Ordinariate Mattins and Evensong

Some notes of mine about the order for Mattins and Evensong found in the Customary:

The use of a Sentence of Scripture and Penitential Rite at the start of the Hour is allowed before Evensong only; the Penitential Rite consists of an Exhortation, a Confession and an Absolution (non-sacramental, of course): the Exhortation derives from Evensong, not Mattins, in the 1979 US BCP (this same passage was reused in the Book of Divine Worship); the particular form of the Confession also follows the US BCP and BDW in omitting the 1662 phrases "And there is no health in us", "O God", and "miserable offenders", as well as making slight changes in the use of personal pronouns from the more archaic "them which" and "them that", and also reading "Jesus" not "Jesu". Finally, the Absolution follows the BDW in adding "May" to make the subjunctive sense clear, and changing from the 1979 US BCP by reading "us" and "our", not "you" and "your": 

  

Dearly beloved, we have come together in the presence of Almighty God our heavenly Father, to render thanks for the great benefits that we have received at his hands, to set forth his most worthy praise, to hear his holy Word, and to ask, for ourselves and on behalf of others, those things that are necessary for our life and our salvation. And so that we may prepare ourselves in heart and mind to worship him, let us kneel in silence, and with penitent and obedient hearts confess our sins, that we may obtain forgiveness by his infinite goodness and mercy.

or

Let us humbly confess our sins unto Almighty God.

Almighty and most merciful Father,

we have erred and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep,

we have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts,

we have offended against thy holy laws,

we have left undone those things which we ought to have done,

and we have done those things which we ought not to have done.

But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us,

spare thou those who confess their faults,

restore thou those who are penitent,

according to thy promises declared unto mankind in Christ Jesus our Lord;

and grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake,

that we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life,

to the glory of thy holy Name. Amen.

May the Almighty and merciful Lord grant us absolution and remission of all our sins, true repentance, amendment of life, and the grace and consolation of his Holy Spirit. Amen. 

At Evening Prayer, the first versicle “O Lord, open…” is omitted (just as in the 1979 US BCP), unless traditional musical settings are used; and the same applies to the use of the 1662 versicle “Praise ye the Lord” at both Morning and Evening Prayer – following the US BCP and BDW, "Alleluia" is proposed for use instead (in this imitating the Roman Rite).

  

The Morning Prayer Invitatories are all but one (the first) based on those in the 1979 US BCP, as also used in the BDW, but updating the language ever so slightly, as by using "draws" not "draweth", etc. The  Invitatory Psalms suggested are either the traditional Ps 95 (not the US cento version), or one of Pss 24, 67, 100 (the last also in the BDW), or of course the Easter Anthems at their proper season.

As a parallel to the Invitatory, at Evensong there is an option to insert a Lucernarium: Ps 141:1-4b, 8 or Ps 134 or two hymn versions of the Phos hilaron may sung while candles are lit, and incense burned.  This seems a trifle contrived, I must say.

As is traditional in Anglican practice, an Office hymn may be sung either after the Invitatory Psalm (at Mattins) or before the "Mag." (at Evensong).

The Psalmody follows in the usual manner; and, next, the two Lessons, with a Canticle after each.

Oddly, no direction is given as how to announce the title of the Lessons.  Unlike in the 1662, allied BCP's, and the BDW, there is no provision to say at the close of each, "Here endeth the (First/Second) Lesson" but instead only "The Word of the Lord" with the usual Roman response may be used.

At Mattins, the appointed Canticles are: after the first Lesson, Benedicite or Benedictus es (ferial), or Te Deum (festal); and after the second, the Benedictus (daily) – however, the Customary gives three other canticles as optional alternatives to use after the first Lesson on Ash Wednesday (Deducant oculi, Jer 14:17-21), Good Friday (Domine audivi, Hab 3:2-4, 13a, 15-19) and Holy Saturday (Ego dixi, Is 38:10-14, 17-20, which may also be used on All Souls and in the Office for the Dead).

Similarly, at Evensong, the daily Canticles are the age-old "Mag. and Nunc" (or, if the latter is to be used at Compline, one of the modern Roman Vespers New Testament Canticles is to be substituted therefor).

After the Apostles' Creed, "The Lord be with you" (to be omitted if the person presiding is not a clergyman), "Let us pray", the threefold Kyrie (in English) and Lord's Prayer all follow. After the "Our Father" come the Suffrages, in three forms – the first set (A1) is the traditional English from the 1662 BCP; the second (A2) derives from the 1979 US BCP (via the BDW); the third (B), is also US in origin, at Mattins being the Te Deum’s third part, but at Evensong is Byzantine in origin.

The Collect of the Day is followed by the traditional Second and Third Collects; after these, the end of the service may include hymns or anthems, a sermon, Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament (at Evensong), and/or "Further Prayers" – among which are given: the General Thanksgiving (in traditional 1662 form), a Prayer for the Pope (an understandable insertion, with a text derived from the old Missale Romanum), a Prayer for the Clergy and People (1662 form, but with “Curates” changed to “Clergy”), a Prayer for the Queen and Royal Family (moved from before the prayer for the clergy to avoid any hint of Erastianism; again, not in the 1662 form, but with a text taken from the old Roman Missal's oratio pro Rege); and the famous Prayer of St Chrysostom (1662, derived from the Byzantine Divine Liturgy).

The whole service ends either with "The grace..." (1662) or with a more Roman conclusion: "The Lord be with you… Let us bless the Lord…" and either "The Lord bless us…" at Morning Prayer (derived from modern Roman Lauds and Vespers) or "May the souls of the faithful…" at Evening Prayer (from the traditional Roman Office).

The number and hardness of the rules called the Pie

...to turn the book only was so hard and intricate a matter, that many times there was more business to find out what should be read, than to read it when it was found out.

— 1662 BCP, Concerning the Service of the Church

First, I set up the three ribbons in my new Customary of Our Lady of Walsingham, in readiness to say Evensong of the 22nd Sunday after Trinity (one less than the 23rd Sunday after Pentecost, the Mass of which I M.C.'d to-day): the red one at Evening Prayer (page 100); the blue, at the post-Biblical reading for the 22nd after Trinity, from William Beveridge (page 434); the white, at the Office Lectionary (page 300), since the readings must be selected from those cited for Sunday 31 per annum (following the modern Roman Calendar, Ordinary Form - thankfully I have a wall calendar indicating what Sunday this Sunday is).

I have marked the reading from Beveridge because, according to page 26, such a passage, "having the character of a homily", may be used "in place of a sermon"; of the positions for such suggested on pages 26 and 111, I choose to read it after the Third Collect.

Next, I choose between the three Old Testament readings suggested; I pick Wisdom 8:1-21. Taking up my RSV Bible, I put markers in for this and for the New Testament reading (1 Peter 1:3-9). I note that Wisdom 8:21 ends with the words "and with my whole heart I said:" – but that I will not have a chance to find out what until to-morrow evening, when Wisdom 9:1-18 is an allowable lection.

Having set the readings, now to the psalms: according to page 841 (where I have put a holy card as marker), Sundays per annum have various allowable combinations of proper psalms; being a Traditionalist, I opt (!) for Pss 110-115, as allowed according to footnote 3.  I put a holy card, therefore, on page 801, against Ps 110, Dixit Dominus.

Furthermore, yet another holy card marks the Collect of the 22nd Sunday after Trinity (on page 441). I am glad that I will not be singing, and so have no need to mark the hymn so thoughtfully provided on page 392 (Lucis creator optime, as translated by Neale) - but, since I have decided to start with the seasonal Sentence of Scripture and Penitential Act, I must put another marker on page 388, where "God is Spirit: and they that worship him..." is printed as the relevant Sentence.

As provided on page 23, I prefer to say "Holy Ghost" rather than "Holy Spirit" throughout the Daily Office; and, to be ever so Anglicanesque, I even take advantage of the permission on the same page to say "which art", "in earth" and "them that" in the Lord's Prayer. I decide not to use the optional Lucernaria on pages 102-3, and am glad not to be singing the Office, else I would need to have a marker set for pages 124 and so forth.

Similarly, I prefer not to say, as one may, "The Word of the Lord" (with response) after each Lesson; as there is no provision explaining how to read the title of each, I decide to do it the way the 1662 prescribes, by saying "Here beginneth the eighth chapter of the Book of Wisdom" and "Here beginneth the third verse of the first chapter of the First Epistle of St Peter"; it is not clear to me if to say "Here endeth the First/Second Lesson" is forbidden by reason of being unmentioned or not.

Since I will not be reading Compline later (having wasted so much time already), I will not need to replace the Nunc dimittis on page 106 with an alternative New Testament canticle, as listed on page 116 onwards. I choose to use Suffrages A1, the traditional 1662 set, rather than A2 or B (from the American BCP via the BDW, A2 being an adapted set of versicles and responses, while B is of Byzantine origin).

According to the rubric on page 111, after the Third Collect,

The order for the end of the service may include:
a. Hymns or anthems
b. A sermon
c. Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament
d. Further Prayers (including the Prayers below)

I will not be singing, nor have authority to reserve, carry about and lift up about the Sanctissimum (cf. Article XXVIII – though I do worship It), so decide to run with a. and d.  The Further Prayers are: the General Thanksgiving (1662), A Prayer for the Pope (translated from the Missale Romanum), A Prayer for the Clergy and People (1662, replacing "Curates" with "Clergy"), A Prayer for the Queen and Royal Family (again, from the old Roman Missal, albeit ending Qui vivis, and not taken from 1662), and A Prayer of St Chrysostom (1662).  I choose to end with "The grace" on page 115 rather than the alternative provided.

A final rubric directs me to the Anthem to the Blessed Virgin Mary, to be said or sung after the last Office of the day: so I will conclude Evensong with the "Hail Holy Queen", plus versicle, collect and final versicle, on page 154 (where I insert yet another holy card, the fifth in fact, to mark the spot).

Simple direct worship...

Now, almost time to begin, but first to double-check: holy card for the Sentence, then red ribbon (moving it along as I go), then Psalms (as marked), then First Lesson (from Bible, as marked), then red ribbon for Mag., then Second Lesson (from Bible, as marked), then red ribbon for Nunc and so forth, then Collect of the Day (as marked), then back to the Second and Third Collects (red ribbon), then blue ribbon for post-Biblical reading (in place of sermon), then red ribbon again for Further Prayers down to "The grace"; and finally another holy card marks the Salve Regina.

Ah, "the number and hardness of the rules called the Pie, and the manifold changings of the service" – well said, O Cranmer...