Sunday 21 March 2010

March 8th - Passion Sunday


Passion Sunday is the fifth and penultimate Sunday in Lent. It is a semi-double Sunday of the first class.

Vespers, yesterday morning, were second Vespers of St. Thomas Aquinas. The antiphons were taken from the Common of Confessor non-Pontiffs, Domine quinque talenta etc., along with the psalms (109, 110, 111, 112 & 116). The chapter was Beatus vir and the hymn Iste Confessor. After the collect of the day a commemoration was sung of the Sunday. At Compline the Dominical preces were omitted.

At Mattins the invitatory is Hodie, si vocem Domini audieritis, Nolite obdurare corda vestra from Ps. 94 and a special rubric indicates the omission of that verse in the psalm. The hymn is Pange, lingua. The same invitatory and hymn are sung until the Sacred Triduum. The antiphons given in the Psalter for Sundays are used. As usual Mattins has three nocturns and nine lessons. In the first nocturn psalms 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 & 14 are sung. The lessons in the first nocturn are the the Incipit of the book of Jeremiah. The first lesson runs from Verba Hieremiae until verse 10, ... et aedifices, et plantes. The second lesson runs from verse 11, Et factum est verbum Domini to verse 16, ...et adoraverunt opus manuum suarum. The third lesson begins with verse 17, Tu ergo accinge lumbos tuos.., and continues until verse 3 of the second chapter, ... mala venient super eos, dicit Dominus. In the second nocturn psalms 15, 16 and 17 are sung and the lessons are from a sermon by St. Leo. These are longer than the text given in the modern books. In the third nocturn psalms 18, 19 & 20 are sung and the lessons are a homily of St. Gregory, again slightly longer than in the modern books. The Te Deum is omitted as on other Lenten Sundays and a ninth responsory, Quis dabit capiti meo aquam etc, sung in its place.

At Lauds the antiphons are proper to Passion Sunday, Vide Domine etc, and sung with Pss. 50, 117, 62-66, Benedicite, 148-149-150. The hymn is Lustra sex. The versicle after the hymn Eripe me, chapter, antiphon on the Benedictus and collect are proper to the Sunday. The Suffrages of the BVM, the Apostles, the Patron and for Peace are not sung from Vespers of Passion Sunday until after Trinity Sunday.

At Prime the order of psalmody is Pss. 53, 92, 118(i), 118(ii) and Quicumque, the 'Athanasian' Creed. The Dominical preces are sung. At all the Hours the antiphons and chapters are proper.

Mass is sung after Terce. The ministers wear folded chasubles. In Mass there is no Gloria, the second collect is Ecclesiae for the Church or Deus omnium for the pope. There is no third collect in Passiontide. A Tract replaces the Alleluia after the Gradual, the Credo is sung and the preface of the Cross is sung. Benedicamus Domino is sung as the dismissal.

At Vespers the antiphons and psalms of Sunday are sung. The hymn Vexilla regis prodeunt is sung. After the collect of the day a commemoration is sung of Monday's feast of the Forty Martyrs. At Compline the Dominical preces are sung.

Vespers of the Dead are omitted due to the feast of nine lessons on Monday.

My apologies for the delay in posting this.

Art: Jerome Nadal

4 comments:

  1. As so much can be found on the internet putatively about the 'Tridentine' rite it seems appropriate to blog something actually about it and to give an impression of what it would be like if it had not undergone so many revisions over the next four centuries
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    Dear Sir,
    You say that the Tridentine Rite has undergone many revisions over a four hundred year period.
    Would you say that the John XXIII edition of the Tridentine Missal is just another revision, or is it something much more than that, enough to say that it is no longer the Tridentine Rite.

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  2. Dear Anonymous,

    I would say the John XXIII edition of the liturgical books are certainly not the Tridentine rite.

    In a strict sense the 'Tridentine' or perhaps more accurately 'Pian' rite existed from 1568/70 until Clement's revision thiry years later.

    In a wider sense the 'ethos' of the Tridentine rite lasted until the Breviary was overhauled in 1911-13 and the Missal in 1955.

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  3. Dear Sir,
    Many thanks for your comment.I personally switched completely over to Tradition after hearing both Davies and Fr Paul Crane speak at a conference in the early nineties. Neither of them probed deeper into the issue of the 1962 Missal which is a great pity as today people have swallowed uncritically this Missal, myself included.
    Anon 26 March

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  4. Anonymous,

    I never met Fr. Crane but did meet Michael Davies.

    Sometimes people don't want to unpick issues because of what that might imply. It is certainly more comfortable to proclaim, as Michael did, that there was "no reform before Paul VI" but it doesn't make it true.

    Michael Davies was very critical of the SSPX using the pre-Pius XII liturgy when it did so in England, and some other places, as a matter of policy before 1983.

    Have a blessed Holy Week and Easter.

    ReplyDelete