Third Sunday in Lent

The Third Sunday of Lent is, like all the Lenten Sundays following the 1911-13 reform, a semi-double of the first class. No feast can take precedence over such a Sunday.

At Mattins the invitatory is Non sit vobis and the hymn Ex more. The antiphons given in the Psalter for Sundays are used. As usual Mattins has three nocturns and nine lessons. In the first nocturn the lessons are from Genesis and the story of Joseph. In the second nocturn they are from St. Ambrose on holy Joseph and in the third nocturn the lessons are a homily of St. Bede the Venerable on the eleventh chapter of St. Luke's Gospel, where the LORD casts out the demoniac. There is no Te Deum but in a ninth responsory in its place.

At Lauds the antiphons are proper to the Sunday and the second scheme of Psalms sung (50, 117, 62, Canticle Benedictus es, 148). The chapter is proper to the Sunday and hymn is O sol salutis. After the collect of the day the Suffrage of the Saint 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 sung and the short lesson is Quaerite Dominum.

Mass is sung after Terce. The Gloria is not sung. The second collect is A cunctis, the third Omnipotens (for the Living and the Dead), a Tract is sung after the Gradual, the Credo is sung, the preface is of Lent and the dismissal 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. The Suffrage of the Saints is sung after the collect of the Sunday. At Compline the Dominical preces are sung.

In the 'liturgical books of 1962' Mattins is cut down to three lessons as usual. At Lauds the Suffrage of the Saints is omitted. At Prime the psalms are 53 and the first two stanzas of 118, the Domincial preces are omitted. At Mass the ministers wear dalmatic and tunicle rather than the ancient Roman practice of folded chasubles, the second and third collects are omitted. The dismissal is Ite, missa est. At Vespers the Suffrage of the Saints is omitted and at Compline the Dominical preces not sung.

Art: Jerome Nadal