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.

April 4: St Isidore, Bishop and Doctor, Memorial

Murillo, 1665

St Isidore of Seville (c. 560 – 4 April 636)  may or may not have been a monk, but as bishop he certainly acted as protector of them and as a great promoter of the monastic life. 

The saint is best known as the first Christian encyclopedist, attempting to compile a summa of all of the known knowledge of the time.  He was also a diligent historian of the Spanish regions.  He saw education as a way of unifying the diverse peoples of his diocese, and uniting them against the barbarian invaders.  Due to his efforts, much classical learning was preserved that might otherwise have been lost.

As a bishop, he played a key role in converting the reigning dynasty from Arianism and suppressing heresy.



Map of the known world
from the first printed edition of the Etymologies of St Isidore
University of Texas collection



March 30: St John Climacus

Today the Roman Martyrology celebrates the death of St John Climacus (c525-606) and Orthodox monk who was a near contemporary of St Benedict, and wrote an important and influential work of spiritual instruction, The Ladder of Divine Ascent.

You can read a nice article on his life over at the excellent Catholic Herald.

Lent Office hymns - Vespers: Audi benigne conditor

March 25: The Feast of the Annunciation, Class I

The Gospel of the Lent feria is Matthew 21: 33-46 - a man left his vineyard in the care of tenants, but when he sent his servants to collect the fruit, they killed them, and the son of the vineyard owner.

March 24: Thursday in the second week of Lent

The Gospel today is Luke 16: 19-31, the story of Dives and Lazarus:

"There was a rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day.   And at his gate lay a poor man named Laz'arus, full of sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table; moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.

The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried; and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes, and saw Abraham far off and Laz'arus in his bosom.

And he called out, `Father Abraham, have mercy upon me, and send Laz'arus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in anguish in this flame.' But Abraham said, `Son, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Laz'arus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.'

And he said, `Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.' But Abraham said, `They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.' And he said, `No, father Abraham; but if some one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' He said to him, `If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if some one should rise from the dead.'"

March 21: Feast of St Benedict, Class I

Today is the feast of St Benedict (480-543), founder of the Order of St Benedict, pictured in the fresco above from the Church of his birthplace, Norcia, with his twin sister St Scholastica to the right of the Virgin and child.

Pope Paul VI named St Benedict patron of Europe in 1964, saying that: “It is much appropriate that we celebrate St. Benedict, the abbot, as the announcer of peace, creator of unity, teacher of social traditions, and especially, herald of the Christian faith, and the founder of the monastic lifestyle in the West.”

And more recently, Pope Benedict XVI chose his own name in part because:

"The name "Benedict" also calls to mind the extraordinary figure of the great "Patriarch of Western Monasticism", St Benedict of Norcia, Co-Patron of Europe...The gradual expansion of the Benedictine Order that he founded had an enormous influence on the spread of Christianity across the Continent. St Benedict is therefore deeply venerated, also in Germany and particularly in Bavaria, my birthplace; he is a fundamental reference point for European unity and a powerful reminder of the indispensable Christian roots of his culture and civilization.

We are familiar with the recommendation that this Father of Western Monasticism left to his monks in his Rule: "Prefer nothing to the love of Christ" (Rule 72: 11; cf. 4: 21). At the beginning of my service as Successor of Peter, I ask St Benedict to help us keep Christ firmly at the heart of our lives."

The death of St Benedict

Over the last several days, to mark the Novena leading up to the feast day, I've been running a series on the Life of the Saint, drawn from St Gregory's Life of St Benedict (Dialogues Book II).  Today I want to conclude with St Gregory's description of the saint's holy death and birth into heaven, which gives rise to the feast that we celebrate today.

St Benedict was granted the privilege of knowing when he was going to die:

"The same year in which he departed this life, he told the day of his holy death to his monks, some of which did live daily with him, and some dwelt far off, willing those that were present to keep it secret, and telling them that were absent by what token they should know that he was dead. Six days before he left this world, he gave order to have his sepulchre opened, and forthwith falling into an ague, he began with burning heat to wax faint..."

And so arranged to be taken to the monastery chapel to receive viaticum, and to be held up in prayer by his monks for his final hour (picture above by Br Stephen O. Cist from the hood of the Fort Augustus Cope):

"and when as the sickness daily increased, upon the sixth day he commanded his monks to carry him into the oratory, where he did arm himself with receiving the body and blood of our Saviour Christ; and having his weak body holden up betwixt the hands of his disciples, he stood with his own lifted up to heaven, and as he was in that manner praying, he gave up the ghost."

A vision of his path to heaven

St Gregory also records that two monks were granted a vision of St Benedict's passing into heaven:

"Upon which day two monks, one being in his cell, and the other far distant, had concerning him one and the self-same vision: for they saw all the way from the holy man's cell, towards the east even up to heaven, hung and adorned with tapestry, and shining with an infinite number of lamps, at the top whereof a man, reverently attired, stood and demanded if they knew who passed that way, to whom they answered saying, that they knew not.

Then he spake thus unto them: "This is the way," quoth he, "by which the beloved servant of God, Benedict, is ascended up to heaven."

And by this means, as his monks that were present knew of the death of the holy man, so likewise they which were absent, by the token which he foretold them, had intelligence of the same thing."

Burial at Montecassino 

St Gregory records that the saint was buried at Montecassino:

"Buried he was in the oratory of St. John Baptist which himself built, when he overthrew the altar of Apollo; who also in that cave in which he first dwelled, even to this very time, worketh miracles, if the faith of them that pray requireth the same."

 
The quotations from the Life I've been using come from the edition by Edmund G. Gardner (1911), originally transcribed for the St Pachomius Orthodox Library and made available by CCEL.  And you can download a copy of the Latin here.
 
Happy feast day!

Commemoration of the Lent feria

The Lent day Gospel alluded to in the commemorations at Lauds and Vespers is John 8:21-29, Our Lord foretells his coming death.