Showing posts with label seasons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label seasons. Show all posts

Thursday, January 5, 2017

January 6: Feast of the Epiphany


The celebration of the feast of the Epiphany (the word means manifestation) on January 6 is very ancient as a decree of the Holy See dating back to 376 attests.  It is traditionally one of the great feasts around which the Church year is traditionally arranged (with Sundays after the Epiphany).  Sad then that in many Churches today it is actually celebrated on the preceding Sunday, and precedes only very ordinary time indeed!

The Feast actually encompasses three different 'manifestations' of our Lord's divinity:
  • the visit of the Wise Men from the East (the primary focus of the liturgy);
  • the baptism of Our Lord by St John the Baptist; and
  • the changing of wine into water at the wedding feast of Cena.
No wonder then that until 1955 it also had an octave.

It is also rich with devotional traditions, including the blessing of holy water (of the 'super-charged' variety!), frankinsense, gold and chalk (to be used in the annual blessing of your house).

Saturday, June 18, 2011

June 19: Trinity Sunday, Class I

Shield of the Trinity, manuscript ca 1255-65
Today is Trinity Sunday, which marks the final end of the Easter season and its aftermath, and the start of time after Pentecost.

The distinctive part of today's liturgy is the recitation at Prime of the Creed named after St Athanasius (although modern scholars suspect it actually originated in Southern Gaul), which firmly sets out the essentials of the faith in relation to the Trinity as a counter to Arian and other heresies.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Lent Pt 2 - the rubrics for Passiontide week I


As noted in an earlier post on the rubrics for Lent, Lent in the Benedictine Office actually encompasses a number of quite diverse sets of rubrics:

• Ash Wednesday to first Vespers of the First Sunday of Lent, when the Office basically stays as if it were still Septuagesimatide;
• First Sunday of Lent up until first Vespers of First Passion Sunday - the rubrics of Lent;
Passiontide (First Passion Sunday to Palm Sunday); and
• Holy Week (up until the Easter Vigil).

The notes here cover the Passiontide week I, that is, from First Passion Sunday to Palm Sunday.

 The Ordinary of the Office during Passiontide

The Ordinary of the ferial Office, used from the Monday after First Passion Sunday, in Lent is set out in the Farnborough edition of the Monastic Diurnal at MD 240*ff.

For those saying Matins (not in the Diurnal):
  • the invitatory antiphon is for the season (Hodie si vocem Domini audieritis)
  • the hymn is for the season of Lent and is the same each day (Pange lingua);
  • the readings during the week are usually patristic sermons, relating to the Gospel of the Mass set for that day;
  • the chapter verse for Nocturn II is for the season (Jer 11:18-19).
At Prime to None:
  • the antiphons, chapters and versicles are of the season of Passiontide, and can be found in the psalter section;
  • the collect for Terce to None is the same as for Lauds of that day;
At Lauds and Vespers:
  • chapters, hymns, etc of the season replace those in the psalter section;
  • the responsories omit the Gloria Patri, instead repeating the opening verse;
  • the canticle antiphons are proper for each day. They generally reflect the (EF) Gospel for the day; and
  • there is a specific collect for both Lauds and Vespers each day.
It is also important to be aware that when a feast displaces the Lent texts, a commemoration of the day is made at both Lauds and Vespers using the respective collects, canticle antiphon and versicle that occurs before the relevant canticle at that hour.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Notes on the rubrics for Lent, Part I - Ash Wednesday to Passion Sunday

During Lent the liturgy becomes much more elaborate, and the Office reflects that. 

In particular, there are specific readings set for each day of the week at (EF) Mass.  So at Matins the readings are general patristic commentaries on the Gospel for the day, and the canticle antiphons also generally pick up the key messages from the Gospel.

Lent in the Benedictine Office actually encompasses a number of quite diverse sets of rubrics:
  • Ash Wednesday to first Vespers of the First Sunday of Lent, when the Office basically stays as if it were still Septuagesimatide;
  • First Sunday of Lent up until first Vespers of First Passion Sunday - the rubrics of Lent;
  • Passiontide (First Passion Sunday to Palm Sunday); and
  • Holy Week (up until the Easter Vigil). 
Note that psalms used do not change - they are the same throughout the year, except on major feasts at Lauds and Vespers and a few other very limited exceptions such as the Sacred Triduum.  It is, however, particularly appropriate to use the ferial canticle at Lauds during the penitential season.

The notes here cover the first two of these parts of Lent.

Ash Wednesday to the First Sunday of Lent

This period was something of a later add-on to Lent to make up the correct number of days (given that Sundays are not counted for fasting and other purposes, although in reality we still don't quite make it to forty days, due to the several first class feasts that normally intervene).  The liturgy does intensify, with canticle antiphons for both Lauds and Vespers, but the rest of the Office at Lauds to Vespers remains that of  'throughout the year'.

First Sunday to (First) Passion Sunday

The Ordinary of the ferial Office in Lent is set out in the Farnborough edition of the Monastic Diurnal at MD 190*ff.

For those saying Matins (not in the Diurnal):
  • the invitatory antiphon on weekdays is the same as throughout the year;
  • the hymn is for the season of Lent and is the same each day (Ex more);
  • the readings during the week are usually patristic, relating to the Gospel of the Mass set for that day;
  • the chapter verse for Nocturn II is for the season (Is 1:16-18).
At Lauds and Vespers:
  • chapters, hymns, etc of the season replace those in the psalter section;
  • the canticle antiphons are proper for each day.
Each day there are two sets of collects: the first for use from Matins to None; the second for Vespers.

It is also important to be aware that when a feast displaces the Lent texts, a commemoration of the day is made at both Lauds and Vespers using the respective collects, canticle antiphon and versicle that occurs before the relevant canticle at that hour.

Friday, January 7, 2011

January 7: Yes, it is still Christmastide (and Epiphanytide)...


Visiting the supermarket today I found that Hot Cross buns have appeared already!  Yet in fact, we are still in the last part of the Christmas season, Epiphanytide (so do keep saying Merry Christmas to people!). 

The traditional liturgy however keeps us firmly focused on Our Lord's birth, in this period particularly as a light to the whole world, represented by the worship of the Wise Men.  Fortunatley, the canticle antiphons from the old 'Octave' of Epiphany have been preserved (at least when not displaced by other feasts or the Saturday of Our Lady). 

Here's today's Magnificat antiphon:
Videntes stellam Magi, gavisi sunt gaudio magno: et intrantes domum, obtulerunt Domino aurum, thus et myrrham.

Seeing the star, the Magi rejoiced with great joy. And entering into the house, they offered the Lord gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

And here's a rather attractive setting of it by Poulenc.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

When noon really is noon...

One of the things I like about the traditional Office compared to the new is the constant reminder of nature's cycles - the four Ember Days around the change of the seasons (the Spring one is coming up soon), the differences between the winter and summer Benedictine Office, and the reminders of the time of day in many of the hymns for example.

Awareness of these changing cycles is one of the things we tend to lose in the modern world where most people spend 90% of their day inside, so it is nice to get the occasional prompt to look out the window!

Of course these days, monasteries don't really adjust the start time of Lauds each day to coincide with first light as St Benedict instructs in his Rule: to do so would be utterly impractical.  In late antiquity and the medieval period the day and night were divided into twelve equal hours based on the length of the solar day - so a day 'hour' was longer in summer, shorter in winter.  Today of course, the length of an hour these days is fixed regardless of the time of sunrise and sunset.

Still, if you do have some flexibility in your day, it is nice to be able to adjust the time you say your prayers a little to take note of the shifting seasons.

Right now where I live 'solar noon' actually coincides with actual noon for a few days, giving extra meaning to that phrase about the noonday heat (Et ignibus meridiem) in the hymn for Sext.  And in a few weeks, the length of the day will actually be exactly twelve hours, so the old Roman hour will equal the length of our modern ones - so if one said Prime an hour after sunrise, it really will be the same length of hour as those medieval monks used (well for a day or two anyway!).

For us moderns used to rising at a fixed hour each day, the idea of adjusting everything to the length of the light is hard to imagine.

But if you want to either work out such a schedule for yourself, or at least say the hours at the official times for those few days of the year when the two time systems align, take a look at the schedule of solar noon in time and date.com.