. 

When she had thus cleansed the place where the Cross had stood, Helen caused deep excavations to be made, which resulted in the discovery of three crosses, and, apart from them, the writing which had been nailed on that of the Lord. But which of the crosses had been His was unknown, and was only manifested by a miracle. Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, after offering solemn prayers to God, touched with each of the three a woman who was afflicted with a grievous disease. The two first had no effect, but at the touch of the third she was immediately healed. 

Helen, after she had found the life-giving Cross, built over the site of the Passion a Church of extraordinary splendour, wherein she deposited part of the Cross, shut up in a silver case. Another part which she gave to her son, Constantine, was laid up in the Church of the Holy Cross of Jerusalem, which he built at Rome on the site of the Sessorian Palace. 

She also gave to her son the nails with which the Most Holy Body of Jesus Christ had been pierced. Constantine established a law abolishing the punishment of crucifixion for all time coming and thenceforth what had hitherto been a hissing and a curse among men, began to be esteemed worshipful and glorious.