October 18th - St. Luke the Evangelist

Today is the feast of St. Luke the Evangelist. The feast is of double rite and the liturgical colour is red. It is also the twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost and the third Sunday of October. The Sunday after Pentecost is commemorated at both Vespers, Mattins, Lauds and Mass. St. Luke was probably born in Antioch and in St. Paul's writings is described as a physician. He was a companion of St. Paul and the author of a Gospel that addressed itself to the non-Jewish world.

The feast began yesterday with the celebration of first Vespers. The antiphons Hoc est praeceptum meum etc, from the Common of Apostles, were sung with Pss. 109, 110, 111, 112 and 116. After the collect of the feast a commemoration of the Sunday was sung. The antiphon on the Magnificat was Lugebat autem Judam. At Compline the Dominical preces were omitted because of the double feast.

At Mattins the invitatory, antiphons and pslams are taken from the Common of Apostles but the lessons in the first nocturn are what are now from the proper for Evangelists. In the 1568 Breviary the reader is directed to the Incipit liber Ezechielis Prophetae for the first Sunday of November. The lessons are considerably longer than those found in the modern editions of the Breviary. The modern three lessons are all read by the penultimate sentence of the second lesson in the 1568 edition. In the second nocturn the lessons are proper to the feast of St. Luke and from St. Jerome on Ecclesial Writers. These are the same as in the modern books. In the third nocturn the lessons are from the Common of Evangelists with a homily by St. Gregory. These are significantly longer than those found in the modern editons, with all of the modern three lessons contained within the eighth and ninth lessons of the modern books. The ninth lesson is of the Sunday. The Te Deum is sung.

At Lauds the antiphons Hoc est praeceptum meum are again sung, this time with the Sunday psalms (Pss. 92, 99, 62-66, Benedicite 148-49-150). After the collect of the feast a commemoration is sung of the Sunday. The Suffrages are omitted.

At Prime the antiphon Hoc est praeceptum meum is sung with the festal Psalms (Pss. 53, 118i & 118ii). Quicumque and the Dominical preces are omitted.

Mass is sung after Terce. The Gloria is sung, the second collect is of the Sunday. The Credo is sung. The preface is of the Apostles and the last Gospel is of the Sunday.

Vespers are of the feast. A commemoration of the Sunday is sung after the collect of the feast. At Compline the Dominical preces are omitted.