Wednesday of the First Week of Lent

Some Lutherans maintain the old Catholic custom of naming each Sunday after the opening words of its introit (although, apparently following an old textual variation in the Proper going back beyond Luther, they call the first Sunday of Lent not Invocabit, but Invocavit!).  By this method, to-day is Reminiscere - as will be next Sunday, the second of Lent.

As this is an Ember Wednesday, as well as a Lenten feria, I was glad to have the chance to avoid meat entirely (I had salt-and-pepper squid and chips for dinner).  The Collect at the Hours (except for Vespers of course) is as follows, which has quite an Epiphanytide feel about it:

Preces nostras, quæsumus, Domine, clementer exaudi: et contra cuncta nobis adversantia dexteram tuæ majestatis extende.  Per...

(Clemently hear, we beg, Lord, our prayers: and against all opposed to us stretch forth the right hand of Thy Majesty.  Through...)

Ember Friday in Advent

Well, I've served Mass and made my Communion; time to throw the last bits into my bags and get ready to fly...

This being Ember Friday in Advent, the Introit was very appropriately Prope es tu, Domine (Near art thou, Lord...), the Gospel was of the Visitation, and the Postcommunion as follows, a very significant prayer I thought:

Tui nos, Dómine, sacraménti libátio sancta restáuret: et a vetustáte purgátos, in mystérii salutáris fáciat transíre. Per...

May the holy receiving of Thy sacrament, O Lord, restore us: and purged of the old, make us to pass over into the saving mysteries.  Through...

Pray the Preces

Aside from the Ember Days, and ferial Wednesdays and Fridays of Advent and Lent, the '62 Breviary omits the Preces, that is, a series of intercessions (largely drawn from the Psalms) used at Lauds and Vespers; and it utterly omits the former Preces at Prime and Compline, and also the abbreviated Preces used at Terce, Sext and None (comprising the initial Kyrie and Pater, plus the last three versicles only of those appointed for the cardinal Hours; the Carthusians do not abbreviate thus, but recite the full Preces of Lauds and Vespers at the Little Hours also).  

Now, when using the Roman Breviary I make it my practice pro opportunitate to say some or all of these prayers as an optional add-on extra, as it were, seeing as how there is a duty - urged on us by the Apostle, as being "good and agreeable in the sight of God our Saviour" - to make intercession for all men, for rulers and those in authority, "that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life in all piety and worthy behaviour," so that all may be brought to know the truth and be saved (cf. I Tim. ii, 1f).

Indeed, without these, the Roman Breviary may seem somewhat lacking in focussed intercession, excepting the second part of Prime, the capitular office - though of course, in its magnificent weekly cycle of Psalms above all, but also in hymns, versicles of Scripture and incomparable Collects, the Prayer of Holy Mother Church does ever beseech God for His aid.

These intercessions - specially recommended by the Church on the Ember Days, occurring at present, by her own liturgical tradition - I recommend to all, together with the Litanies of the Saints, so here are some links to them:

• Preces of Lauds and Vespers;
• Preces of Prime;
• Preces of Compline;
  
• Litanies of the Saints.
  

Ember Wednesday; Our Lady of Ransom

I've been back at the day Hours of the Roman Breviary for a while now, altho' (to save time) I'm still reading the Office of Readings from the modern Office (Matins being too long for me at present), and it has been good to-day to have the Preces at Lauds and Vespers; good too to recite Lauds II, with the Canticle of Anna.  Of course, as a private addition I still say the once-prescribed Paters and Aves, etc., before and after each Hour, and have been using the Preces (including those formerly for Prime, the Little Hours, and Compline) as another addition, but to-day they were there as an integral part of the cursus and pensum.

To-day is also the commemoration of Our Lady of Ransom, originally to venerate her as the authoress of the Mercedarians, those daring and chivalrous religious who (together with their holy and zealous competitors, the Trinitarians) yearly ransomed Christian men from the Mussulman; but for England she has a special place as her to whom the Catholics of that realm pray for the return of their home to be once more her Dowry.  There in England still exists The Guild of Our Lady of Ransom, and this is their prayer (composed by Cardinal Wiseman):

Prayer for England

O Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God and our most gentle Queen and Mother, look down in mercy upon England, thy dowry, and upon us who greatly hope and trust in thee.

By thee it was that Jesus, our Saviour and our hope was given unto the world; and He has given thee to us that we might hope still more.

Plead for us thy children, whom thou didst receive and accept at the foot of the cross, O Sorrowful Mother.  Intercede for our separated brethren, that with us in the one true fold, they may be united to the Chief Shepherd, the Vicar of thy Son.

Pray for us all, dear Mother, that by faith, fruitful in good works we may all deserve to see and praise God, together with thee in our heavenly home.

AMEN.

It was good to-day also to make my confession; and while waiting in line for some time, somewhat perturbed, I was able to "redeem the time" and pray the Litanies of the Saints, of the Holy Name, of the Sacred Heart, and of the Precious Blood; and afterward, seven Ave's for a penance, and a grateful Te Deum.

How fitting, on this Ember Day, to pray this Collect, asking for the mediation of the Most Blessed Virgin that we be freed from the only true slavery, the degradation of sin, which is enchainment to the devil:

Deus, qui per gloriosíssimam Fílii tui Matrem, ad liberándos Christi fidéles a potestate paganórum nova Ecclésiam tuam prole amplificáre dignátus es: præsta, quæsumus; ut, quam pie venerámur tanti operis institutricem, ejus páriter meritis et intercessióne, a peccátis ómnibus et captivitáte dæmonis líberemur. Per eúmdem...

O God, who through the most glorious Mother of thy Son didst vouchsafe to increase thy Church with a new offspring for the redemption of thy Christian people from the power of the heathen: grant, we beseech thee, that like as we on this day do honour her for the work of her institution, so by her merits and intercession, we may be delivered from all our iniquities and the bondage of the devil. Through the same...