Sunday 6 August 2017

The Transfiguration of the LORD


The feast of the Transfiguration of the LORD is a Double feast of the Second Class and its liturgical colour is white. The IX Sunday after Pentecost (and the second Sunday of August) is commemorated at in the Office and at Mass.

At first Vespers yesterday afternoon the antiphons Assumpsit Jesus etc., proper to the feast, were sung, doubled, with psalms 109, 110, 111, 112 & 116. The Office hymn was Quicumque Christum quaeritis. The antiphon on the Magnificat was Christus Jesus, splendor Patris etc and the collect was proper to the feast. After the collect of the feast commemorations were sung of the preceding Office of the Dedication of Sancta Maria ad Nives and of the Sunday, the antiphon on the Magnificat being Ego in altissimis for the Saturday before the second Sunday of August. The Suffrage of the Saints was omitted as were the Dominical preces at Compline. At Compline, and at all the Hours, the hymns have the Doxology Jesu tibi Domine, Qui apparusti hodie etc along with its melody.

At Mattins the invitatory is Summum Regem gloriae, Venite adoremus. The Office hymn is, again, Quicumque Christum quaeritis. In the first nocturn the proper antiphons, Paulo minus etc, are sung with psalms 8, 28 & 44. The lessons in the first nocturn are from the Second Epistle of St. Peter. In the second nocturn the antiphons Illuminans etc are sung with psalms 75, 83, and 86. The lessons are from a sermon of St. Leo. In the third nocturn the antiphons Thabor et Hermon etc are sung with psalms 88, 96 and 103. The homily in the third nocturn is taken from St. Chrysostom's 57th homily on St. Matthew's Gospel. The ninth lesson is of the Sunday. The Te Deum is sung. The Incipit of the Book of Ecclesiastes, from the second Sunday is transferred to tomorrow's first nocturn.

At Lauds the antiphons Assumpsit Jesus Petrum et Jacobem etc are sung with the Dominical psalms. The Office hymn is Lux alma, Jesu, mentium. The antiphon on the Benedictus is Et ecce vox etc. After the collect of the feast commemorations are sung of the Sunday and of SS Xystus & Companions. The Suffrage of the Saints is omitted.

At Prime and the Hours the hymns have the proper Doxology and melody as noted above. The antiphons from Lauds are sung at the Hours in the usual order. At Prime the festal psalms are sung (53, 118i & 118ii), the verse in the short response is Qui apparuisti and the lectio brevis is Sustulit me.

Mass is sung after Terce. Where it is the custom a blessing of grapes takes place immediately before Mass. The introit is Illuxerant. The Gloria is sung, the second collect is of the Sunday, (in private Masses the third collect is of SS Xystus etc). The Credo is sung, the Preface is of the Nativity and the last Gospel is of the Sunday.

At Vespers all is sung as was sung at first Vespers except for the antiphon on the Magnificat, Et audientes, which is proper to second Vespers. After the collect of the feast commemorations are sung of the following Office of St. Cajetan and of the Sunday. At Compline the Dominical preces are omitted.

In the 'liturgical books of 1962' today would be the first Sunday of August but it is entirely omitted and not commemorated in the Office or Mass of the feast. At Vespers there are no commemorations. At Mattins Psalm 88 ends with the verse Quia Domini est assumptio nosta etc and the verses from Tunc locutus es etc to the end, 34 verses in all, are omitted. At Lauds there are no commemorations. At the Hours the hymns have the ordinary Doxology and the antiphons are of the Sunday, not the feast, Prime has Pss. 117, 1181 & 118ii. The lectio brevis is of the season. At Mass there is only one collect, the Preface is of the Trinity and the last Gospel is In principio. At Vespers there are no commemorations.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

We celebrated the Transfiguration but didn't have grapes blessed.
Where do they bless grapes?
Thank you for this blog & all of your efforts.

Anonymous said...

Your friends at Rad Trad blog appear to be rude ppl.(I could be wrong)
They mock Catholics who kneel and show respect & adoration for the Blessed Sacrament during the Consecration.
It is impossible to congregate and embrace the Novus Ordo without becoming personally corrupted.
Evil has a way of betraying and exposing itself in plain view,even if accidentally.
I love your blog and enjoy your work.You seem like a humble holy intelligent well meaning Catholic servant.
Please pray for all of your friends at Rad Trad and Benedicamus Domino blogs.
All I did was ask a few questions and specified that I was not being rude.
God bless you and your family/friends/chapel.

Rubricarius said...

Blessings of grapes and other harvest fare varies with climate.

I rather doubt if people were being deliberately rude. The practice of kneeling did vary, and continues, to vary from place to place. In parts of Ireland people kneel at the beginning of the NOM even until after the collect. In France and Italy the opposite tends to be the case. There is a famous anecdote about Hilaire Belloc standing at one time in Westminster Cathedral. A verger approached him and said 'It is customary to kneel at this point Sir.' He was given short shrift to which the verger responded 'I am sorry Sir, I did not realise you were a Catholic.'

Anonymous said...

Thank you for responding and your patience.
I need prayers and patience myself.
At our chapel and previous churches I attended,everyone always knelt after the Sanctus until the Last Gospel.
Until last week I had no idea that kneeling could be viewed as a sign or ignorance and disrespect.
God bless you.

Rubricarius said...

Anonymous,

In my view it is about respecting the views of others. There are several layers of history involved: the first that kneeling was strongly linked to penitential days and hence their name 'kneeling days' and the extended kneeling found in Requiem Masses, days of Lent etc. Then there is a later association of kneeling and reverence. That obviously is motivated by the highest of intentions and so I would not interpret it as a sign of ignorance or disrespect.

Anonymous said...

Why is there a commemoration of St. Xystus at Laudes in the 62 books? Wouldn't commemorating a Saint detract from our dominical observance thus accomplished by celebrating a feast of Our Lord?

Anonymous said...

Thank you I don't feel so bad about kneeling after reading your response.
GOD bless you.

Rubricarius said...

Anon 8:07,

I do not think there is one actually on reflection. I had looked at the Divinum Officium site. I suspect the feast of the Lord falling on Sunday excludes 'ordinary' commemorations in 1962 land.

Anonymous said...

I went to vespers on Thursday 10th., that I knew was i vespers of Saint Philomena as patron.
Ought there not to have been a commemoration of Saint Lawrence also?
Papa Roncalli didn't think they were the same person one assumes...
It is all a little spare in 1962 land. Really just the novus ordo in drag

Anonymous said...

I and our clergy at the local Traditional chapel feel the same about Pius XII changes from 51-58.

Andre said...

Anonymous 12:12

Please do everyone a favor. Write and punctuate properly.