Wednesday 6 May 2009

The Octave Day of the Solemnity of St. Joseph


Today is the Octave Day of the Solemnity of St. Joseph Patron of the Universal Church. It is of greater double rite. The feast of St. John before the Latin Gate celebrated on May 6th is this year simplified to a commemoration by the occurring Octave Day.

At Mattins in the first nocturn the lessons are from Scripture, in the second nocturn the lessons are a sermon from St. Augustine on marriage and concupiscence and the writings of St. Augustine again provide lessons on the Gospel of St. Luke for the third nocturn. The ninth lesson is of St. John before the Latin Gate.

At Lauds a commemoration of St. John before the Latin Gate is sung. Hymns of Iambic metre of course have the Paschaltide Doxology.

Mass is sung after Terce. The Gloria is sung, the second collect is of St. John before the Latin Gate, the Credo is sung, the preface of St. Joseph and the last Gospel of St. John before the Latin Gate.

At Vespers a commemoration is made of the following Office of St. Stanislaus and St. John before the Latin Gate.

In the 'liturgical books of 1962' there is of course no Octave Day, no Octave and no Solemnity of St. Joseph. St. John before the Latin Gate has been done away with too so a Paschaltide feria is all that remains. This of course does not have the preces in the Office or the collects of the season at Mass. There is no commemoration of the following Office at Vespers either and the Paschaltide Doxology is omitted at the Horae Minorae.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rubricarius, We have Mass on one Sunday a month. It is a Sung Mass with incense. The faithful usually kneel throughout, apart from sitting when the Epistle is being chanted, and standing for the Credo. Now there seems to be a move to make us sit and stand at various times during the Mass. Could you please tell us what the correct etiquette should be, and does the 1962 Missal have a different one from the pre-1955 one?

Rubricarius said...

Dear Anonymous,
Kneeling throughout isn't really the traditional thing to do. Whilst, traditionally, there were no binding rules on the congregation the best authors suggest that they would have followed the rules for the choir.

So for a sung Mass they would kneel for the preparatory prayers, stand then until the last collect, sit for the Epistle, stand for the Gospel, sit for the homily. Stand for the Creed (if singing it). Sit during the offertory stand for being censed, stand for the preface, kneel from the Sanctus to Elevation of the Chalice. Kneel for the distribution of Communion, sit after its distribution and stand for the post-communion(s).

Pre-1962 in penitential Masses and Requiem Masses kneel for the collects and remain kneeling from the Sanctus until just before Pax Domini is sung. This distinction, like so much else, was lost in the 1962 books.

AP said...

"Kneeling throughout isn't really the traditional thing to do..."

Kneelers and pews were absent from a lot of Catholic churches until the 20th century (including the Philippines), I've always wondered if people mostly stood then (there are paintings that show people standing during Mass in pew-less temples).

Just like the Slavic Orthodox...