XVI Sunday after Pentecost

The sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost is of semi-double rite and its liturgical colour, until Vespers, is green. This year it the third Sunday of September. The Gospel pericopes from St. Luke tell of the LORD healing the man with dropsy on the Sabbath. The week ahead sees the celebration of the September Ember Days, traditionally days of fasting and penance.

At Vespers yesterday afternoon the antiphons and psalms of Saturday were sung. The Office hymn was Jam sol recedit igneus, sung with the Doxology of the Incarnation. The antiphon on the Magnificat was Ne reminiscaris for the Saturday before the third Sunday of September. After the collect of the feast a commemoration was sung of the preceding feast of the Holy Name of Mary. The Suffrage was omitted. At Compline Te lucis was sung with the Doxology of the Incarnation and the Dominical preces were omitted.

At Mattins the invitatory is Dominum qui fecit nos and the Office hymn isNocte surgentes. In the first nocturn the lessons are the Incipit of the Book of Tobias. In the second nocturn the lessons are from a sermon of St. Leo on fasting in the seventh month. In the third nocturn the lessons are from St. Ambrose, a homily on St. Lukes's Gospel. The Te Deum is sung. At Lauds the Office hymn is Ecce jam noctis. After the collect of the Sunday the Suffrage of the Saints is sung.

At Prime (Pss. 117, 118i & 118ii) both Quicumque and the Dominical preces are sung.

Mass is sung after Terce. The Gloria is sung, the second collect is A cunctis, the third collect is chosen by the Dean or Rector of the place. The Creed is sung and the preface is of the Holy Trinity.

One Mass, but not the Conventual Mass, may be celebrated of the Holy Name of Mary as this feast was, prior to the reform of 1911-13, celebrated on the Sunday within the Octave of the Nativity of the BVM . Today is this Sunday is but one would be forgiven for not noticing as the Octave of the Nativity of the BVM was a significant casualty of 1911-13. The Mass Vultum tuum is sung in white vestments. The Gloria is sung, the second collect is of the Sunday. The Creed is sung, the preface is of the BVM and the last Gospel is of the Sunday.

At Vespers there is a colour change to red and first Vespers of the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross are sung. The antiphons O magnum pietatis opus etc are sung, doubled, with psalms 109, 110, 111, 112 & 116. The Office hymn is Vexilla regis. After the collect of the feast a commemoration of the Sunday is sung. The Suffrage is omitted as are the Dominical preces at Compline.

In the 'liturgical books of 1962' at Vespers on Saturday the antiphon on the Magnificat was In omnibus his for the Saturday before the second Sunday of September. There were no commemorations and no special Doxologies. At Compline the Dominical preces are always omitted. Mattins is cut down to a single nocturn, the first and second lessons being what was read last Sunday in the traditional rite. At Lauds there are no commemorations nor Suffrage. At Prime both Quicumque and the Dominical preces are omitted. At Mass there is but a single collect. Vespers are of the Sunday with no commemorations. The Ember Day get postponed until the following week. The erudite Fr. Hunwicke has written an apposite post on this nonsense and calls for 'Circa-1939ish should be the starting point for a measured, sensible reconstruction of the Vetus Ordo'. Well we have been saying something similar for years...

Art: Jerome Nadal.