This is my annual reminder that the most complicated time of the year for the Office, Advent, is rapidly approaching, so its time to start getting ready!
This post is primarily for those relatively new to the Office - I'll say more for those more advanced in the next.
Get your Ordo now
The first key step is to make sure you have an Ordo at hand that you can use.
At a minimum, an Ordo will tell you what liturgical day is celebrated on each date, and how to resolve any conflicts between competing days and feasts (such as between Sundays and feasts, or competing days and dates in Advent).
Each year, the changing dates of 'moveable feasts' and seasons (stemming from the date of the first Sunday of Advent and Easter) interact with the calendar year cycle causing what the Diurnal calls occasions of 'concurrence' or 'occurence'.
For the coming year, I've found over sixty of these, and nine of these occur in December.
You can of course, sit down and work these out for yourself with the aid of the 'two tables' in the Diurnal, and a copy of the rubrics (since there are always some issues that aren't actually covered by the two tables). But you will need to have your wits about you if you choose that path!
A short version of the one I produce can be found at the page links on this blog - click here for December. Alternatively you can purchase a more detailed version which tells you exactly which texts you should use, and providing page numbers for them in the Diurnal and Antiphonale (if you are chanting the Office).
You can purchase it Lulu:
Make sure you know the structure of the hours thoroughly
Secondly, make sure you are very familiar with the different parts that make up each hour.
In the period of the calendar we are currently in, time after Pentecost, most of the texts you need, Sundays aside, can be found either in the psalter section of your Diurnal, supplemented by the section for feasts of saints.
During Advent, however, a lot of the texts in the psalter section are replaced by others, and on some days they may come from several different places.
Make sure you are familiar with the Ordinary of Advent and where it slots in
The particular challenge for Advent is that the texts for the hours are a mix of the Ordinary of Advent'; psalm antiphons for the week or day of the week in the period 17-23 December; and canticle antiphons for the day of the Advent week and/or date.
And that's before taking into account some the feasts that fall in Advent, which usually require a 'commemoration' of the Advent day.
I would also suggest looking now at the section of the Diurnal with the 'Ordinary of Advent' (MD 9*), near the beginning of the Diurnal, and making sure you know where to substitute in these texts.
Start learning/revising the chants!
Finally, the Office is meant to be sung!
If you are new to chant, it is best to start slowly, but it is pretty easy to learn at least one or two of the hymns.
A very useful site for this purpose, is called Liber Hymnarius - you can find the file for the Vespers hymn, Conditor alme siderum)
here. The words for the last two verses are different to the Benedictine Office version, but the rest aligns, and should be enough to get you going!
More anon.
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