Ember Friday - St Joseph of Cupertino

Today is Ember Friday in September. The day is also the double feast of St. Joseph of Cupertino.

At first Vespers yesterday a commemoration was sung of the preceding Office of the Impression of the Stigmata of St. Francis.

At Mattins the lessons in the first nocturn are proper to the feast with the responsories from the Common. (If a feast occured today without proper lessons, the vast majority, then the rubric mentioned in Ember Wednesday's post would come into effect and there would be a transfer of lessons as the Ember Friday, like all Ember Days and the days of Lent has a homily, not Scriptural lessons). In the second nocturn the lessons are historical. In the third nocturn the homily is from St. Gregory the Great and the ninth lesson that of the Ember Friday (its three lessons may be read as one but the first suffices).

At Lauds the antiphon on the Benedictus is proper to the feast, Ostendit mihi etc, and a commemoration of the Ember Friday is made which too has a proper antiphon, Mulier etc and a proper collect.

Mass is sung after Terce. The Gloria is sung, the second collect is of the Ember Friday and the last Gospel that of the Ember Friday. Private Masses may be of the Ember Day (the Ember Friday Masses do not have additional OT lessons unlike those of Wednesday and Saturday). The Mass is proper and celebrated in violet vestments, the ministers wear folded chasubles. The feast of St. Joseph of Cupertino is commemorated. Benedicamus Domino is sung as the dismissal.

In Cathedral and Collegiate Churches two Masses are celebrated. The Mass of the feast takes place after Terce without any commemorations or additional collects. The Mass of the Ember Day is sung after None with the second collect A cunctis the third at the choice of the Dean and Benedicamus Domino as the dismissal.

Vespers are from the chapter of the following Office of SS Januarius and Companions. A commemoration of St. Joseph of Cupertino is sung. Ember Days are not commemorated at Vespers as their Office runs from Mattins to None inclusive.

In the 'liturgical books of 1962' the Ember Day is postponed to next week. St Joseph of Cupertino has been cut down to a third class feast of three lessons. Vespers on Thursday were ferial (the Impression of the Stigmata of St Francis has been chopped down to a mere commemoration in Lauds and Mass). Mattins has but one nocturn. Vespers are of the feast without a commemoration of the following Office. If today were an Ember Day in the Extraordinary Form of the Novus Ordo its antiphon on the Benedictus is used again at Vespers as antiphon on the Magnificat. Quite remarkably, and of course a complete committee-work fabrication, Ember Days get Vespers - how traditional is that?