Using an Ordo effectively - and how to do without one! Part I: The liturgical week and Sundays

 A few weeks ago I posted on reasons for using an Ordo, and this week I want to continue with some notes on how to use one more effectively, and ultimately how to be less reliant on one, with a particular focus on getting ready for Advent. 

In these notes I’m going to refer mainly to my own, the Le Barroux, and Divinum Officium Ordos. 

The week of the liturgical year 

The first key piece of information you need each week is which Sunday or week of the liturgical year it is, since most of the time this determines the default collect to use at the hours other than at Prime and Compline, as well as whether there are any seasonal texts that displace those normally used in the psalter. 

For this week, for example, my own Ordo tells you that this is the twenty-fifth week after Pentecost – so we are in time throughout the year, or time after Pentecost: 

Sunday 22 November– Twenty-fifth and last Sunday after Pentecost/Fifth Sunday of November, Class II

 Divinum Officium separates out the ‘temporale’ and ‘sanctorale’ cycles, and gives the same information, but in Latin.  The key difference is that where I've given the actual number of the Sunday this particular year, Divinum Officium gives you the number of the relevant Sunday texts (viz what the Diurnal labels as the 24th and last Sunday of the year). For 22 November, the entry is: 

Dominica XXIV et Ultima Post Pentecosten V. Novembris II. Classis 

The Le Barroux Ordo gives you essentially the same information in a more abbreviated form: 

Dom. 22 XXV & ultima post Pent. 5 nov. 2cl. 

From this, you can then look up the ‘temporale’ section of your Office book to find the collect you will need on most days, which in the Diurnal is at page 487* (MD 487*). 

Next week, though, the Sunday will be the first of Advent, so you will also need to look for the antiphons and other texts specific to that season. 

For Saturday Vespers and Sunday Lauds and Vespers. 

For Saturday Vespers and Sundays you also need to find the correct canticle antiphons. 

For most of the year, these have the same label as the relevant Sunday of the liturgical year. So from next week, with Advent, the canticles and other texts of Saturday Vespers can be found right at the beginning of the Diurnal, immediately followed by the texts for the Sunday. 

August to November

From August to November, however, the Magnificat antiphon for Saturday Vespers, as well as the Matins readings, are of the relevant week of the calendar month - in the example above for this week, the fifth week of November:

Sunday 22 November– Twenty-fifth and last Sunday after Pentecost/Fifth Sunday of November, Class II

 Dominica XXIV et Ultima Post Pentecosten V. Novembris II. Classis (Divinum Officium)

Dom. 22 XXV & ultima post Pent. 5 nov. 2cl. (Le Barroux)

And because the number of weeks this affects changes each year, most office books put some or all of the Saturday Magnificat antiphons for time after Pentecost in a separate section of the ‘temporale’ to the Sunday cycle. 

My own Ordo gives you the relevant page numbers (so for this week’s Saturday Vespers, MD 461*.

The Le Barroux Ordo just says ‘Vesp. De Dom. Seq‘ (‘Vespers of the following Sunday’), leaving you to find it for yourself. 

It is worth keeping in mind that in the period August to November, the relevant ‘calendar’ week may not correspond with the actual week of the month – under the 1962 rules, for example, there is never a second week of November (!).  

So you do either need to consult an Ordo on this, or sit down and read the rubrics!

More anon.

Why use an Ordo (not just a sales pitch!)

 As this is the time of year when Ordos become available (and my own is now available from Lulu!) , I thought it might be timely to talk, over a few posts, about why you should use an Ordo; how to use an ordo effectively; and the key differences between the various ones available.

Ordos primarily serve two purposes I think: saving you a lot of time; and helping ensure you say the Office correctly.

Ordos as a time saver

First, even if you are reasonably expert when it comes to saying the Office, an Ordo can save you a lot of time.  

In theory, for example, assuming you are reasonably familiar with the way the 'traditional' liturgical year works, with its several intersecting cycles, you could work out for yourself what season, month, week and day it is.

You could use the table in the front of your Diurnal or breviary that gives the dates of Easter and the other key 'moveable' feasts each year to work out what week of the liturgical year it is.

From August to November you could consult the notes in the temporale section of your Office book to  work out what 'week' of the relevant calendar month it is.

And you can consult the sanctorale section to track what feasts fall on a particular date.

And you could use the 'two tables' (of occurrence and concurrence) to work out which particular Office to say when where are competing days and feasts.

Or you could just consult an Ordo!

 Ordos for experts

If you are very familiar with the rubrics, you may not need a detailed Ordo.

In the case of my own Ordo, for example, you might just focus on a couple of key pieces of information in the topline entry, such as which Office is said on a particular day, and in some cases, whether Vespers is of the day of the week, or of the feast/special day.

For November 29 this year, for example, all you may need to know is:

Saturday 28 November – Class IV; Saturday of Our Lady

AT NONE: END OF TIME THROUGHOUT THE YEAR/ START OF ADVENT

 1 Vespers of the First Sunday of Advent.

Compline: Marian antiphon Alma Redemptoris Mater henceforward.

That is, from Matins to None, the Office is for Saturday of Our Lady; from Vespers onwards the season is Advent, including a new Marian antiphon at Compline.

This assumes of course, that you know where to find the relevant pages in your book, and are sufficiently familiar with the rubrics for Vespers and Advent (or can work them out by reading the sometimes cryptic notes in your Office book).

Le Barroux

If you are in this category of a high degree of comfort with the rubrics, the Le Barroux Ordo supplies just this level of information, albeit in Latin.  It is worth noting though, that Le Barroux not strictly follow the 1962 rubrics in all cases (including I Vespers for Class II feasts for example), and includes feasts particular to the monastery and its location.  

The Le Barroux Ordo is also worth considering acquiring, though, if you follow their podcasts of the Office, so you know what you are going to be listening to (and purchasing a copy and perhaps making a donation if you are in a position to do so is a nice thank you for their efforts in making the livestream available).

Divinum Officium

Another option for a 'bare bones' Ordo is the monastic option on the Divinum Officium website, which is now keyed to the 1962 Benedictine calendar.

Monastic calendars

The other source worth noting is calendars put out by individual monasteries.  These typically include the dates of feasts and so forth celebrated the monastery, which can be an important source of information on feasts particular to that monastery or congregation if you are one of their Oblates.

Hunting down chants and texts in other books

A second way an Ordo can save you some time is in linking you up to sources for the chants (which are typically in pre-1962 books, and so may be scattered in different places, or across different books).  My own Ordo provides page numbers to the Antiphonale Monasticum and other chant books for this purpose.

In addition, particular monasteries/countries/regions celebrate feasts particular to them, and so aids to finding the texts for these - such as to the 'in some places' supplement in the Diurnal and the Clear Creek supplement to the Antiphonale - can be helpful. As monasteries and others take advantage of the provisions allowing the celebration of new saints (and others now permitted), this is likely to become a growth area in future!

Ordos to help you get it right

Even  the most minimalist Ordos can be a key aid to ensuring you say the Office correctly using an Office book: knowing what week of the liturgical year it is, what Office is celebrated on it is an important start,

If you are less familiar with the Office though, having a bit more information than this can help.

For that reason, my own Ordo provides page numbers for texts in the Monastic Diurnal, and chants in the Antiphonale, where the Office of the day differs from the 'ferial' or ordinary day Office.

So for the entry I noted above, for the First Sunday of Advent, you get: 

Sunday 29 November – First Sunday of Advent, Class I

 [The feast of St Saturninus is not marked in the Office this year.]

Matins: Invitatory antiphon (Regem venturum Dominum), hymn (Verbum supernum), antiphons, versicles and canticles of Advent; readings, responsories and collect of Sunday I of Advent. 

Lauds: Antiphons, chapter, responsory, hymn, versicle, Benedictus antiphon and collect of the First Sunday of Advent, MD 4*/AM 187 ff. 

Prime: Antiphon 1 of Lauds, MD 6-7*/AM 187. 

Terce to None: Antiphon, chapter, versicle and collect of Sunday Advent I, MD 7-8*/AM 189-90 ff. 

2 Vespers: Antiphons, chapter, responsory, hymn and collect as for 1 Vespers, MD 1*/AM 186 ff; versicle and Magnificat antiphon of 2 Vespers, MD 8-9*/AM 190.

 More on how to use Ordos effectively anon, but in the meantime, do consider acquiring one (or more)!

Happy Christmas

May you have a happy and holy Christmas.

Pray for the monks of Tasmania, Australia - first professions

The traditional Benedictine monastery being established in Tasmania, Australia takes a major step forward this Saturday, with the first professions of the first group of novices of the community.

The professions are scheduled for December 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, so please do keep them especially in your prayers.

The monks recently acquired a property, the Jerusalem Estate, so if you can also help them financially, please do consider making a donation, or buying something from their monk shop.

But above all, pray for the perseverance of the monks, and that the community might continue to grow and thrive.

Getting ready for Advent - The Office in Advent

Advent starts this weekend, so I thought a quick run through some key features of the season might be in order.

The eight days before Christmas

Although Christmas was celebrated quite early in Rome, it was originally Epiphany, and not Christmas that seems to have been regarded as the more important feast.

All the same, a lead up week to Christmas was added by at least the sixth century, featuring the use of the Ó antiphons' (sung with the Magnificat) each day.

Each of the texts refers to key prophesies of Christ, mostly from Isaiah.  There is, however, another level to them, as they have been arranged so that if you work backwards, the first letter of each one together forms two words, viz Ero Cras, or tomorrow I will come.

During this most intense period of Advent, there are special sets of antiphons for the psalms for each day of the week, as well as Benedictus antiphons at Lauds specific to December 21 and 23.

Christmas also has a Vigil attached to it, like many of the greater (and older feasts).

The three (or four) weeks of Advent

At some point though (and just when is a matter of some debate), the season of Advent was extended back to start on the Sunday nearest to 30 November.

Each of the four weeks of Advent (though the fourth, as this year, sometimes only consists of the Sunday itself) has a special set of antiphons for the psalms, which are used at Saturday Vespers (I Vespers of Sunday), Sunday Lauds, and then throughout the week at Prime to None.

The season also has its own hymns, short responsory and versicle at Lauds and Vespers which replace those in the psalter section of your Office book), as well as special canticle antiphons each day, to be found in the temporale, or óf time' section of your Diurnal or other book.

Unlike Lent though, the collect is usually that of the Sunday (except for the three Émber days' and of course on any feasts),

Ribbons at the ready!

The key trick to saying the Office during Advent is to remember that you need to keep track of, and keep a ribbon on:

• the normal texts used at each hour' (psalter section of the book);
• the fixed texts that displace some of the normal parts of the hours used throughout Advent, particularly at Lauds and Vespers (the Ordinary of Advent);
• the particular week of Advent, as well as what day in that week it is (antiphons for the little hours, canticle antiphons for each day, collect); 
• texts used on particular dates, from December 17 onwards (canticle antiphons); and
• texts used on particular days of the week from December 17 onwards (antiphons for the psalms for use on Monday, Tuesday, etc).

The Ordo provided here should help with all that though!

Getting ready for Advent 2B - Reading an Ordo Part II

Continuing my series getting ready for Advent, and the new liturgical year, I want to continue on with some further comments on using an Ordo.

And in the process, I'll talk about what texts to ignore or adapt in older Office books!

An ordo and the default, or ferial texts.

A key point to keep in mind in using the Ordo, including the one provided on this blog, is that they typically only tell you what is different from the ordinary, ie what appears for the relevant hour and day of the week in the psalter section of your book.

This means that:

(1) If the Ordo is silent, you should use the default texts set out in the psalter section for the particular day and hour you are proposing to say.

(2) If the Ordo provides page numbers for a part of the hour, unless indicated otherwise, these displace the ones normally used at a particular hour.

An example: 1 Vespers of the First Sunday of Advent

For First Vespers of Advent (the Saturday before the First Sunday of Advent) for example, the Ordo might read:

1 Vespers of the First Sunday of Advent: Antiphons, chapter, responsory, hymn, versicle, Magnificat antiphon, and collect, MD 1*/AM 186 ff.

What this is telling you is that the parts of the hour of Vespers not mentioned - the opening prayer, psalms, Magnificat and closing prayers (other than the collect)  - are as normally said for Saturday Vespers.

The table below spells out what this means in practice.

VESPERS	‘Default’ texts	1 Vespers of the First Sunday of Advent
Opening prayers	MD 1	MD 1
Antiphons and psalms	Saturday - MD 249 ff Ant 1 (Regnum tuum)+Ps 144+Ant 1 Ant 2 (Laudabo)+Ps 145+Ant 2 Ant 3 (Deo nostro)+Ps 146+Ant 3 Ant 4 (Lauda)+Ps 147+Ant 4	Antiphons of Advent 1, MD 1,  with psalms of Saturday, MD 249 ff  Ant 1 (In illa die)+Ps 144+Ant 1 (of  Advent 1)  Ant 2 (Iucundare)+Ps 145+Ant2  Ant 3 (Ecce Dominus)+Ps 146+Ant 3  Ant 4 (Ecce veniet)+Ps 147+Ant 4
Chapter	O altitudo, MD 254	Fratres, MD 1*
Short Responsory	Magnus Dominus, MD 254	Ostende nobis, MD 2*
Hymn	O lux beata Trinitas, MD 254	Conditor alme, MD 2-3*
Versicle	Vespertina oratio, MD 255	Rorate caeli, MD 3*
Antiphon for the Magnificat	Of the following Sunday of the year	Ecce nomen Domini, MD 3*
Magnificat	MD 209	MD 209
Antiphon for the Magnificat	Of the following Sunday of the year	Ecce nomen Domini, MD 3*
Closing prayers	MD 210	MD 210
	Collect of the week or day	MD 1*

Knowing the ferial Office

At Vespers, as the example above illustrates, almost every part of the hour can be festal, but at the other hours, fewer things change - at Prime, for example, only the antiphon.

This means that in saying the hours, particularly when it comes to the special seasons of the year, and on feasts, you need to have a good understanding of what the normal parts of the hour are and the order they are said in, as well as how different levels of feasts can affect the hour.

To help you on this, I've reposted some quick guides to the day hours, with page number references to the Monastic Diurnal, over at the Learn the Benedictine Office Blog.

Navigating older books

If you are using an older Office book, I'd suggest taking the quick guides, and drawing up your own set of page numbers for the psalter section in it.

In general, if you follow the directions in the Ordo about what parts of the Office change for a particular feast, the texts you are looking for will generally be there.

The key things to watch out for in using older books for the day hours are that:

• only part of the antiphon may be given before the psalm - but in the 1962 rubrics they are always said in full before and after the psalm(s); and
• older books may include additional material such preces in the psalter section, and additional commemorations elsewhere - that are no longer used.

In the case of Matins, although I haven't done a comprehensive comparison, as far as I've found there are generally very few changes in the texts for particular feasts between older books and the 1962 breviary.  The main exception is feasts that have been upgraded in various ways, such as the Assumption and Immaculate Conception, but even in these cases the 1962 breviary generally provides an option to use the older version of the feast,

The key change relates to Class III feasts, which often represent a downgrade from a three Nocturn Office to a two Nocturn one.  In this case, the feast is normally marked, in the 1962 rubrics, by:

• an Invitatory antiphon and hymn (taken from the Common of the type of saint or of the feast);
• a single reading (usually identical to the Roman 1962) and  responsory (either of the feast or of the type of saint;
• Nocturn II chapter (typically that of Sext) and versicle (typically that of Terce) of the type of saint; and 
• collect of the feast.  

Getting ready for Advent Part 2A - Reading an Ordo, Pt 1

Today, the second part in my series on getting ready for Advent.

This post and the next are also by way of general preparation for the incoming Ordos for the new liturgical year, since they look at how to use an Ordo effectively. 

Alerting you to go look...

Ordos work by providing an alert to you, a reminder that you need to look at a part of your book other than the psalter section.

For First Vespers of Advent for example, this year on Saturday 2 December, the Le Barroux Ordo says ' - Vesp. de Dom. seq.', meaning Vespers of the following Sunday.

This means you need to look in the 'temporale' or 'of time' section of your book to see what is there by way of instructions for 1 Vespers of the First Sunday of Advent. 

Names of feasts and Offices - and finding them in older books

The Ordo I provide on this blog generally goes a couple of steps further.

First, for Saturdays and 1 Vespers of major feasts, I generally try to include a more detailed reference to the relevant Office you are looking for, such as '1 Vespers of the First Sunday of Advent'.  

This meant to be a reminder that the texts will not all be of the relevant day of the week.

It is also intended to aid those using other/older books for whom the page numbers I provide won't line up.  

And it provides a cross-check in case there is an error in the page references I've provided!

Note though, that feasts and Offices can masquerade under different names in different books.  

While I generally describe Saturday Vespers as I Vespers of the Sunday, for example, consistent with the 1962 breviary, some older books describe it is as 'Sabbato ante Dominicam 1. Adventus' (Saturday before the First Sunday of Advent), and continue this convention throughout the year.

Accordingly, you need to become familiar with the terminology of the particular Office book you are using, and work out how it translates to whatever Ordo you are using.

Using the page numbering systems as a cue

I also provide page numbers for the relevant sections of the Monastic Diurnale and the Antiphonale Monasticum.

As I noted in my previous post, the page numbering systems employed by the Diurnal (and the page sections in the Antiphonale) give you a cue as to what section of the book you need to look in to find the relevant text.

Imagine you are using an older breviary, for example, and are looking for the feast of St John the Evangelist (December 27).

In principle this could appear in the sanctorale (it is after all the feast of a saint).  

In fact however it is normally placed in the temporale with the rest of the feasts of the Christmas octave.

If you didn't know this you could work it out by looking at the numbering system used for the Monastic Diurnal reference.  For Lauds, for example, the entry will be:

Lauds: Festal psalms with antiphons, chapter, responsory, hymn, versicle, Benedictus antiphon and collect of the feast, with a commemoration of the Octave, MD 90*/AM 255 ff.

The MD entry - number+ asterix  - tells you it is in the temporale section of the book.

Missing feasts

It is also worth noting that if you are using an older breviary, some feasts of the 1962 calendar may not be there at all (such as Christ the King, for books prior to 1925).  

If so, it is worth looking at whether I've given a page reference for the Antiphonale Monasticum (or another supplementary book), in order to fill in some of the gaps in your book (the Antiphonale, for example, can be downloaded from CC Watershed, and Clear Creek Monastery has published an inexpensive supplement to it, available from Lulu).