Octave Day of Easter (April 15)/Second Sunday of Easter (OF)

This Sunday has acquired various titles down the centuries, including (but not limited to!):

• Dominica in Albis, of White Sunday,  reflecting the day on which the newly baptised members of the Church put aside the white garments traditionally received at their baptism;
• Low Sunday, in contrast to the previous 'High' Sunday;
• Quasi modo Sunday, for the opening words of the Introit of the Mass (as newborn babes....);
• St Thomas Sunday, for the Gospel (in both the EF and OF, St John 20:19-31), which tells the story of St Thomas' doubts and Our Lord's response;
• Second Sunday of Easter (Novus Ordo);
• Divine Mercy Sunday.

The Office from this week follows the Ordinary of Eastertide/Paschaltide:

•  at Lauds there only three antiphons, as the first three psalms are said under one antiphon of alleluias;
• at Vespers the psalms are said under one antiphon;
• at all the day hours there is a chapter, hymns, responsory/versicle etc of the season.

There are also proper antiphons for the Benedictus and Magnificat canticles at Lauds and Vespers each day.

Easter Tuesday

Easter Monday

The Gospel today is St Luke 24:13-35, Jesus appears to the disciples on the road to Emmaus.

Sunday 1 May: Low Sunday, Class I

Cima da Conegliano, c1459-1518
National Gallery, London

The Octave Day of Easter - aka Quasimodo Sunday aka White Sunday aka...- has a lot of aliases!

The Quasimodo appellation comes from the first word of the Introit for the day ('Like newborn babies..'), which you can listen to below; the name White Sunday comes from the tradition of the neophytes putting aside their white garments; and Low Sunday comes as a contrast to the 'High' Sunday of Easter itself.

The Gospel is John 20:19-31, the story of Doubting Thomas.

The extended Sunday of the Octave of Easter

This week we continue to celebrate Easter, in this extended 'Sunday' of the Octave.

Eastertide is so important a liturgical season that in the fifty days after it, no fasting was traditionally permitted.  The Office is festooned with alleluias, and the festal texts are generally used on Sundays.

But Easter itself is such a crucial feast that the Church extends its celebration through the octave. 

At Mass, the 'stations' continue, so there are propers and readings set for each day of the Octave (the eight days including the feast itself). 

In the Office, the psalms and antiphons of the day hours, together with most of the texts of the Office (the exceptions are the canticle antiphons and collect set for each day) are those of the Sunday (Prime uses the first antiphon of Lauds).

The pattern is only broken at Matins, where, for reasons best known to themselves the 1962 reformers have the hour gradually reverting to the ferial psalms as the week progresses, albeit under one antiphon for each Nocturn.

So maintain your joy!  And to help you along, here is the Lauds hymn, Aurora lucis rutilat.

Lectio divina from the Office: Low Sunday

The Office is an excellent source for lectio divina - the daily Scriptural or homily readings at Matins in Winter and on important feasts; the 'propers' of the season, that constantly remind us of the meaning of Eastertide for example; the psalms; and the other texts of the Office itself are all possible sources for our lectio.

And as we say the Office, we should seek to penetrate ever more deeply into its meaning, something aided by the many repetitions in it, allowing the words to sink ever deeper into us!

Colossians 3

Today, the readings from the first Nocturn of Matins comes from Colossians 3 (verses 1-17) and seem to me to contain some lines worth highlighting as they seem to me to perfectly capture Benedictine spirituality.

Low Sunday was when the newly baptized and confirmed members of the Church put off their white garments, and resumed wearing ordinary clothes. But this text (and we are given one of St Augustine's sermons on it specifically directed at the neophytes in the Second Nocturn) talks about the Christian putting away the old nature dedicated to evil - wrath, malice, and so forth, and putting on the new. St Augustine links this text to the instruction to 'put on the armour of light' - a call to the spiritual warfare.

But the lines that particularly caught my eye were these:

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly...as you sing hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."