Third Sunday in Lent

The third Sunday in Lent is a semi-double Sunday of the first class and its liturgical colour, from Mattins this year, is violet. The Gospel pericope from St. Luke at Mattins and Mass recounts the LORD casting out evil from a demoniac.

At second Vespers of the feast of St. Joseph yesterday morning the antiphons Jacob autem etc were sung, doubled, with psalms 109, 110, 111, 112 & 116. The Office hymn was Te, Joseph celebrent etc. After the collect of the feast a commemoration of the Sunday was sung. The Suffrage of the Saints was omitted as were the Dominical preces at Compline.

At Mattins the invitatory is Non sit vobis and the Office hymn is Ex more, as on the other Sundays in Lent. The antiphons and psalms of Sunday are sung. In the first nocturn the lessons are taken from Genesis and the story of Joseph, his coat of many colours and his brothers casting him into a pit. In the second nocturn the lessons are taken from the Book of St. Augustine on Joseph. In the third nocturn the lessons are a homily of the Venerable Bede on St. Luke's Gospel. A ninth responsory, Lamentabatur Jacob, is sung in place of the Te Deum.

At Lauds the antiphons are proper to the Sunday, Fac benigne etc., sung with the second scheme of Psalms (50, 117, 62, Benedictus es, 148). The chapter is proper to the Sunday and the Office hymn is O sol salutis. After the collect of the Sunday the Suffrage of the Saints is sung.

At Prime and the Hours the antiphons are proper to the Sunday, Et cum ejecisset Jesus etc. At Prime the psalms are Pss. 92, 99 (displaced from Lauds) and the first two divisi of Ps. 118. The Dominical preces are sung.

Mass is sung after Terce. The deacon and subdeacon wear violet folded chasubles. There is no Gloria. The second collect is A cunctis, the third collect is Omnipotens. 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 altar and celebrant.

At Vespers the antiphons and psalms of Sunday are sung at the normal time. The Office hymn is Audi, benigne Conditor. After the collect of the Sunday a commemoration is sung of the following feast of St. Benedict. The Suffrage of the Saints is omitted as are the Dominical preces at Compline.

In 'liturgical books of 1962' Vespers yesterday were sung in the afternoon as at any other time of the year. Mattins is cut down to a single nocturn of three lessons. At Lauds the Suffrage has been abolished as have the Dominical preces at Prime. At Prime the psalms are Pss.53, 118(i) & 118(ii) as on feasts. At Mass the ministers wear dalmatic and tunicle, as in Septuagesima etc. There is but a single collect and the dismissal is Ite, missa est.

Art: Jerome Nadal