First Sunday in Lent

The First Sunday of Lent is a semi-double of the first class. No feast can take precedence over it or any such Sunday. The Gospel pericope is St. Matthew's account of the LORD's temptation by Satan in the desert.

The Pars Verna, the Spring volume, of the Breviarium began with Vespers, yesterday morning, on the Saturday before the first Sunday. At Vespers the antiphons and psalms were of Saturday, the chapter proper. The Lenten hymn Audi benigne conditor was sung for the first time this year. The ferial preces are never said at Vespers on Saturday. The Suffrage of the Saints was sung and at Compline (sung at the usual time) the Dominical preces were sung.

At Mattins the invitatory is Non sit vobis and the hymn is Ex more. These are both used throughout the first four weeks of Lent. The antiphons and psalms given in the Psalter for Sundays are used, as on previous Sundays. In the first nocturn the lessons are from the Second Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians. In the second nocturn the lessons are taken from a sermon on Lent by St. Leo the Great and in the third nocturn the lessons are a homily of St. Gregory the Great on St. Matthew's account of the temptation of the LORD. As in Septuagesima there is no Te Deum but a ninth responsory.

At Lauds the antiphons are proper to the Sunday 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 the Suffrage of the Saints 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. In all Masses de Tempore, of the season, from Ash Wednesday the deacon and subdeacon wear folded chasubles, planetis plicatis, instead of dalmatic and tunicle.

At Mass there Gloria is not sung. The second collect is A cunctis, the third collect 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 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 is sung as at Vespers yesterday (c.f. Tridentine praxis). Commemorations are sung of of the following feast of St. Peter's Chair at Antioch and of St. Paul. The Suffrage of the Saints is omitted and, at Compline the Dominical preces are not sung because of the occurring double feast.

In the 'liturgical books of 1962' Mattins is cut down to one nocturn of 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, as in Septuagesima, the second and third collects are omitted. The dismissal is Ite, missa est. At Vespers there are no commemorations.

Art: Jerome Nadal