XVI Sunday after Pentecost

The sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost is also the fourth Sunday of September this year. The Gospel is from St. Luke and records the LORD healing the man with dropsy on the Sabbath.

At Mattins the lessons in the first nocturn are the Incipit of the Book of Judith. In the second nocturn the lessons are from the book of Ambrose on Elias and fasting and, in the third nocturn, the homily on the Gospel is again from St. Ambrose's commentary on St. Luke's Gospel.

At Lauds a commemoration of St. Eustace and Companions is sung. At Prime there is neither Quicumque nor the Dominical preces as a double feast occurs.

Mass is sung after Terce. The Gloria is sung, a commemoration of St. Eustace is made, the Creed is sung and the preface is of Sunday.

Before the 1911-13 reform today was the feast of the Seven Sorrows of the BVM (the third Sunday in September - not being calculated as the Sunday nearest the first of the month as in the Breviary). One Mass of the Seven Sorrows may be celebrated in white vestments with a commemoration and proper last Gospel of the Sunday.

At Vespers the liturgical colour changes to red and first Vespers of St. Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist are sung with a commemoration of the Sunday.

In the 'liturgical books of 1962' mattins is cut down to one nocturn. The Scriptural lessons are those of the third Sunday of September, not the fourth. SS Eustace and Companions get omitted this year and there are is no commemoration at Lauds or Mass. Vespers are of the Sunday without even a commemoration of St. Matthew.

Art: Jerome Nadal