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, the hymn Audi benigne conditor was sung. A commemoration of the preceding feast of SS Perpetual and Felicity was sung followed by a commemoration of St. Thomas Aquinas. At Compline the Dominical preces were omitted due to the occuring double feasts.

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 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. Thomas Aquinas 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. There is no Gloria. The second collect is of St. Thomas Aquinas. The the third collect is omitted today because of the double feast. 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. Commemorations are sung of the following feast of St. John of God and St. Thomas Aquinas. 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 one nocturn of three lessons as usual with the omission of most of the lessons and responsories. At Lauds the commemoration of St. Thomas Aquinas is omitted. At Prime the psalms are 53 and the first two stanzas of 118, the Domincial preces are 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. The dismissal is Ite, missa est. At Vespers there are no commemorations.

Art: Jerome Nadal