Sunday 27 March 2011

Third Sunday in Lent


The third Sunday in Lent is semi-double of the first class. No feast my be celebrated if it falls on such a Sunday. The Gospel pericopes from St. Luke recount the LORD casting out evil from a demoniac.

At Vespers yesterday morning the antiphons and psalms were of Saturday, the chapter proper and the hymn Audi benigne conditor was sung. After the collect of the Sunday a commemoration of St. John of Damascus was sung. At Compline the Dominical preces were omitted due to the occuring double feast.

At Mattins the invitatory is Non sit vobis and the hymn is Ex more, as on the other Sundays of Lent. The antiphons and psalms of Sunday are sung. In the first nocturn the lessons are from Genesis and the story of Joseph, his coat of many colours and his brothers casting him into a pit. In the second nocturn the lessons are taken from the Book of St. Augustine on Joseph. In the third nocturn the lessons are a homily of the Venerable Bede on St. Luke's Gospel. A ninth responsory, Lamentabatur Jacob, is sung in place of the Te Deum.

At Lauds the antiphons are proper to the Sunday, Fac benigne etc., and the second scheme of Psalms sung (50, 117, 62, Benedictus es, 148). The chapter is proper to the Sunday and hymn is O sol salutis. After the collect of the day a commemoration of St. John of Damascus is sung.

At Prime and the Hours the antiphons are proper to the Sunday. At Prime the psalms are 92, 99 (displaced from Lauds) and the first two stanzas of 118. The Dominical preces are omitted due to the double feast.

Mass is sung after Terce. The deacon and subdeacon wear folded chasubles, planetis plicatis, instead of dalmatic and tunicle as on all Sundays (and ferial days) of Lent. There is no Gloria. The second collect is of St. Thomas Aquinas. A Tract is sung after the Gradual, the Credo is sung, the preface is of Lent and the dismissal is Benedicamus Domino.

Vespers are of the Sunday, sung at the normal time. The antiphons and psalms are those used on Sundays, the chapter is proper and the hymn Audi, benigne Conditor. After the collect of the Sunday commemorations are sung of the following feast of St. John Capistran and St. John of Damascus. The Suffrage of the Saints is omitted and the Domincal preces are not sung at Compline due to the commemorated double feasts.

In the 'liturgical books of 1962' Mattins is cut down to the usual single nocturn of three lessons. At Lauds there is no commemoration of St. John of Damascus. At Prime the psalms are 53 and the first two stanzas of 118, the Domincial preces are always omitted regardless of whether a double feast occurrs or not. At Mass the ministers wear dalmatic and tunicle, as in Septuagesima, there is only one collect and the dismissal is Ite, missa est. At Vespers there are no commemorations.

Art: Jerome Nadal

6 comments:

Juventutem London said...

If first Vespers of Sunday were sung before lunch, does that mean Sunday starts before lunch on Saturday?

Does that mean that fasts stop Sunday of first Vespers?

Thank you for the very interesting service you provide for the Church.

Rubricarius said...

Juventutem London,

Thank you for your kind comment.

The Office of the Lenten Sundays certainly begins with Vespers.

As to fasting my view would be (and here I am deliberately ignoring the various changes to Canon Law and looking at principles) that the fast lasted beyond Vespers with the exception of on Holy Saturday. When an Ember Day concurrs with a feast Vespers would be of the feast but the Ember Day was still a fasting day.

Anonymous said...

Rubricarius,

In an earlier post you quoted a rubric stating that Vespers must be recited before eating during Lent - if someone didn't eat until the evening, could he have said Vespers later? Or was the time fixed as before midday, whether or not one ate then?

Rubricarius said...

Anonymous,

The rubric I quoted is from the BR and stricly applies to Choir Office. Many Ordines changed the rubric slightly and substituted 'meridiem' for 'comestionem'. Readers know it is one of my favourite practices, a wonderful way of bringing home the special nature of Lent.

Anonymous said...

Rubricarius,

Thank you for your reply, and for this blog - keep up the good work.

Rubricarius said...

Anonymous,

Thank you.

Of course the time people eat has crept later (in the West - I am not familiar with other cultures) over the centuries. As I understand it our modern practice of dinner at 8:00pm is very late and has almost gone through a twelve-hour cycle in eight hundred years or so.