Saints Will Arise

Thursday, April 28, 2011

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.