Sunday 16 February 2020

Sexagesima Sunday


Sexagesima Sunday is a semi-double Sunday of the second class and its liturgical colour is violet. The Sunday is characterised by a very lengthy Epistle from St. Paul's Latter Epistle to the Corinthians. The Gospel pericopes are from St. Luke and contain the parable of the sower with his seed landing on rock, amongst weeds and on the good ground.

At Vespers yesterday afternoon the antiphons and psalms of Saturday were sung. The chapter was proper to the Sunday, Fratres: Libenter suffertis, and the Office hymn was Jam sol recedit igneus. After the collect of the Sunday the Suffrage of the Saints was sung. At Compline the Dominical preces were sung.

At Mattins the antiphons and psalms are from the Psalter for Sundays. In the first nocturn the lessons continue to be read from Genesis (Ch. 5 & 6), the beginning of the story of Noah. In the second nocturn the lessons are from St. Ambrose on Noah and the Ark and in the third nocturn the lessons are a homily from St. Gregory on the Gospel of the seed falling on good and poor ground. A ninth responsory, Cum turba plurima, is sung in place of the Te Deum.

At Lauds the 'second scheme' of psalms is sung: Pss 50, 117, 62, Canticle of the Three Children (Benedictus es) and 148. The antiphons at Lauds are proper for Sexagesima Sunday, Secundum magnam misericordiam as are the chapter and antiphon on the Benedictus. After the collect of the Sunday the Suffrage of the Saints is sung.

At Prime the order of psalmody is Pss. 92, 99 (displaced at Lauds) 118i & 118ii. The Dominical preces are omitted. At the Hours the antiphons, Semen cecidit etc, and chapters are proper to Sexagesima Sunday.

Mass is sung after Terce. The Gloria is omitted, the second collect is A cunctis, the third collect is chosen by the Dean or rector. A Tract is sung after the Gradual, the Creed is sung , the Preface is of Trinity and Benedicamus Domino is sung as the dismissal by the deacon facing the altar.

At Vespers the antiphons and psalms of Sunday (109, 110, 111, 112 & 113) are sung. The Office hymn is Lucis creator. After the collect of the Sunday the Suffrage is sung. At Compline the Dominical preces are sung.

In the 'liturgical books of 1962' there are no commemorations at either Vespers. The Dominical preces have been abolished. Mattins is cut down to a single nocturn. At Prime the arrangement of psalmody is festive, Pss. 53, 118i, 118ii. At sung Mass there is single collect and Benedicamus Domino is suppressed in favour of Ite, missa est.

Art: Jerome Nadal

6 comments:

John Meyers said...

Rubricarius,
I think this has come up in the past, but a search did not yield anything. So let me try (again).
St. Mary Bernard Soubirous has her birthday on April 16th. However, in some sources I have seen, e.g., the St. Andrew Missal, it lists the octave of OLL (February 18th) as the feast day. Other sources, e.g., Fr. Lasance Missal are a bit confused and have the feast as February 18th in the propers, but missing from the table as well as the brief notes on the saints (but St. Simeon isn't in that section either.)
Do you have anything in your notes on when it was actually promulgated? And as a double or some other rank?
Thanks,
John

Drew said...

Question regarding the feast of St. Bernadette. In France the feast is celebrated today, February 18, which is the octave day of the first apparition on February 11, the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. In the St. Andrew (1945) and the Fr. Lasance (1937)daily missals, the feast is on February 18 for the universal Church as a double and the feast of St. Simeon, Bishop and Martyr, a simple, is commemorated.

I have several altar Missals published between 1950 and 1955, and in these missals the mass for St. Bernadette, with the same propers, is only found in the back of the missal as a local celebration. Also the Ordo published for the pre-1955 liturgy, the feast is not celebrated on February 18.

The Novus Ordo, with its blindness to the relationship between feasts and their octave days, has the feast of St. Bernadette on April 16, the day of her death.

Can you offer any explanation why the feast is found on February 18 in daily missals for the laity published in 1937 and 1945 but not in the altar missals published in the early 1950s.

Thanks,

Drew

Rubricarius said...

@ John Meyers & Drew,

I have never seen the feast in the Universal Calendar in any official liturgical book - as opposed to in lay missals, only appearing in the PAL sections.

John Meyers said...

That's pretty much what I expected.
But I had to ask.
Thanks for the response.
John

Paul said...

I have to mention that there was no concurring double feast on Saturday evening.

Rubricarius said...

Thank you, Paul for pointing that out. The errors of cut and paste!