V Sunday after Pentecost

The fifth Sunday after Pentecost is of semi-double rite and its liturgical colour, until Vespers this year, is green. The Gospel pericopes at Mattins and Mass are from St. Matthew. The Vigil of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist was anticiated on Saturday.

At Vespers yesterday afternoon the antiphons and psalms of Saturday were sung. The Office hymn was Jam sol recedit igneus. After the collect of the Sunday a commemoration was sung of the preceding Office of St. Paulinus. The Suffrage of the Saints was omitted as were the Dominical preces at Compline.

At Mattins the invitatory is Dominum qui fecit nos and the Office hymn is Nocte surgentes. In the first nocturn the lessons are the Incipit of the Second Book of the Kings. In the second nocturn the lessons are taken from St. Gregory the Great's Book on Morals. In the third nocturn the homily on St. Matthew's Gospel is from St. Augustine. 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. The Creed is sung and the preface is of the Blessed Trinity.

In the midst of the 1911-13 reform, the feast of St. John the Baptist was moved, briefly, from the 24th June to the Sunday preceding the feast of SS Peter & Paul (2 Jul 1911, De diebus festis AAS 3 (1911) pp. 305-7). All Masses, other than the Conventual Mass, may be of the feast and the liturgical colour is white. The Mass De ventre is sung, the second collect is of the Sunday, the Creed is sung (due to the commemoration of the Sunday), the preface is of the Blessed Trinity and the last Gospel is of the Sunday.

After None there is a colour change to white and first Vespers of the feast of St. John the Baptist are sung. The antiphons, Ipse praeibit etc, proper to the feast, are sung, doubled, with psalms 109, 110, 111, 112 & 116. The Office hymn is Ut queant laxis resonare fibris. The hymn famously rises through a scale in its verses: Ut (Doh), Resonare, Mira, Famuli, Solve, Labii. After the collect of the feast a commemoration of the Sunday is sung. The Suffrage of the Saints is omitted as are the Dominical preces at Compline.

In the 'liturgical books of 1962' whilst the Vigil of St. John the Baptist is one of the few Vigils that have not been abolished this year it is not observed as it falls on a Sunday. There are no commemorations at Vespers on Saturday. The Suffrage has been abolished as have the Dominical preces at Prime and Compline. Mattins is cut down to a single nocturn of three lessons. Quicumque is said but once a year. Mass has but a single collect.

Art: Jerome Nadal