Calendar question in the EF
  • Michael O'Connor
    Posts: 1,637
    I have to confess that I don't know the ferial Offices as well as I should. I have calendar for 2009, but it doesn't make clear whether Vespers on March 6 should be second vespers of Ember Friday or First Vespers of Ember Saturday. I would like to use the commemorations for St Thomas Aquinas. Can anyone help?
  • Michael O'Connor
    Posts: 1,637
    OK. I think I have it. I checked Breviary.net (for 2008). What is the best source, though, for figuring this sort of thing out? Is someone publishing the 1962 Breviary?

    Vespers
    From the Chapter onwards of the following day (Ant on Mag: O Doctor... beate Thoma)
    Commemoration of the preceding day
    Commemoration of the Feria (Ant on Magnif and Collect proper)
  • priorstf
    Posts: 460
    Your timing is good. Check out today's item on Fr. Z's blog. It might be just what you seek.
    1961 Breviarium Romanum online site
  • TBL
    Posts: 13
    It's usually best not to take rubrics from breviary.net, as they use the 1911 rubrics of Pope St Pius X, with some later feast days added but no further rubrical changes.

    I'm not an expert, but I think --using the 1962 calendar and rubrics-- Vespers on March 6 would be Vespers of the Friday with Preces added and no commemorations; the feast day of SS Perpetua and Felicity is commemorated at Lauds only. Likewise, St Thomas is commemorated only at Lauds on Saturday March 7, not Vespers that evening. Vespers would be of the Saturday, i.e. 1st Vespers of the 2nd Sunday of Lent. This is because the Ember Days are 2nd class ferias, and outrank both saint days (which are 3rd class feasts in the universal calendar). The ferial days don't have 1st and 2nd Vespers.
  • TBL
    Posts: 13
    Also, the site mentioned above has the rubrics for the breviary in English, as well as tables of occurence and concurrence of liturgical days. These might be helpful for you, if you don't have access to them in book form already.
  • Michael O'Connor
    Posts: 1,637
    TBL, many thanks. I had forgotten that breviary.net used an early form.
  • Michael O'Connor
    Posts: 1,637
    Well, as I was just about done with my layout of Vespers, I found this site:

    http://lzkiss.net/cgi-bin/horas/brevi.pl

    It has an English translation, but only has rubrics up to 1960.

    Seems that 1961 changed a few things, and perhaps 1962 changed even more. When I consult the 1961 LU, March 6 is SS. Perpetua and Felicity, Martyrs (Double)
    The rubrics state: At 1st and 2nd Vespers. At Magn. Ant. Istarum est enim (etc)

    Hmm.. TBL, where do you get your information that both of these saints are now 3rd class feasts, and thus outranked by the 2nd class Feria?

    Checking on Second Class ferias in the front matter, here is what it says:
    "These ferias [in this case Ember Friday] give way to a II class feast of the universal Church [in this case SS Perpetua and Felicity], and are then only commemorated. For example the feast of St. Thomas Ap., Dec. 21, is kept with commemoration only of in the feria; the feast of St. Matthew, Sept. 21, if it coincides with an Ember day, is kept in the same way. "

    Now, the very next page of the LU (1387) gives an antiphon for 1st and 2nd Vespers of St Thomas Aquinas. Thus we have two claims on the Friday evening service (2nd Vespers and 1st Vespers). So... I think I will go with 1st Vespers with commemoration of St Thomas unless I can be persuaded that the 1962 breviary says different. If someone has one, please let me know!

    Thanks
  • Michael O'Connor
    Posts: 1,637
    Well, I like talking to myself late at night. Anyway, looking at the Ordo put out by the FSSP last year, March 6 was indeed a 3rd class feast (must have changed in '62 -- Jeffery can we get that LU posted ; )) Preces indeed would be said on Ember Friday, which ranks the 3rd class feasts. So TBL looks like you were correct. Thanks much.
  • Michael O'Connor
    Posts: 1,637
    Just got a good answer over at WDTPRS. Apparently the Liber usualis was never updated after 1961 (or even maybe earlier). One cannot trust implicitly the directions in it. Just got to get me a 62 Breviary!
  • TBL
    Posts: 13
    I thought I'd point out that until you do pick up a breviary, while the Liber Usualis still lists the old rankings in the Proper of the Saints itself, it *does* list the new feast classifications in the front matter. If you have the pdf version, it's bookmarked under Introduction -> Roman calendar (it's the universal calendar; you'll have to update it with any additions/rank changes for your own particular local calendar). Ss Perpetua and Felicity and St Thomas are listed as 3rd class feasts on (pdf file) pg 42. Also if you're interested in why some office commemorations only occur at lauds and some occur at both lauds and vespers, the explanation is on pg 57-58 of the pdf. The gist of Pope John XXIII's 1960 rubrical changes are explained in that entire section "Changes in the Liber Usualis". As far as I know, no further rule changes took place after that (until the current office was devised, of course). I think by reading that section, and having the tables of occurrence and concurrence (which tell you what to do when two offices fall on the same day, and when today's vespers coincides with 1st vespers for tomorrow, respectively) handy, the calendar would get easier to navigate. Hope that helps for the future.
  • Michael O'Connor
    Posts: 1,637
    Ahh.. thanks. I just assumed the calendar matched the rubrics in the book.
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