Thursday 27 December 2012

St. John the Apostle and Evangelist


The feast of St. John the Apostle and Evangelist is a Double of the Second Class with a simple Octave. The liturgical colour is white.

At Mattins the invitatory is Regem Apostolorum Dominum, Venite adoremus and the Office hymn is Aeterna Christi munera, sung with the Doxology of the Incarnation. In the first nocturn the antiphons In omnem terram etc are sung with psalms 18, 33 & 44. The lessons are the Incipit of the former Epistle of St. John. The responsories are proper to the feast. In the second nocturn the antiphons Principes populorum etc are sung with psalms 46, 60 & 63 and the lessons are from the writings of St. Jerome. In the third nocturn the antiphons Exaltabuntur etc are sung with psalms 74, 96 & 98. The homily on St. John's Gospel is from St. Augustine. The Te Deum is sung. At Lauds the antiphons Valde honorandus est etc are sung with the Dominical psalms (92, 99, 62, Benedicite & 148). The Office hymn is Exsultet orbis gaudiis sung with the Doxology of the Incarnation. The antiphon on the Benedictus, Iste est Joannes etc., is proper to the feast. After the collect of the feast a commemoration is sung of the Octave of the Nativity.

At the Hours the hymns are sung with the Doxology of the Incarnation. At Prime the antiphon Valde honorandus est is sung with the festal psalms (53, 118i & 118ii) and the lectio brevis is In medio Ecclesiae. The antiphons from Lauds are sung in due order at the other Horae Minores.

Mass is sung after Terce. The Gloria is sung, the second collect is of the Octave of the Nativity. The Creed is sung, the preface and communicantes are of the Nativity.

Vespers are of the Nativity but from the chapter of St. John. The Office hymn, Exsultet orbis gaudiis, is sung with the Doxology of the Incarnation. Commemorations are sung of tomorrow's feast of the Holy Innocents and of the Octave of the Nativity.

Following the 'liturgical books of 1962' the Doxology in honour of the Incarnation is omitted in all the hymns. At the Little Hours the antiphons and psalms are taken from the ferial psalter. At Prime the lectio brevis is of the season, not of the feast. At Vespers no commemoration is made of the Holy Innocents.

Miniature of St. John from Wikipedia.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rubricarius, when I asked an SSPX priest friend why he does not use the St Pius X Breviary he answered that it is too long. I take this to mean that using this breviary would take too much of his priestly time.Moreover, the longer it is, the harder to concentrate?.

I'd appreciate your comments.

Rubricarius said...

It sounds as though your friend is in the wrong job. When the Office is just read it can hardly make much difference to read through six lessons and responsories.

I was once told by a cleric that the additional collects took "too long". As an experiment I got a friend to time how long it took to chant A cunctis and Omnipotens. It took one minute and fifteen seconds. If that is too long for the worship of The Almighty then, again, some people are in the wrong job.

Paleo-Con said...

Rubricarius, so well put! I believe I read in the opening pages of the BCP that Cramner, when composing the same, desired to make Morning and Evening Prayer and the Calendar in general less time consuming and complicated respectively; what a coincidence!

Patrick Sheridan said...

Paleo-Con, actually the idea was to rid the Office of unscriptural responds, antiphons, and rules which rendered finding one's place just as long as recitation or chant of the prescribed hour - an exaggeration, perhaps, but an intelligible motive.

Incidentally, Cranmer modelled the Prayer Book office on the proposed QuiƱones breviary of 1535.