The first Sunday of Advent is a semi-double Sunday of the first class and its liturgical colour is violet. As with all the Sundays in Lent no feast may displace this Sunday. The liturgy of Advent is probably the most exquisite of the entire liturgical year with layers of meaning for both the first and second Comings of the LORD. There is a weave of both expectant joy and penance to be found throughout the liturgical texts. The eschatalogical theme of last Sunday's Gospel continues with St. Luke's Gospel today and the Coming of the Divine Judge. During Advent bishops of the Roman rite exchange their violet choir cassocks for black ones (with train) which are worn with either a black mozzeta or black mattelletum with violet linings. Cardinals of the Court of Rome wear their 'winter' violet merino apparel (in contrast to their summer mourning dress of violet watered-silk) in place of their scarlet watered-silk. Vespers on Saturday before Advent Sunday mark the beginning of the Pars Hiemalis or Winter volume of the Breviary.
It should be noted - and it is question we have been asked several times - that traditional Roman Ordines always followed the calendar year and never began with Advent Sunday.
The above is from a 1572 Roman ordo.
At Vespers yesterday afternoon the antiphons In illa die etc were sung, not doubled, with the psalms of Saturday. The Office hymn was Creator alme siderum. After the collect of the Sunday a commemoration was sung of the preceding Office of St. Silvester. From this Vespers, until the end of None on the Vigil of the Nativity of the LORD, the antiphon Alma Redemptoris etc is sung with the versicle Angelus Domini etc and the collect Gratiam tuam. At Compline the Dominical preces were omitted.
At Mattins the invitatory is Regem venturum and this is sung in both the Dominical and ferial Offices of Advent until the third Sunday. The Office hymn is Verbum supernum. In the first nocturn the antiphons Veniet ecce Rex etc are sung, not doubled, with the usual psalms for Sunday. In the first nocturn the lessons are the Incipit of the prophet Isaiah. In the second nocturn the antiphons Gaude et laetare etc are sung and the lessons are taken from the writing of St. Leo on the fast of the tenth month, the theme of which is preparing for the Coming. In the third nocturn the antiphons Gabriel Angelus etc are sung and the homily is from St. Gregory continuing the theme of Coming with his commentary on St. Luke's Gospel about the end times. A ninth responsory is sung and the Te Deum is omitted in the Office of Advent. At Lauds the antiphons proper to the first Sunday In illa die etc, are sung, not doubled, with the Dominical psalms. The Office hymn is En clara vox. The Suffrage is omitted, as noted, during Advent.
At Prime the first antiphon from Lauds, In illa die, is sung, not doubled, with the usual Dominical psalms (117, 118i, 118ii). In the short responsory the versicle Qui venturus es in mundum replaces Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris for all of Advent except when an occurring feast has a proper versicle. The Dominical preces are sung. At the other Hours the remaining antiphons of Lauds are sung in the usual order.
Mass is sung after Terce. During Advent for both ferial and Dominical Masses in the Roman rite, with the exception of the third Sunday Gaudete, the deacon and sub-deacon do not wear the dalmatic and tunicle but violet folded chasubles, an ancient feature of the Roman liturgy. The Gloria in not sung, the second collect is Deus, qui de beatae, the third collect is Ecclesiae etc. The Creed is sung, the preface that of the Blessed Trinity and, as the Gloria was not sung, the dismissal is Benedicamus Domino, sung by the deacon facing the altar.
At Vespers the antiphons In illa die etc are sung, not doubled, with the Dominical psalms. The Office hymn is Creator alme siderum. The Suffrage is omitted throughout Advent. At Compline the Dominical preces are sung.
In the 'liturgical books of 1962' Mattins is cut down to a single nocturn of three lessons. The Dominical preces have been abolished at Compline and at Prime. At Mass the there is the novelty for the the Roman rite of the deacon wearing the dalmatic and the sub-deacon the tunicle in a penitential Mass of the season. Folded chasubles, so ancient and so quintessentially Roman, have been cast aside. There is but a single collect and the dismissal is Ite, missa est.
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10 comments:
Why is the Suffrage omitted during Advent ?
Thank You, Rubricarius, for the latest 2023 ORDO, safely received.
A Blessed Advent to you and your family. Prayers assured for your father.
in Domino
Zephyrinus.
“From this Vespers, until the end of None on the Vigil of the Nativity of the LORD, Alma Redemptoris etc is sung”.
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Dear Rubricarius.
Reference the above, I am confused.
No doubt, you will explain, please ?
Thank You for your excellent Blog.
@Zephyrinus,
Good to know you received Ordo MMXXIII.
What I should have written is the Marian Antiphon Alma Redemptoris, with the versicle Angelus Domini etc and the collect Gratiam tuam, is sung at the end of Vespers (unless Compline immediately follows) on the Saturday before Advent Sunday and then at the end of Lauds and each Hour, or group of Hours, sung in choir until after None on the Vigil of the Nativity. I'll make that clearer.
@Joel,
I do not know, but will find out.
@ Joel & Rubricarius,
I was wondering this myself. I thought I had read (maybe in Quigley) that the Suffrage of the Saints is omitted in Advent because Christ has not yet appeared and in Passiontide because Christ is hidden, and thus in both cases it would be wrong to honour the saints when the Master himself is, in some way, absent. I am not sure if I am remembering this correctly, and even if so, whether the explanation is accurate or somewhat factitious.
Do you know if there is available anywhere an English translation of the bull "Quoad nobis"? I am trying to learn more about the traditional praxis for the recitation of the Office of the Dead during Advent. My understanding is that in the Middle Ages, the Office of the Dead was added to the office of the day on all ferias, but that Pius V then limited its use (and perhaps did not even make it a strict obligation) to: the first free day of each month (outside Advent, Lent and November) ; the Mondays of Advent and Lent ; the Ember days ; and some Vigils. Do you know if the Office of the Dead was to be added to all Mondays of Advent without exception or only when such Mondays happened to be a feria - or least a day not of nine lessons or perhaps a day without a Double feast? Even if a Double feast falls on a Monday of Advent, would it be "wrong" to add the Office of the Dead? Did the reform of Pius X affect this practice at all? It's very hard to find clear information about this online!
@Peter,
I am not sure if I have seen a translation of Quod a nobis but rather doubt it would help.
You are correct that after 1568 the Office of the Dead was said on the first ferial day of each month outside Advent, Lent, Paschaltide and November and on the Mondays of Advent and Lent (but not Holy Week) when the office was ferial.
If you look at the SRC decrees you will find multiple cases where various chapters petitioned Rome to be allowed to have the Office of the Dead on other days too.
I consulted Battifol and Van der Stappen - a difficult week as my father was taken to hospital yet again - and they both state the Suffrages are monastic and Gallican in origin and not found in Roman Ordines until the 11thC. I was rather hoping VdS would have said more. When they were admitted they were not said in Passiontide or Christmastide.
I'll try and find out more when time permits. Clearly they were added later than the Advent Office so the question is why they were not added there. Quigley may be correct.
Thank you for your answer. I will pray for your father.
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