Sunday 2 January 2011

The Holy Name of Jesus

The feast of the Holy Name of Jesus and is a Double of the Second Class. Today is also the Octave Day of St. Stephen. The liturgical colour of the day is white. This feast takes the place of the second 'vacant' Sunday after the Nativity or, when no Sunday falls between the Circumcision and the Epiphany, it is kept on January 2nd. The feast was granted to the Franciscan Order in 1530 to be kept on 14th January. In 1721 the feast was extended to the Universal Calendar to be kept on the second Sunday after the Epiphany. Following the 1911-13 reform the feast was moved to the Sunday between the Circumcision and Epiphany or kept on January 2nd if no such Sunday occurred. In the Sarum Rite the feast was kept on August 7th - the date still appears in the Calendar of the Book of Common Prayer.

At Mattins the invitatory is Admirabile nomen Jesu etc and the hymn Jesu, Rex admirabilis etc. In the first nocturn the lessons are from the Acts of the Apostles. In the second nocturn the lessons are taken from a sermon of St. Bernard and a homily from St. Bernard on the Circumcision also provides the homily in the third nocturn. At Lauds the antiphons are proper, Oleum effusum etc. and the hymn Jesu, decus angelicum. A commemoration of the Octave Day of St. Stephen is sung.

At the Hours the psalmody is festal and the antiphons from Lauds are used in sequence as usual. At Prime (Pss. 53, 118i & 118ii) the short lesson is proper, Omne quodcumque. The Doxologies of the hymns at the Little Hours are changed in honour of the Incarnation, Jesu, tibi sit gloria etc.

The Mass is proper, In nomine Jesu, with Gloria, commemoration of the Octave Day of St. Stephen in private Masses. The Creed is sung and the preface is of the Nativity.

At second Vespers the antiphons Omnis qui invocaverit etc are sung with psalms 109, 110, 111, 112 and 115. The Office hymn is Jesu, dulcis memoria. There is no commemoration of the following simple Octave Day of St. John.

In the 'liturgical books of 1962' Mattins and Lauds are the same as the Old Rite but the Octaves of the Comites Christi feasts have been abolished so there is no Octave Day and consequently no commemoration of it. At the Hours the antiphons are from the Sunday Office, not the feast and there is no Doxology in honour of the Incarnation. At Prime psalm 117 is sung in place of psalm 53 and the short lesson is from the season, Ipsi peribunt. Vespers are the same.

5 comments:

Paleo-Con said...

What would have been the Mass and Office for Sunday, 2 January AD 1910; the last before Divino Afflato?

Rubricarius said...

Paleo-Con,

The Octave Day of St. Stephen - which was of double rite.

Paleo-Con said...

Thank you, Rubricarius. I should like to express a desire of mine that, I am sure, is shared my many who enjoy this blog. Could you possibly consider preparing a work outlining the historical development of the Roman Mass, Office and calendar? All of the major changes to the rubrics over the years up to the Bugnini disaster of the twentieth century would be a fascinating read. God Bless.

Rubricarius said...

Paleo-Con,

Thank you. Yes, in time, I still consider myself 'green' about some of these changes: ignorance doesn't stop many Trads but it stops me.

Paleo-Con said...

I will definitely be looking forward to that work and you, again, are far too modest. To repeat a frequently used phrase: "If not you than who ..."? I know of no one today who could come close to your encyclopaedic knowledge of this subject.
Your witty, biting comment on many of our fellow "trads" is spot on! God Bless.