The First Sunday in Lent is a semi-double Sunday of the first class. No feast can take precedence over it or any such Sunday. The liturgical colour of the Sunday is violet. At Mass, unlike on the Sundays of Septuagesima, the ministers wear folded chasubles rather than dalmatic and tunicle and the organ is silent. The Gospel pericope at Mattins and Mass 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 in Lent, this year the feast of St. Matthias. At Second Vespers of St. Matthias the antiphons Juravit Dominus etc were sung with psalms 109, 112, 115, 125 & 138. The Office hymn was Exsultet orbis gaudiis. After the collect of the feast a commemoration was sung of the Sunday. The Suffrage was omitted. At Compline (sung at the usual time) the Dominical preces were omitted.
At Mattins the liturgical colour changes to violet and 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, which today is Angelis suis Deus mandavit de te.
At Lauds the antiphons are proper to the Sunday, Cor mundum etc., 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, Jesus autem etc. At Prime the psalms are 92, 99 (displaced from Lauds) and the first two divisi of 118. The Dominical preces are sung and the short lesson is Quaerite Dominum.
Mass is sung after Terce. At Mass the 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, sung by the deacon facing the celebrant and altar.
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 is Audi, benigne Conditor. After the collect of the Sunday the Suffrage of the Saints is sung. At Compline the Dominical preces are sung.
In those ancient 'liturgical books of 1962' the Lenten praxis of early Vespers has been abolished. Vespers were of the Sunday without any commemoration of St. Matthias and without the Suffrage. At Compline the preces were not sung. Mattins is slashed down to one nocturn of three lessons. At Lauds the Suffrage of the Saints is omitted. At Prime the psalms are Ps. 53 and the first two divisi of Ps. 118 as on feasts and 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 the Suffrage is omitted as are the preces at Compline.
Art: Jerome Nadal
Why is it that the Mass of no feast can replace the Mass of the Sundays of Lent, whereas the I and II Vespers of these Sundays (priv. 1 class) are in fact replaced by the Vespers of feasts like St Matthias and St Joseph? I do not understand why the Vespers of Lenten Sundays seem to be less privileged than the Masses themselves.
ReplyDeletePeter,
ReplyDeleteBecause the rules for occurrence are different to those for concurrence.