May 22nd - Pentecost Sunday

The feast of Pentecost is a double feast with an Octave preceded by a Vigil similar to that of Pascha. The liturgical colour of the feast and its Octave is red.

At Vespers yesterday afternoon the antiphons Dum complerentur dies Pentecostes etc were sung with psalms 109, 110, 111, 112 & 116. The chapter was Dum complerentur dies Pentecostes etc and the Office hymn was Veni, Creator Spiritus. All hymns of Iambic metre have the Doxology Gloria Patri Domino, Natoque, qui a mortuis, Surrexit ac Paraclito, In saeculorum saecula during the Octave.

Mattins for the feast, and Octave, is like Pascha in only having a single nocturn of three psalms and three lessons. The invitatory is Alleluia, Spiritus Domini replevit orbem terrarum, Venite adoremus Alleluia. The Office hymn is Jam Christus aster ascenderat. 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 later editions of the Breviary. At Lauds the antiphons, Dum complerentur dies Pentecostes etc, are the same as those at Vespers and are sung with psalms 92, 99, 62-66, Benedicite and 148-149-150. The Office hymn is Beata nobis gaudia. The Suffrages are not sung throughout the Octave.

At Prime the festal psalms are sung (Pss. 53, 118i & 118ii) under the antiphon Dum complerentur dies Pentecostes. 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 a single 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.

At second Vespers the antiphons Dum complerentur dies Pentecostes etc are sung with the Dominical psalms (109, 110, 111, 112 & 113). The versicle and response and antiphon on the Magnificat are proper to second Vespers. There are no commemorations.