Officia Propria

Google Books gives access to all manner of curiosities - indulging myself, I did a search for Officia Propria, and found an 1824 edition of the special Breviary Offices proper to the Servite Order. They certainly went to town on things Marian, dolorous and otherwise: it seemed as if every feast of Our Lady had an Octave. Furthermore, each and every month, on the first unimpeded day, the Office of the Conception of the Virgin was to be used; on the second, that of her Most Holy Name; on the third, that of the Seven Holy Founders of the Servites; on the fourth, that of St Philip Benizi; on all free Fridays, that of the Seven Sorrows; and of course on all Saturdays, that of Our Lady. In addition to various Servite saints and blessed, several with Octaves, one other feature was noteworthy: St John the Evangelist, being Mary's adopted child, and thus a most appropriate model for Servites, had his Office said on the first free day after each Ember Week. One wonders if the Servites in the nineteenth century ever saw a ferial day at all!

Here is the Collect for the Servite Office of St John Evangelist, used four times a year:

Excita, Domine, spiritum, quo Virginis filius Joannes illam dilexit, ut eo repleti studeamus amare, quam amavit, eidemque condolere, ut condoluit. Per.

(Stir up, Lord, the spirit, with which the Virgin's son John loved her, that filled with it we may study to love what he loved, and to feel the same griefs that he grieved. Through…)

I must admit, I have always rather liked picturing St John as Our Lady's chaplain, reading Mass for her as she knelt on a prie-dieu, saying her own Hours! Fr Faber repeats the pious notion that, by a miracle, from one Communion to the next the Host remained undigested within her breast, as once her Son did abide in her womb... Hmmm. The fifth Lesson at Matins alludes to God, Who maketh men of one mind to dwell together in a house (Deus qui inhabitare facit unius moris in domo - Ps 67:7a; quoted in the Rule of St Augustine), when speaking of St John receiving the Sorrowful Virgin into his home, following that heart-wrenching commendation from the Cross: they dwelt together, being of one mind and heart in God.

The Lengthy Matins of Christmas

On average, the psalmody at Matins extends for 115 verses (and only 87 on Sundays).  Unfortunately, however, the very devout and well-chosen selection of psalms for Christmas Matins extends for 170 verses, including the notoriously long Ps 88 (Misericordias Domini in æternum cantabo), and these psalms are repeated each day of the Octave, except for the three feasts!  (St Stephen's Matins are of One Martyr, and are particularly short, having only 90 verses; those of St John Evangelist and of the Holy Innocents, again from their matching Commons, have a more or less normal 119 and 111 verses respectively.)

I daresay after I've served Mass I'll be on my knees in the chapel for a while, getting through Matins and Lauds, and probably Prime as well.  No rest for the wicked!

UPDATE

I had to rush to get to Carmel in time to tog up and serve Mass...  Fr preached a very devout sermon on the text Simeon took the Child Jesus into his arms (cf. St Luke ii, 28), pointing out what a joy it must have been for this aged priest to hold in his arms the Promised Messiah, and with what tender rapture Our Lady and St Joseph must have cradled the Divine Infant: parents know this inexpressible joy of cradling their own children, their own gifts from God; but how surpassing wonderful to hold the very Word made flesh, made a helpless infant for us - Nobis natus, nobis datus.  Now, Holy Mass is the Divine Sacrifice of Calvary made present, but every Mass is also Christmas, our Jesus coming to us in the Sacrament of the Altar: so the privilege of holy Simeon is extended to us!  We ought pray for suffering families and for children who have not the love of parents, who lack the embrace of love that all human beings truly need, and beg the Lord at Communion time for the grace of a tender devoted love issuing in selfless service.

After Mass (about 40 minutes with sermon), another 40 minutes for Matins, Lauds and Prime!  I sat rather than knelt, I must admit.  (And St Thomas of Canterbury gets but a commemoration at Lauds.)

After Mass and Office - a coffee and the paper at the local café.  

God's in His heaven, all's right with the world.

Iconographic Theme

St John Evangelist had many great and unique privileges: he alone of the Apostles was a virgin, was for this grace as for his other aspects of saintliness especially beloved of the Lord, and was commended by Christ to His Mother the Virgin as a pure soul worthy to substitute in a manner even for her Onlybegotten Child, standing on our behalf as representative of the whole of redeemed mankind.  

He was miraculously delivered from martyrdom, endured exile on the isle of Patmos, and slept at last in the Lord in extreme old age at Ephesus, having established and ruled the churches of Asia Minor in perfect charity and love.  Mediævals even speculated that the Beloved Disciple, like the Mother of God, was assumed bodily into heaven.

Whatever rationalists and critics may assert, the tradition is still respected by the Church that he composed the Fourth Gospel, three epistles, and the Apocalypse, shewing him to be an evangelist without par of the Word made flesh: hence he is both John the Evangelist and John the Theologian, or John the Divine, given his piercing insight into the secrets of heaven and of Christ's Divinity: his symbol therefore is a soaring eagle.

I have always liked the image of St John as Our Lady's chaplain - for did he not take her unto his home (St John xix, 27), and thereafter would he not have, as a priest of the New Testament, celebrated for her the Divine Mysteries of her Son?  It is piously held that Our Lady had this privilege from the Lord, that as He took flesh from her flesh, so after the Resurrection she daily received Him in sacramental Communion, and - miracle! - His Real Presence within her ceased not from Communion to Communion.  Again, sceptics may scoff, but potuit, docuit, ergo fecit...

Therefore, I'm thinking of commissioning from Christopher, an artist of my acquaintance whom I saw at the Adelaide ordinations, a painting according to a design that's been for years on my mind: in mediæval style, a portrayal of Our Lady attending at the Mass of St John, as the Evangelist offers up the tremendous Sacrifice - she would be shewn at a prie-dieu, no doubt with a prayerbook, he at the altar in the usual pose as seen in the well-known Mass of St Gregory.  The image would be not anachronistic, but a symbolic depiction of the truth that the Blessed Virgin would have been houselled by St John.

Valde Honorandus

This morning I served Mass at Carmel again, and afterward went to confession at Church of the Apostles.  Having prayed St Stephen's Office, to-day I've now begun St John's; and, remembering that his feast is the Feast of Priests - for was not St John his chosen apostle in a special way beloved of Christ, and the priest and chaplain of Our Lady, making him par excellence priest of Jesus and Mary? - I again congratulate and pause to pray for Fr Mannes Tellis, O.P., ordained only eight days ago this evening, making this the octave of his priesthood.

O Lord Jesus Christ, Eternal High Priest,

Make him a priest after Thine own Heart.

O Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Christ the High Priest,

Make him a priest after the Heart of thy Son.

O Saint John Evangelist, Priest of Jesus and Mary,

Make him a priest after His Most Sacred Heart.

O Holy Trinity, One God, by the intercession of all the Angels and Saints,

Make him a priest after the Heart of Jesus.

Domine Jesu Christe, summe Sacerdos æterne,

fac ut sacerdos fiat secundum Cor tuum.

Beata Maria Virgo, Mater Christi Pontificis,

fac ut sacerdos fiat secundum Cor Filii tui.

Sancte Joannes Evangelista, Sacerdos Jesu atque Mariæ,

fac ut sacerdos fiat secundum sacratissimum Cor ejus.

Sancta Trinitas, unus Deus, per intercessionem omnium Angelorum et Sanctorum,

fac ut sacerdos fiat secundum Cor Jesu.

Fr preached with evident devotion on the theme of the great love of God that St John Evangelist so shews forth in his Gospel, which must be understood in its two senses: above all, God's great love for us, Jesus' great love for us, even unto death - as the Apostle put it, He loved me and gave himself for me (Gal. ii, 20) - and our consequent impulsion to love Jesus Christ our Lord and God, returning love and compassion to Him Who has laid down His life for us, Who calls His disciples in love His Little Children (St John xiii, 33 & cf. xxi, 5)  - what amazing intimacy to speak thus to a bunch of sturdy fishermen! or to wash their feet (St John xiii, 5), or to say thrice unto Peter, Lovest thou me? (St John xxi, 15ff)  True, St John's Gospel teaches us the truth about the Divinity of Christ - In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... and the Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us (St John i, 1 & 14).  But moreover it reveals the humanity of Christ, even, dare we say, the human face of God, "Humanized Divinity" as Cardinal de Berulle said, for if to see Him is to see the Father (cf. St John xiv, 9), to learn of Him is to learn of the Father's love for all men: I have called you servants no longer, but friends... (cf. St John xv, 15)  Such was the tone of His voice, that the Magdalene knew Him when He called her name (St John xx, 16); the beloved disciple said, It is the Lord (St John xxi, 7), when He called to them from the seashore; doubting Thomas believed and cried, My Lord and my God (St John xx, 28: an aspiration that ought ever be on our lips).  Sic nos amantem quis non redamaret?  (So true a lover / Shall we not requite Him?)

Reading the first Nocturn of the Feast of St John entailed hearing again the words read at the first reading at Mass, and their continuation, so I append I John i, 1 - ii, 5 (being the whole of the three lessons in the Breviary), and especially given my reception of the Sacrament of Penance mark those comfortable words, We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Just: and He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the whole world's (I John ii, 1b-2).

Lesson i - I John i, 1-5

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the word of life: for the life was manifested; and we have seen and do bear witness, and declare unto you the life eternal, which was with the Father, and hath appeared to us: that which we have seen and have heard, we declare unto you, that you also may have fellowship with us, and our fellowship may be with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.  And these things we write to you, that you may rejoice, and your joy may be full.  And this is the declaration which we have heard from him, and declare unto you: That God is light, and in him there is no darkness.

Lesson ii - I John i, 6-10

If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he also is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.  If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all iniquity.  If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Lesson iii - I John ii, 1-5a*

My little children, these things I write to you, that you may not sin.  But if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the just: and he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.  And by this we know that we have known him, if we keep his commandments.  He who saith that he knoweth him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.  But he that keepeth his word, in him in very deed the charity of God is perfected [and by this we know that we are in him*].

* Verse 5b is not included in the Breviary Lessons.

(Last year I posted concerning the Collects of St John, and the special Dominican antiphons for his Matins, BTW.)

The Beloved Disciple St John, Apostle and Evangelist

Today is the feast of the beloved disciple, St John, Apostle and Evangelist.  As I heard at Mass at Carmel in the homily today, St John reminds us in his Gospel that the Christ-Child brings us the same gifts at every Christmas: grace and truth (cf. S. John i, 14).

I thoroughly recommend, if it is not said at the Mass one attends (i.e., Traditional Roman – or Armenian Rite!), and even if it is, that the glorious prologue of St John's Gospel, the "Last [but really the first] Gospel", In principio erat Verbum (S. John i, 1-14) be read and prayed very often.  St Augustine records a man who desired it be written up in every church in letters of gold; I agree.  If the New Testament be 'greater' than the Old, and the Gospels 'greater' than the Acts, Epistles and Apocalypse, and the Johannine 'greater' than the Synoptics, then it is the first chapter of St John, and within it these glorious words, that is 'greatest' of all.  And genuflect at those sacred words, proclaiming the greatest event in all history:  Et Verbum caro factum est.

The traditional collect for today is as follows; I pair it with the collect for his former feast on the 6th of May, St John-before-the-Latin-Gate, commemorating his miraculous deliverance from being thrown in a vat of boiling oil:

Ecclesiam tuam, Domine, benignus illustra: ut beati Joannis Apostoli tui et Evangelistæ illuminata doctrinis, ad dona perveniat sempiternis.  Per Christum Dominum nostrum.  R/.  Amen.

(Lord, in Thy goodness shine upon Thy Church: that enlightened by the doctrines of blessed John, Thine Apostle and Evangelist, she may attain unto everlasting gifts.  Thro' Christ our Lord.  R/.  Amen.)

Deus, qui conspicis quia nos undique mala nostra perturbant: præsta, quæsumus; ut beati Joannis Apostoli tui et Evangelistæ intercessio gloriosa nos protegat.  Per Christum Dominum nostrum.  R/.  Amen.

(O God, Who seest that on every side we are afflicted by our evils: deny us not, we entreat Thee, the safeguard of the glorious intercession of blessed John Thine Apostle and Evangelist.  Thro' Christ our Lord.  R/.  Amen.)

Tho' the Roman Breviary does not have proper Matins antiphons for this feast, the Dominican does, and I append them:

Aña j.  Joannes Apostolus, et Evangelista, virgo est electus a Domino, atque inter cæteros magis dilectus.  

Aña ij.  Supra pectus Domini Jesu recumbens, Evangelii fluenta de ipso sacro Dominici pectoris fonte potavit.  

Aña iij.  Quasi unus de Paradisi fluminibus Evangelista Joannes, verbi Dei gratiam in toto terrarum orbe diffudit.  

(These antiphons of the First Nocturn describe St John, the Beloved Disciple, reclining on Our Our Lord's breast, and drawing from His Sacred Heart the secret inspiration for the Fourth Gospel.)

Aña iv.  In ferventis olei dolium missus Joannes Apostolus, divina se protegente gratia, illæsus exivit.  

Aña v.  Propter insuperabilem evangelizandi constantiam exilio relegatus, divinæ visionis, et allocutionis meruit crebra consolatione revelari.  

Aña vj.  Occurrit beato Joanni, ab exilio revertenti, omnis populus virorum, ac mulierum, clamantium et dicentium: Benedictus, qui venit in nomine Domini.  

(These antiphons of the Second Nocturn – probably drawing on apocryphal sources –  describe how the attempt to boil the Apostle in oil was foiled, how he was exiled to Patmos, there received the vision of the Apocalypse, and upon returning to his see of Ephesus was feted by all.)

Aña vij.  Apparuit charo suo Joanni Dominus Jesus Christus cum discipulis suis, et ait illi: Veni, dilecte mi, ad me, quia tempus est, ut epuleris in convivio meo cum fratribus tuis.  

Aña viij.  Expandens manus suas ad Deum, dixit: Invitatus ad convivium tuum venio, gratias agens, quia me dignatus es, Domine Jesu Christe, ad tuas epulas invitare: sciens, quia ex toto corde meo desiderabam te.  

Aña ix.  Domine, suscipe me, ut cum fratribus meis sim, cum quibus veniens invitasti me: aperi mihi januam vitæ, et perduc me ad convivium epularum tuarum: tu enim es Christus filius Dei vivi, qui præcepto Patris mundum salvasti: tibi gratias referimus per infinita sæculorum sæcula.  

(These antiphons of the Third Nocturn – again, seemingly from some apocryphal source – tell of how Our Lord appeared to St John, calling him home to heaven, and how the aged Evangelist cried out with joy and gratitude that He Who had loved and chosen him from childhood years now at last drew him for ever to Himself.)