Wednesday 28 April 2010

Octave Day of the Solemnity of St. Joseph


Today is the Octave Day of the Solemnity of St. Joseph Patron of the Universal Church. It is of greater double rite. The feast of St. Paul of the Cross this year is simplified to a commemoration by the occurring Octave Day.

At Mattins in the first nocturn the lessons are from occurring Scripture, in the second nocturn the lessons are a sermon from St. Augustine on marriage and concupiscence and the writings of St. Augustine again provide lessons on the Gospel of St. Luke for the third nocturn. The ninth lesson is of St. Paul of the Cross. (This is an example of when the contracted lesson, found for many feasts of nine lessons in the Pius X Breviary after the lessons of the second nocturn is used.)
At Lauds commemorations are sung of St. Paul of the Cross and St. Vitalis. Hymns of Iambic metre of course have the Paschaltide Doxology.

Mass is sung after Terce. The Gloria is sung, the second collect is of St. Paul of the Cross, the third collect of St. Vitalis. The Credo is sung, the preface of St. Joseph.

At Vespers a commemoration is made of the following Office of St. Peter Martyr and St. Paul of the Cross.

In the 'liturgical books of 1962' there is of course no Octave Day, no Octave and no Solemnity of St. Joseph. St. Paul of the Cross gets cut down from a feast of nine lessons to a third class feast. Mattins has one nocturn. The hymns of the Little Hours do not have the Paschaltide Doxology. St. Vitalis has been supressed. There are no commemorations at Vespers.

3 comments:

Patrick Sheridan said...

A while ago I thought about composing my own Anathemas and posting them on my blog, perhaps not as a post even but as a permanent feature in the side-bar (I may realise this when I revitalise it).

One of them would almost certainly be: If anyone says that the liturgical books of 1962 represent the authentic Apostolic liturgical Tradition of the Church, let him be anathema.

Andy said...

Rubricarius,

Thank you for your comment on the ninth Lesson. If I understand correctly, is the condensed historic ninth lesson only used when two feasts of the same rank occur on the same day? For example, a double occurring on the same day as another double, or two semi-doubles occurring on the same day? Thanks.

God bless you,

Andy Hoxie

Rubricarius said...

Andy,

You have the concept. If say a D2Cl is moved out of an Octave or Holy Week to a day occupied by a double then the double's condensed lesson is read as the ninth, likewise other days such as the Octave Day of St. Joseph's Solemnity this year.

Before the condensed lessons were published in 1914 then the three historic lessons of the second nocturn would have been read as one. Interestingly, the condensed lessons are the ones that survived when the doubles were cut back to third class feasts in the 1961 Breviary.