Farewell Whitsuntide, Paschaltide, and Regina cæli

This week I have striven to say some of the Breviary Hours, thus participating in some degree in the liturgy of Whitsuntide, the Octave of Pentecost, the last echo of the Paschal season. Just as in the Extraordinary Form, the traditional, immemorial form of the Roman Rite, Lent is preceded by Septuagesimatide, beginning 63 days before Easter Sunday, so the Octave of Pentecost follows on and continues the celebration of Pentecost, the fiftieth day of Easter, until the 56th day, Whit Saturday. (If, as is now common, Corpus Christi is kept on the Sunday after Trinity, the Solemnity of the Sacrament of the Altar falls on the 64th day, 63 days after Easter, exactly parallel to Septuagesima Sunday 63 days before Easter.)

At midday this Whit Saturday, walking back to my car after brunch, I prayed for the last time this year the Regina cæli, which I first repeated with the special Premonstratensian and Dominican forms:

Regina cæli, lætare, alleluja,

Quia quem meruisti portare, alleluja,

Spiritum misit, sicut dixit, alleluja:

Ora pro nobis Deum, alleluja. (O.Præm.) 

Regina cæli, lætare, alleluja,

Quia quem meruisti portare, alleluja,

Jam ascendit, sicut dixit, alleluja:

Ora pro nobis Deum, alleluja. (O.P.) 

Regina cæli, lætare, alleluja,

Quia quem meruisti portare, alleluja,

Resurrexit, sicut dixit, alleluja:

Ora pro nobis Deum, alleluja.

("Queen of heaven, rejoice, alleluia, for He Whom thou didst merit to bear, alleluia, hath sent the Spirit / now ascended / risen again, as He said, alleluia: pray for us to God, alleluia.")

Eastertide ends after None; first Vespers of the Holy Trinity marks the beginning of the long Sundays per annum. This year, Trinity Sunday falls on the feast of St Philip Neri, and he will not be marked by any commemoration because of this (except among his sons the Oratorians, who transfer his feast to Monday); he will I am sure be pleased by this coincidence, being one who preferred to hide his sanctity, and who has now been "hidden with Christ in God" for over four hundred years. "Eternity!" – such he once cried; and what must that be like?

I will be serving at the parish vigil Mass this evening, and will be asking St Philip's prayers – not least for the Oratorians throughout the world, and specially for those in process of establishing a new Oratory in Brisbane. 

Easter Prayer

St Pius V died with these words of the Eastertide Breviary hymn upon his lips:

Quæsumus, Auctor omnium,

In hoc paschali gaudio,

Ab omni mortis impetu

Tuum defende populum.

(He of course used the pre-Urban VIII traditional Latin version; but quæritur - did he, as Pope, continue to say the Dominican Breviary, or did he perforce use the Roman Breviary as Bishop of Rome?)

This is, I trow, an excellent prayer, excellently englished as follows:

Paschal triumph, paschal joy,

Only sin can this destroy:

From the death of sin set free

Souls reborn, dear Lord, in thee.

To this stanza, of course, the paschal doxology is customarily attached:

Gloria tibi, Domine,

Qui surrexisti a mortuis,

Cum Patre et Sancto Spiritu

In sempiterna sæcula. Amen.

Or, in the vernacular:

Hymns of glory, sons of praise,

Father, unto thee we raise;

Risen Lord, all praise to thee

Ever with the Spirit be.

These two stanzas are frequently on my lips in Paschaltide.

Alleluia, alleluia, * Alleluia

All this week I've had the inestimable pleasure – for it is such a true, graced consolation – of praying the whole Office, and at the right times, too, giving to the day its rightful rhythm of prayer and praise.  Several mornings I had the opportunity to pray en plein air in the early morning, overlooking the beach, in the natural chapel of God's creation (which declares His glory): Matins, Lauds, and Prime.

The Breviary I'm now adhering to is the Dominican, which has many fine features above and beyond those it shares with its Roman brother.  For instance, for Paschaltide ferias, the Invitatory anthem for the Venite at the opening of the day's Hours is simply a triple Alleluia: what more can be said?

What is the versicle at Easter Lauds in the Roman Office is instead the "sacerdotal" verse preceding the start of Lauds (a very common mediæval item, this):

In resurrectione tua, Christe, alleluia. – Cæli et terra lætentur, alleluia.

At Thy Resurrection, O Christ, alleluia. – Heaven and earth rejoice, alleluia.

The Matins hymn in the Dominican Breviary, Aurora lucis rutilat, is instead the Lauds hymn (mucked about with under Urban VIII) in the Roman; while their respective Lauds (Sermone blando Angelus) and Matins hymns (Rex sempiterne cælitum) are utterly different.  Again, how good it is to have the old authentick words of the splendid Vesper hymn, Ad cenam Agni providi, not the pseudo-classicized Ad regias Agni dapes!  Still further, reading Dominican Compline one finds a proper hymn for Eastertide, Jesu nostra redemptio (almost completely rewritten in the Roman books as Salutis humanæ Sator, and there used as the Lauds hymn of Ascensiontide).

This week (the second after the Paschal Octave) the Collect (for the 2nd Sunday after Easter) has been Deus qui in Filii tui humilitate jacentem mundum erexisti: "God, Who in Thy Son hath raised up the fallen world".  What a mighty statement of fact!  And it goes on: "to Thy faithful a perpetual joy concede: that those whom Thou hast snatched" (eripuisti, from ex + rapere) "from the dangers of perpetual death, Thou mayest make to have fruition of everlasting joys".

The repetition of "perpetual" (perpetuam, perpetuæ), contrasting the endless death from which we have been snatched with the endless joys we now supplicate, that they be everlasting (sempiternis),  and the repeated words for "joy(s)" (lætitiam, gaudiis) indeed intensify the prayer.  As God by His Son's humility unto death did indeed raise the world from its primal fall, so too may we be rescued from all perils of endless death (in hell) and given instead, entirely as a gift, the joys that are eternal (in heaven): all of which we ask through the same Christ our risen Lord.  What better prayer than this?

Deus qui in Filii tui humilitate jacentem mundum erexisti, fidelibus tuis perpetuam concede lætitiam: ut, quos perpetuæ mortis eripuisti casibus, gaudiis facias perfrui sempiternis.  Per eundem Dominum...

Easter Treasures

At the Sunday Vigil Mass this evening (after going for an afternoon drive to Bridport, coming back via Scottsdale), I was moved as always by the Easter Vespers hymn (the Hour I'd just finished before the Liturgy), Ad cenam Agni providi, which I know by heart in English as "At the Lamb's high feast we sing" – I prayed over it at Communion time, just as I made two of its verses, O vera digna hostia and Quæsumus Auctor omnium, my Eastertide aspirations at the Elevation of the Host and Chalice.  These two Easter treasures, together with others, I blogged on two years back: if interested further, read my posting...

Our Lady in Eastertide

This Saturday, being an Easter feria, is kept as the commemoration of Our Lady on the Sabbath.  Taking up the Office at last after falling into much accidie and worse, having made my confession this morning as is my wont, was a beautiful consolation and grace.  Thanks be to God.

The Easter Office, combined with the Marian Office, is lovely.  For instance, there was the functional equivalent of the Byzantine staurotheotokion, commemorating the Mother of God at the foot of the Cross: for at Prime in the Dominican form, the Gospel extract read is the first verse detailing that very incident, St John xix, 25 (the matching Mass of the day, for Our Lady in Eastertide, appoints the whole of St John xix, 25-27).  And the Cross-and-Resurrection, that summation of the Paschal Mystery, likewise appear together as is most fitting, in the versicle at Saturday Matins: 

V/.  Surrexit Dominus de sepulchro, alleluja.  R/.  Qui pro nobis pependit in ligno, alleluja.

(The Lord hath arisen from the tomb, alleluia; Who for us hung upon the [Cross's] wood, alleluia.)

The psalms are read with a triple alleluia for antiphon; responsories and versicles are likewise adorned with that cry of joy and victory.  A nice detail: for all Sundays and feasts during Eastertide, even for Our Lady's Saturday Office, the Benedicamus Domino at Lauds and Vespers has a double alleluia added, just as throughout the Easter Octave; otherwise, on ferias in Paschal Time, a single alleluia is added at those cardinal Hours.

At Matins, first part of the Apocalypse was read (chapter v, 1-9a), depicting the Lamb once slain Who now liveth for ever, opening the book sealed with seven seals, at the acclaim of all the saints; then came a sweet effusion in honour of Our Lady, from whom was born Christ, the Saviour of our souls, written by the great St Epiphanius: "...by thee heavenly peace hath been given to the world... by thee men are made angels... by thee the Cross shineth forth throughout the whole world, upon which hung thy Son Christ our Lord; by thee death is trodden down and hell is despoiled... by thee we have come to know the Onlybegotten Son of God, Whom thou didst bear in thy womb."  Alleluia!

The 3rd Matins responsory at once took up the theme, praising she who did merit to bear the Lord, all to the glory of the Triune God:

R/.  Virgo parens Christi, paritura Deum genuisti: fulgida stella maris, nos protege, nos tuearis: * Dum paris et gaudes, cantant cæli agmina laudes.  Alleluia.  V/.  Intercede pia pro nobis, Virgo Maria. * Dum paris et gaudes, cantant cæli agmina laudes.  Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto.  Alleluia.  

(R/.  Virgin parent of Christ, bringing forth the God thou begottest: shining star of the sea, protect us, defend us: * Whilst thou bearest and rejoicest, the hosts of heaven sing praises.  Alleluia.  V/.  Intercede sweetly for us, Virgin Mary. * Whilst thou bearest and rejoicest, the hosts of heaven sing praises.  Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost.  Alleluia.)

Every great theme of the whole economy of redemption has been given full play.  What a joy to pray this!

Tres Psalmi ad Matutinum Dicuntur, Alleluia

Taking up the Dominican Breviary, I thought it interesting for those liturgically inclined to note how the Black Friars of old marked Eastertide: above all, by shortening Matins.  Of course, there are the usual abundant Alleluia's; but - and I say my own Alleluia to this - the most marked feature of the Dominican Office is that, from Easter Sunday to Whit Saturday, only three psalms are appointed for Matins each day.  

As a consequence, all days, even the greatest feasts, have only three lessons and three responsories also.  (Bear in mind that, unlike the Roman Rite, but like the Benedictine, the Dominicans do not let the last responsory be replaced by the Te Deum, but rather the responsory is read, then the Te Deum, as throughout this festal season.)

During the Easter Octave, the psalms for Matins were as follows: on Sunday, Pss 1, 2, 3; on Monday, Pss 4, 5, 6; on Tuesday, Pss 7, 8, 10; on Wednesday, Pss 11, 12, 13; on Thursday, Pss 14, 15, 16; on Friday, Pss 18, 19, 20; on Saturday, Pss 22, 23, 25; and on Low Sunday, the three psalms of Easter Sunday Matins were repeated.

(Whence come these particular psalms?  They seem to be roughly those used, until St Pius X's reforms of the distribution of the psalms in the Office, implemented by the Dominicans in 1922 or thereabouts, at Sunday Matins: Pss 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 – but omitting the two longest of these (marked in bold) – plus several psalms used prior to St Pius X's reforms at Prime in the Dominican Rite on Sundays from Septuagesima to Palm Sunday: Pss 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 – again omitting the two longest.  Pss 4 and 5, otherwise used at daily Compline and once a week at Lauds respectively, must be made use of as both apposite and fitting the sequence of the psalms.)

In similar manner, the three Matins psalms for the Sundays after Easter are in all cases the first three of the usual nine, that is, Pss 1, 2, 3, which are those of Easter Sunday, and bear the typic imprint of the Lord's Resurrection.

We are now in the first week after the Octave of Easter; the three psalms to be read or sung at Matins on all the weekdays are the first three of the usual nine.  Come next week, the second after the Octave, the three psalms to use will be the middle three of the usual nine; and in the third week after the Octave, the last three of the usual nine psalms will be those to recite.  Then, as is sensible, the cycle repeats: in the fourth week after the Octave, the first three psalms; in the fifth, the middle three; and in the week after the Sunday after Ascension, the last three.  (For Ascension Thursday, Pss 8, 10 and 18 are appointed.)

Pentecost Octave is even simpler: the three Matins psalms of the feast are repeated all week: Pss 47, 67 and 103.

As for any feast days occurring in Paschal Time that have proper psalms at Matins, only three are used – those of the first Nocturn of the relevant Common, as all the rubrical notes in the Proper of Saints puts it (whether for the Annunciation when transferred to after Easter, or for the feast of St Peter Martyr), although, when the Commons are consulted, in the absence of any direction in the Proper, the particular psalms to be chosen are to be selected secundum ordinem Nocturnorum: that is, on Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays from the first Nocturn; on Tuesdays and Fridays, from the second; and on Wednesdays and Saturdays, from the third.  This rule would be used for feasts of Apostles during Eastertide, since there is no direction to the contrary in the Proper.

Since I've always found the nine psalms of Matins a real chore to work through, I'm delighted (as Abp Hart would say) to find the Dominicans agreed to the extent that, for 56 days of the year, they make the task so much sweetly shorter.  Alleluia!

******

P.S.  In private use, lest the Office feel too much of a burden for a layman (e.g. me!) who prays it pro pia devotione, seeking to join in the liturgical life of the Church to the extent possible, but yet to keep a rule of prayer that is doable rather than too onerous given one's circumstances, it could be advisable to adapt this rule of three psalms at Matins for the whole year...

St Mark and St Fidelis

Martyrdom and Eastertide go together: the Victory of Christ is the Triumph of the Martyrs.

Apostles and Evangelists in Eastertide, and Martyrs, too, have a special Common in the Breviary; for this reason, yesterday St Fidelis and to-day St Mark share the same versicle and Benedictus antiphon at Lauds; firstly, "Precious in the sight of the Lord, alleluia, is the death of His saints, alleluia" (Ps 115:6), then:

Filiæ Jerusalem, venite et videte Martyres cum coronis, quibus coronavit eos Dominus in die solemnitatis et lætitiæ, alleluia, alleluia.

(Ye daughters of Jerusalem, come and behold the Martyrs with the crowns with which the Lord crowned them on the day of solemnity and joy, alleluia, alleluia.)

- an exhortation to the Church militant and triumphant to rejoice in the endless victory the Martyrs have won by the grace of Christ, Who in crowning the Saints, does but crown His own gifts; an exhortation which mirrors and alludes to this text (Cant. iii, 11):

Egredimini et videte, filiæ Sion, regem Salomonem in diademate quo coronavit illum mater sua in die desponsationis illius, et in die lætitiæ cordis ejus.

(Go forth, ye daughters of Sion, and see king Solomon in the diadem, wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the joy of his heart.)

- which is held prophetically to refer to Christ, the true Solomon, that is, the King of Peace, and calls upon the Church to behold Him incarnate to save us, and risen again in victory on Easter morn.

******

While this day we pray in his Collect that St Mark's erudition may profit us - for his Gospel teaches us the doctrine of Christ our God - and his prayer ever defend us, yesterday's Collect is if anything more urgent and striking in its Counter-reformation stedfastness against Protestant evils, begging that, by the merits and intercession of so blessed a son of the Seraphic St Francis, having been graced with the beauteous palm of martyrdom and with the working of great wonders in the service of the propagation of the Faith, we too may by grace be strengthened in faith, yes, and in charity too, that we may merit to be found faithful servants of the Lord unto death:

O God, Who didst deign to beautify blessed Fidelis, his spirit on fire with ardor Seraphic, in the propagation of the true Faith with the palm of martyrdom and glorious miracles, we beg, by his merits and intercession so to be confirmed in faith and charity by Thy grace, that in Thy service we may deserve to be found faithful unto death.  Through...

St George's Day

"Thine be the glory, risen, conquering Son, / Endless is the victory thou o'er death hast won" was the Easter hymn of victory that I sang to-day; with Our Lord's Resurrection still the focus of all prayer, and ANZAC Day - the commemoration of soldiers fallen in the cause of right, as befits those who after the example of the Master disdained not to suffer and to die with courage and self-sacrifice out of mateship - but two days hence, how appropriate thus to welcome the memorial of the great martyr and trophy-bearer, St George, Patron of England (and thus of a part of my own parentage, and of Australia's ancestry).

Last year, when in Perth I was able to get to more or less daily Mass in the Traditional Rite (unlike here), I was able to blog about serving at the altar, as well as commenting on the truth behind the legend of St George, and giving some hymns for his feast - have a look back.

No more we doubt thee, glorious Prince of life;

Life is nought without thee, aid us in our strife;

Make us more than conquerors, through thy deathless love:

Bring us safe through Jordan to thy home above.

SS Soter and Caius

It was a delight to read Matins, Lauds and Prime this morning - beginning the day properly.  And after work and a coffee, the Little Hours, once around the Gorge (about 50 minutes) and Vespers.  Compline awaits my retiring to-night...

Why the obsession?  Because I seriously do believe one should live the liturgy of the Church.  The Office (new and old) has been the nourishment of my prayer life (apart from Holy Mass of course) for 15 years or more, since my early university days, and I hope it may be for many others a joy and a link to the truths of our Holy Faith, to the worship of Almighty God, to the cult of his saints, to the piety of our forefathers and to the Holy Scriptures, particularly the Psalms.

To-day we feast SS Soter and Caius, two early Martyr Popes.  Amusingly, the Breviary (following, I guess, the Liber Pontificalis) credits the former (who reigned c.166-c.174) with forbidding sacred virgins from touching the sacred vessels, and likewise prohibited them from exercising the office of thurifer!  A bloody good idea, and one that should be vigorously reënforced...

  

St Caius (r. 283-296) was a Dalmatian, of noble parents related to the family of the wicked Diocletian - that arch-enemy of Christ, whose name appears on every page of the Martyrology, yet was no martyr but their ravening persecutor and very dupe of Satan, whom he followed down to hell.  By the infamous cruelty of his distant relative Pope Caius too was crowned with martyrdom, along with his brother Gabinus - and both were buried in the same catacomb as St Soter, in the cemetery of Callixtus.

Celebrating the feast of martyrs during Paschaltide is a happy joy: the Martyrs stand in close company with the Lamb once slain Who lives now for ever and ever, and Alleluias of triumph resound as the Church lauds their sharing in the Easter Victory of her Divine Spouse.  The sacred Liturgy takes up a text even from the apocryphal Fourth Book of Esdras (ii, 35) to sing their blessedness, echoing in a different key both the traditional prayer for the dead and the texts of the Requiem Mass:

V. Lux perpétua lucébit Sanctis tuis, Dómine, allelúja.
R. Et ætérnitas témporum, allelúja.

(V. Light perpetual shall shine upon thy Saints, O Lord, alleluia.
(R. And an ageless eternity, alleluia.)

[Cf. Parati estote ad praemia regni, quia lux perpetua lucebit vobis per aeternitatem temporis. (IV Esdras ii, 35)]

May SS Soter and Caius pray with us and for us, that our part, too, may be among the saints in light.