May 10th - Pentecost Sunday

The feast of Pentecost is a double feast with an Octave.

At Vespers yesterday the antiphons Dum complerentur dies Pentecostes etc are sung with psalms 109, 110, 111, 112 & 116. The chapter is Dum complerentur dies Pentecostes etc, the hymn Veni, Creator Spiritus. Hymns of Iambic metre have the Doxology Gloria Patri Domino, Natoque, qui a mortuis, Surrexit ac Paraclito, In saeculorum saecula.

Mattins for the feast, and Octave, is like Pascha in only having one nocturn of three psalms and three lessons. The invitatory is Alleluia, Spiritus Domini replevit orbem terrarum, Venite adoremus Alleluia. The antiphons Factus est etc are sung with Pss. 47, 67 & 103. The lessons are from a homily of St. Gregory the Great on St. John's Gospel. The lessons are the same as those appearing in the 'modern' Breviary. At Lauds the antiphons, Dum complerentur dies Pentecostes etc, are the same as at Vespers and are sung with psalms 92, 99, 62-66, Benedicite and 148-149-150.

At Prime the festal psalms are sung (Pss. 53, 118i & 118ii). In the short responsory the versicle Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris, alleluia, alleluia is sung. The short lesson is Judaei quoque. At Terce instead of the usual hymn Nunc Sancte nobis the hymn Veni Creator is sung as it was at the third hour the Holy Ghost descended on the Apostles.

At Mass the Gloria is sung and there is only one collect. After the Alleluia the beautiful sequence Veni, Sancte Spiritus is sung. The Credo is sung. The preface, Communicantes and Hanc igitur are proper to the feast and used throughout the Octave.

Second Vespers are the same as for First Vespers except for the versicle and response and antiphon on the Magnificat. There are no commemorations.