Sunday 15 June 2014

Trinity Sunday

Today is the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity and the first Sunday after Pentecost. The feast is now a Double of the First Class having been raised to that rank in the reforms of 1911-13. Before that it was a Double of the Second Class and before that a double. Its origins appear to be as a local feast that originated in Liege in the tenth century with its celebration spreading in northern France and England. The Franciscan John Peckham revised the texts in the thirteenth century. In many local rites (and e.g., in the Dominican rite) Sundays were counted after Trinity rather than Pentecost, as indeed they still are in the BCP.

The feast began yesterday with first Vespers on Saturday marking the beginning of the Summer (Pars Aestiva) volume of the Breviarium Romanum. The Office is proper. The antiphons Gloria tibi Trinitas etc sung with Pss. 109, 110, 111, 112 and 116. The chapter, O altitudo, and hymn, Jam sol recedit, will be used at Vespers on Saturdays for all the Sundays after Pentecost. The antiphon on the Magnificat, Gratias tibi, Deus etc, and the collect are proper. A commemoration was sung of the first Sunday after Pentecost. After Vespers the antiphon Salve Regina is sung for the first time this year.

At Mattins there are three nocturns. The invitatory is proper, Deum verum, unum in Trinitate, et Trinitatm in Unitate, Venite adoremus. In the first nocturn he antiphons, Adesto, unus Deus etc., are sung with psalms 8, 18 & 23. The lessons are taken from the sixth chapter of the Prophet Isaiah. In the second nocturn the antiphons, Te invocamus etc., are sung with psalms 46, 47 & 71, the lessons are taken from the Book of Bishop Fulgentius on faith. In the third nocturn the antiphons Caritas Pater est etc are sung with psalms 95, 96 & 97. The homily is from St. Gregory Nazianzen. The ninth lesson is of the first Sunday after Pentecost. The Te Deum is sung. At Lauds the antiphons, Gloria tibi, Trinitas etc., are sung with the Dominical psalms (92, 99, 62, Benedicite & 148). The Office hymn is Tu, Trinitatis Unitas. Aa commemoration is sung of the Sunday.

At Prime the festal psalms are sung (53, 118i & 118ii) under the antiphon Gloria tibi Trinitas. The Creed of St. Athanasius, Quicumque, is sung after the last stanza of Ps. 118. The lectio brevis is Tres sunt.

Mass is sung after Terce. Before Mass at the sprinkling of lustral water the antiphon Asperges me returns. The Mass is proper, Benedicta sit. The Gloria is sung, the second collect is of the Sunday, the Credo is sung, the preface that of the Most Holy Trinity (used for all Sundays not having a proper preface after 1759), and the last Gospel is of the Sunday.

In second Vespers the antiphons Gloria tibi, Trinitas etc are sung with the Sunday psalms. After the collect of the feast commemorations are sung of the following feast of the Venerable Bede and of the first Sunday after Pentecost.

In the 'liturgical books of 1962' so much has been excised from the Breviary that four volumes are no longer needed. The 'Pars Altera' of the two volumes begins today. There is no commemoration of the first Sunday after Pentecost at Vespers, Mattins or Lauds. The eighth lesson is split into two to make a ninth lesson for the feast. At Prime Quicumque is sung on this Sunday alone in the 1962 rite, the lectio brevis is Dominus autem dirigat. At Mass there is no commemoration of the Sunday, and no proper last Gospel. At Vespers there are no commemorations.

1 comment:

PseudonymousposterJohn said...

This was first place d on the vigil post but as not sure if it has taken have reposted here. You may receive both or neither!

I was commenting on the blog of the esteemed Rad Trad when I had these thoughts. They might be appropriately revisited on a liturgical site.

I had said that both Easter and Whitsun now manage to look like special seven day octaves. I then foolishly said that I wondered if they were eight in past millenniums since we know Trinity Sunday is a newer feast but that both Low Sunday and Pentecost 1 are noticeable departures from the seven festal days proceeding them.

I mentioned getting to the Ember Friday mass, a standard shaped mass - by 1960?
On Saturday I opened my 1960 missal. I had forgotten the five lessons before the Gloria and epistle - the last repeated from Advent.
So the Saturday After the Pentecost vigil is a mass with readings like the vigil - with collects but alleluias instead of tracts. So I said that it seems to be the vigil that is echoed an octave later.

So here's the point. We know - some of us only from you Rubricarius, - that the baptismal Masses of Pascha and Pentecost were celebrated in daylight on the Saturdays. And not after ten o'clock at night. They were separate occasions with different texts. These ARE eight day octaves. They run from Saturday to Saturday, ending with I vespers of the following Sunday.

I then went on to wonder if the theme of this ember day - fasting - in a big way - was a western counterpart to the Byzantine rite kneeling prayers that function to signal to the faithful that the particular privileges of pashaltide are over. Complex layers. It is a festal octave, containing Ember days that remind the faithful to recommence fasting. So Mr junior deacon Bugnini was wrong. Again.