Second Nocturn

In the late pre-Conciliar period, Sunday Matins had its number of lessons reduced from nine to three; the three Scriptural lessons of the first Nocturn were retained (the third lesson being united to the second), but – foolishly – of the three homiletic lessons of the third Nocturn, commenting upon the Gospel of the day, only the first was retained (and, as it was oft but introductory to the main import of the commentary, this truncated passage is generally uninformative); and, worst of all, the Patristic lessons of the second Nocturn were completely omitted. 

It is doubtless in reaction to this too-radical reduction in the lessons read at Matins that the Council Fathers decreed that "The hour… shall be made up of fewer psalms and longer readings" (Sacrosanctum concilium, 89, c) and likewise ordered that "Readings excerpted from the works of the fathers, doctors, and ecclesiastical writers shall be better selected" (Sacrosanctum concilium, 92, b).

Having said Matins of this, the last Sunday of the Church's year, I thought to see what the former readings of the second Nocturn were; and, turning first to a Monastic Breviary (having the same lessons, though with the first of them divided into two, since in the Benedictine Office Sunday Matins has not nine but twelve readings), then to a handy online translation after I had enjoyed the rich Latin translating the author's Greek, I thought to post this sobering passage, intended since it was written over 1600 years ago to act as an antidote to sin, by turning our thoughts to that most just and strict judgement we all of us shall face, when we depart this world:

Sermo sancti Basilii Magni in Psalmum trigesimum tertium. 

Cum te appetitus invaserit peccandi, velim cogites horribile illud et intolerabile Christi tribunal, in quo præsidebit judex in alto et excelso throno; astabit autem omnis creatura, ad gloriosum illius conspectum contremiscens. Adducendi etiam nos sumus singuli, eorum quae in vita gesserimus rationem reddituri. 

Mox illis, qui multa mala in vita perpetrarint, terribiles quidam et deformes assistent angeli, igneos vultus præ se ferentes atque ignem spirantes, ea re propositi et voluntatis acerbitatem ostendentes, nocti vultu similes, propter mærorem et odium in humanum genus.

Ad hæc cogites profundum barathrum, inextricabiles tenebras, ignem carentem splendore, urendi quidem vim habentem, sed privatum lumine: deinde vermium genus venenum immittens, et carnem vorans, inexplebiliter edens neque umquam saturitatem sentiens, intolerabiles dolores corrosione ipsa infigens: postremo, quod suppliciorum omnium gravissimum est, opprobrium illud et confusionem sempiternam. Hæc time, et hoc timore correptus animam a peccatorum concupiscentia tamquam freno quodam reprime.

Hunc timorem Domini se docturum propheta promisit. Docere autem non simpliciter promisit, sed eos, qui eum audire voluerint: non eos, qui longius prolapsi sunt, sed qui salutem appetentes accurrunt: non alienos a promissionibus, sed ex baptismate filiorum adoptionis verbo ipsi conciliatos atque conjunctos. Propterea, Venite, inquit, hoc est, per bona opera accedite ad me, filii, quippe qui per regenerationem filii lucis effici digni facti estis: audite, qui aures cordis habetis apertas; timorem Domini docebo vos [Ps. 33, 12]: illum scilicet, quem paulo ante oratione nostra descripsimus. 

[From] the Sermon of St Basil the Great, upon the Thirty-third Psalm.

Whenever the desire to sin cometh over thee, I would that thou couldest think of the awful and overwhelming judgment-seat of Christ. There the Judge shall sit upon a throne high and lifted up. Every creature shall stand before Him, quaking because of the glory of His presence. There are we to be led up, one by one, to give account for those things which we have done in life. 

Presently there will be found, by the sides of those who have in life wrought much evil, dreadful and hideous angels with faces of fire, and burning breath, appointed thereto, and showing their evil will, in appearance like the night, in their despair and hatred of mankind. 

Think again of the bottomless pit, the impenetrable darkness, the lightless fire, burning, but not glowing, the poisonous mass of worms, preying upon the flesh, ever feeding, and never filled, causing by their gnawing unbearable agony; lastly, the greatest punishment of all, shame and confusion for ever. Have a dread of these things, and let that dread correct thee, and be as a curb to thy mind to hold it in from the hankering after sin.

This fear of the Lord the Prophet hath promised to teach. But he hath not promised to teach it to all, but only to such as will hear him, not to such as have fallen far away, but to such as run to him, hungry for salvation, not to such as have no part in the promises, but to such as by baptism are born children of adoption, set at peace and oneness with the Word. Come, ye children, saith he, that is to say, Draw nigh unto me by good works, all ye who by the new birth have become the worthy children of light, hearken unto me, all ye who have the ears of your heart opened, I will teach you the fear of the Lord, [Ps 33:12] even the fear of that Being of Whom we have just been speaking.

As the Byzantine Liturgy sings time and again,

Christianum vitæ nostræ finem, sine dolore et dedecore, pacificam, et bonam ante terribile tribunal Christi defensionem [a Domino] petamus. — Concede, Domine.  

For a Christian, painless, unashamed, peaceful end of our life, and for a good defence before the fearsome judgment‐seat of Christ, let us beseech [the Lord]. — Grant this, O Lord. 

He Shall Come Again

From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe, O glorified love, that from thy throne at God’s right hand, where thou now sittest, thou wilt come again, to judge the world, attended with thy holy angels. All glory be to thee.

I believe, O thou adorable Judge, that all mankind shall be summoned before thy awful tribunal. All the dead, who shall be waked out of their graves when the angel shall blow the last trump, and all that are then quick, and alive, shall then appear before thee. All glory be to thee.

I believe, Lord, that I and all the world shall give a strict account of all our thoughts, and words, and actions; that the books will then be opened; that out of those dreadful registers we shall be judged; that Satan and our own consciences will be our accusers. O let the last trump be ever sounding in my ears, that I may ever be mindful of my great accounts, and that I may neither speak, nor do, nor think anything that may wound my own conscience, or provoke thy anger, or make me tremble at the awful day.

I know, O thou adorable Judge, that love only shall then endure that terrible test, that love only shall be acquitted, that love only shall be eternally blest; and therefore I will ever praise and love thee.

Glory be to thee, O thou beloved Son of God, to whom the Father has committed all judgment.

How can they that love thee, O Jesu, ever despond, though their love in this life is always imperfect, when at last they shall have love for their judge, love that hath felt and will compassionate all their infirmities? and therefore all love, all glory be to thee.

— Thomas Ken's Devotions on the Apostles' Creed, entitled "The Motives of  Love"

Upon consulting my copy of Nelson's Festivals and Fasts (1841 reprint of his original, dated 1703), I find that its Chapter II concerns Advent Sundays, and is almost wholly given over to a consideration of Christ's Second Coming to judge the living and the dead, and the world by fire. He concludes his reflections with four prayers, three from the BCP and the last from Bp Ken, with the title For preparation for judgement. As I have a copy to hand of Ken's Devotions on the Apostles' Creed, I have given it above from that source. 

(Nelson gives the text with a few minor differences, presumably to turn this excerpt from Ken's long confession into a prayer – he omits "All glory be to thee" in the first and second paragraphs, and "I believe, Lord" in the third, while substituting "blessed Jesus" for glorified love" in the first, and "Lord" for "thou adorable Judge" in the fourth; he has "awaked" for "waked" and "be then" for "then be" in the second and third, and omits "and" before "words" in the third, but such variants are of no matter.)

Dies Iræ, Dies Illa

The Syrian Jacobite Anaphoras – there are over seventy extant – tend to feature rather sobering thoughts in their anamneses, which but briefly commemorate Christ's saving work, and offer Him His own Sacrifice of Himself given into the hands of the Church, and instead develop at great length eschatological themes, expatiating in rather terrifying words on Doomsday and the Last Judgement.  

Herewith, such a passage, upon which 'tis all too necessary soberly to meditate, from the Liturgy of Severus, as kindly translated into Augustan English (that best of styles) by Thomas Brett the Nonjuror, via the Latin of the scholarly Renaudot:

We therefore, O Lord Jeſu, offer this unbloody Sacrifice, and implore thy Pity towards Mankind, which induced Thee to give thyſelf a Sacrifice for us.  We are mindful alſo of thy Second, Glorious, and Dreadful Appearance, when Thou ſhalt ſit highly exalted upon thy Awful Throne, encompaſſed with Thouſand Thouſands of Angels ; and a Stream of Fire ſhall break forth and miſerably deſtroy the Wicked : When all Men ſhall give an Account of their Works, and there ſhall be no Occaſion for an Accuſer or an Advocate, but the very Works which they have done ſhall be made manifeſt, their own Conſciences accuſing or elſe excuſing them : When every Man's Work ſhall be tried by Fire, and the Wiſe and Learned ſhall not be able to offer any thing in their Defence ; but in that time of Terror, Fear and Dread ſhall fall upon the rational Part of the Creation, and every Mouth ſhall be ſtopped, and Confuſion ſeize the Fooliſh and the Ungodly ; their Fathers and Brethren ſhall give them no Aſſiſtance, nor their Pity and Compaſſion avail them any thing : When Vengeance, without Mercy, ſhall overtake them who have not ſhewed Mercy.  In that Day turn not thy Face from us, nor give up thine Inheritance to Eternal Torments.  Make us not Heirs of Darkneſs where there is no Light, nor alienate us from thy Fellowſhip ; do not deny us, and ſay, I know you not ; ſet us not on the Left-hand with thoſe who ſaw Thee hungry, and fed Thee not ; ſick, and viſited Thee not : But acknowledge us, and number us with thoſe who have done thy Will.  For theſe things thy People, thine Inheritance, make their Supplications to Thee, and by Thee to thy Father.

—Thomas Brett, A Collection of the Principal Liturgies, Used by the Christian Church in the Celebration of the Holy Eucharist (London: King, 1720), 104-5.

Ecclesiasticus Chapter XIV

Holy Church appoints to-day her book, the Church's wisdom, that is, Ecclesiasticus, to be read at Matins; and it is the fourteenth chapter thereof with which the lessons are concerned, beginning with verses 1 to 5:

Blessed is the man that hath not slipped by a word out of his mouth and is not pricked with the remorse of sin. Happy is he that hath had no sadness of his mind, and who is not fallen from his hope. ... He that is evil to himself, to whom will he be good? ... (Ecclus xiv, 1-2, 5a)

The second lesson (verses 6 to 10) concerns the self-hatred of the envious and covetous; to-day, by reason of the occurrence of the feast of St Pius X, it is combined with the third lesson (verses 11 t0 17):

My son, if thou have any thing, do good to thyself, and offer to God worthy offerings. Remember that death is not slow, and that the covenant of hell hath been shewn to thee: for the covenant of this world shall surely die [that is, the decree that dying we shall die binds all men]. Do good to thy friend before thou die: and according to thy ability, stretching out thy hand, give to the poor. Defraud not thyself of the good day: and let not the part of a good gift overpass thee. Shalt thou leave to others to divide by lot thy sorrows and labours? Give and take, and justify thy soul. Before thy death work justice: for in hell there is no finding food.

In other words, all too soon we shall die, and whatsoever we have not done, never shall we do. Now is the time to act, and do good while it is yet day, for the night comes when none can work. Death is certain; when we are weighed in the balance, "Every work that is corruptible shall fail in the end: and the worker thereof shall go with it [to corruption]. And every good work shall be justified: and the worker thereof shall be honoured therein." (Ecclus xiv, 20f)

Here we have expressed already in the Old Testament the doctrine of the Apostle:

For other foundation no man can lay, which is laid: which is Christ Jesus. Now, if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble: every man's work shall be manifest. For the day of the Lord shall declare it, because it shall be revealed in fire. And the fire shall try every man's work, of what sort it is. If any man's work abide, which he hath built thereupon , he shall receive a reward. If any man's work burn, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire. (I Cor. iii, 11-15)

Whatsoever good we do, if it is truly founded upon Christ, and built conformably upon Him, it will be good; but unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labour in vain (Ps 126:1). Thus saith the Spirit: "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord... for their works follow them." (Apoc. xiv, 13b & d)

Redeem the time!

St Vincent Ferrer

Being exhausted from a long week at work, I rather unwisely slept in and missed morning Mass on Saturday; I find days without the consolation and comfort of the Sacrifice and Sacrament tend not to be very good ones. Especially I was sad to miss the feast of St Vincent Ferrer; I would have liked to attend Mass and receive Communion not least in order to pray for one of the Australian Dominicans I know, Br Vincent Magat OP, who made his solemn profession usque ad mortem on the 13th of January this year, very appropriately on the liturgical commemoration of the Baptism of Our Lord.

St Vincent was the wonder of his age, darkened as it was by the terrible Western Schism; horror of horrors, Christians were anguished, not knowing which of the rival claimants was the true Pope. Vincent was a marvel indeed: he took to his itinerant preaching career relatively late in life (a comparison - it would be like a middle-aged curial official became a travelling revivalist and faith healer); on one famous occasion he turned on the false Pope at Avignon, whom previously he had supported - doing this in the middle of a sermon before the pretend Pontiff and his assembled cardinals! - and exhorted him to lay aside the triple crown; his preaching was understood by hearers in their own tongue (he himself preached in his native Catalan) and at a remove of up to a mile from him; he converted tens of thousands of Jews and Saracens (no mean feat in any age); his miracles were innumerable; and most staggeringly, he preached of the imminent Judgement of God, warning that the world would soon end, and stating openly that he was the angel - the messenger - of the judgement spoken of in the Apocalypse of St John (xiv, 6-7). An absurd claim? When proclaiming this in Seville in the square before the cathedral, he commanded a corpse being carried by for burial to rise and testify to his status as herald of the Judgement - and it rose and did so.

Why then did the world not end in the fourteenth century? Presumably, as in the case of the ancient prophets, he spoke of what God would do contingent upon men not repenting; enough obviously did for the fearsome Day of Wrath to be postponed...

Each day on the road, St Vincent arose at 2am, sang the entire Divine Office with his followers (they were numerous, both clerics and laymen), concluding with Solemn High Mass at dawn (the followers brought along all needful items, including a portative organ). Then he set off, preaching as he went; arriving at a town or gathering of people, he would be carried aloft on his helpers' shoulders, dressed rather melodramatically in not only his Dominican habit, but sporting angel's wings and a trumpet, signifying his office as messenger of the Day of Doom. Before him, hosts of penitents marched, taking the scourge and astonishing the onlookers. After concluding the daylight hours in such a fashion, he consecrated the early evening to study of the Scriptures and the Summa Theologiæ of Aquinas, to prepare his next day's sermon(s); then he read over the rubrics of the Mass lest he commit a fault in its celebration, and so retired to a scanty quota of sleep, no doubt after much wrestling with God in holy meditation.

The traditional Roman Mass provides only a proper Collect:

Deus, qui Ecclesiam tuam, beati Vincentii Confessoris tui meritis et prædicatione illustrare dignatus es: concede nobis famulis tuis; ut et ipsius instruamur exemplis, et ab omnibus ejus patrocinio liberemur adversis. Per...

(O God, Who didst deign to enlighten Thy Church by the merits and preaching of blessed Vincent Thy Confessor: Grant unto us Thy servants, that we be both instructed by his ensample, and delivered from all adversities by his patronage. Thro'...)

The modern Divine Office (and therefore the modern Roman Missal) has this Collect instead, finely alluding to the enduring mission of St Vincent - to prepare all hearts for the impending Judgement - and using a figure of rhetoric far more often found in the old liturgy: 'by reason of such-and-such on earth, may we obtain such-and-such in heaven':

Deus, qui beatum Vincentium presbyterum ministrum prædicationis evangelicæ suscitasti, præsta, quæsumus, ut, quem venturum judicem nuntiavit in terris, beati videamus regnantem in cælis. Qui tecum vivit...

(O God, Who didst raise up the priest blessed Vincent as a minister of evangelical preaching, grant, we beseech Thee, that Whom he announced on earth as the Judge about to come, we, [made] blessed, may see reigning in heaven. Who with Thee liveth...)

This collect derives from the Dominican Rite. As I bought some years back a first edition copy of the 1959 St Dominic's Missal (from St Peter's Bookroom, an Anglican bookshop in Melbourne that often has good secondhand stock), I am able to append the full O.P. Mass of this feast. I rather hope that another good Australian Dominican, Fr Christopher Dowd, O.P., who very often receives stipends to offer up the Dominican Rite Mass, was able to celebrate this feast 'properly', as it were:

Mass of St Vincent Ferrer

Introit (Ecclus xv, 5-6: from the Common of Doctors)

In medio Ecclesiæ...

(NB In the Dominican Rite, the verse of the Introit for this and other feasts is not taken from the Psalms, but from in this case Ecclesiasticus: Jucunditatem et exsultationem thesaurizavit super eum.)

Collect

Deus, qui gentium multitudinem, mira beati Vincentii confessoris tui prædicatione, ad agnitionem tui nominis venire tribuisti, præsta, quæsumus, ut, quem venturum judicem nuntiavit in terris, præmiatorem habere mereamur in cælis: Dominum nostrum...

(O God, Who didst grant the multitudes of the nations to come to the knowledge of Thy Name by the preaching of blessed Vincent Thy Confessor, grant, we beseech Thee, that Whom he announced on earth as the Judge about to come, we may merit to have as our Rewarder in heaven: Our Lord...)

Epistle (Apoc. xiv, 6-7: St Vincent's self-identification)

In diebus illis: Vidi alterum angelum volantem per medium cæli, habentem Evangelium æternum, ut evangelizaret sedentibus super terram, et super omnem gentem, et tribum, et linguam, et populum: dicens magna voce: Timete Dominum, et date illi honorem; quia venit hora judicii ejus: et adorate eum, qui fecit cælum, et terram, mare, et fontes aquarum.

Paschal Alleluia

Alleluja, alleluja. V/. Gloriose Pater Vincenti, clara proles Dominici Ordinis, preces funde Summo Judici pro cunctis tibi devotis populis.

(NB In this Rite, the second Alleluia verse refers either to Christ's Resurrection or His Ascension - in this case, quoting either St Luke xxiv, 46, or Ps 46:6.)

(T.P.) Alleluia. V/. Oportebat pati Christum, et resurgere a mortuis, et ita intrare in gloriam Dei. Alleluja.
(T. Ascen.) Alleluja. V/. Ascendit Deus in jubilatione: et Dominus in voce tubæ. Alleluja.

Gospel (St Matthew v, 13-19: from the Common of Doctors)

In illo tempore: Dixit Jesus discipulis suis: Vos estis sal terræ...hic magnus vocabitur in regno cælorum.

Offertory (Ps 20:3-4, from the second Common Mass of Conf's-non-Pont's)

Desiderium animæ... T.P. Alleluja.

Secret

Munera, Domine, nostræ devotionis offerimus: quæ ut tibi grata sint, et nobis salutaria redduntur, beatus Vincentius confessor tuus, qui donis tuis hic exstitit gloriosus, apud clementiam tuam pius pro nobis intercessor exsistat. Per...

Communion (Apoc. ii, 7: a pun!)

Vincenti dabo edere de ligno vitæ, quod est in paradiso Dei mei. T.P. Alleluja.

Postcommunion

Divinis, Domine, muneribus satiati, quæsumus, ut beati Vincentii confessoris tui meritis gloriosis, salutaris victimæ desideratum sentiamus effectum. Per...