Solemn Vespers and Solemn Benediction
at The London Oratory,
Easter 2013.
All London Oratory Illustrations: CHARLES COLE.COM
The following Text is from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia.
Vespers, also called Evening Prayer, takes place as Dusk begins to fall. Evening Prayer gives thanks for the day just past and makes an evening sacrifice of Praise to God (Psalm 141:1).
The general structure of The Roman Rite Catholic Service of Vespers is as follows:
Vespers opens with the singing or chanting of the words
Deus, in adiutorium meum intende. Domine, ad adiuvandum me festina. Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto. Sicut erat in principio, et nunc et semper, et in saecula saeculorum. Amen. Alleluia.
(O God, come to my assistance. O Lord, make haste to help me. Glory to The Father, and to The Son, and to The Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen. Alleluia.)
("Alleluia" is omitted during Lent.)
The appointed Psalmody is then sung: In The Liturgy in general use since 1970, there are two Psalms and a New Testament Canticle, while in The Older Tradition, five Psalms are sung. Each Psalm (and Canticle) concludes with a Doxology (Gloria Patri) and is preceded and followed by an Antiphon.
Additionally, most Psalms also have a short caption explaining how the Psalm/Canticle relates to The Church in a Christological or Spiritual way; lastly, English translations often have a Psalm-Prayer said after the Gloria and before the Antiphon.
After the Psalms, there is a Reading from the Bible.
Then the participants sing The Magnificat — the Canticle of The Blessed Virgin Mary from the Gospel of Luke 1:46-55. The Magnificat is always preceded by an Antiphon, and followed by the Gloria and an Antiphon.
The Preces (Intercessory Prayers) are then said, followed by The Our Father, and then the closing Prayer (Oratio) and final Blessing/Invocation.
The Office is frequently followed by Benediction of The Blessed Sacrament.
Vespers is frequently followed by Benediction of The Blessed Sacrament.
Those whose Altar Missal or Breviary dates from before 1962 will be familiar with the curious experience of realising, by seeing it in their books, that (e.g.) yesterday's Feast of Saint Andrew had, until very recently, a Vigil and a First Vespers. Whatever happened to them ? Why are they nowhere to be seen in the 1962 books ?
The tremendously Good News about Summorum Pontificum is that it has given Seminarians and Priests an enormous impulse to learn how to offer Mass according to the immemorially ancient Ordo Missae of The Roman Church.
If you, dear Clerical Reader, have learned how to do that, you don't need me to tell you that you have acquired a Pearl of Great Price. But what is often not realised is that, as far as The Calendar is concerned, "1962" constituted a very considerable break in continuity.
You see, the process which led to the imposition in 1970 of The Novus Ordo did not start after "The Council"; it had begun a couple of decades earlier when Pope Pius XII and his youthful protege, Annibale Bugnini, set out on a two-decade journey to The Novus Ordo.
During that period, Vigils and Octaves galore bit the dust; but perhaps the most questionable "reform" of all was the abolition of First Vespers for all but the highest rank of festivals. This abolished the ancient Christian practice, inherited from the Synagogue, of starting a day on the previous evening.
What I am urging you to purchase, if you are not already familiar with it, is The Saint Lawrence Press ORDO for 2017. OK, you may very well not wish to follow it Liturgically, but simply contemplating, day by day, what the old Roman Rite did before itching and twitching fingers got to work on it, is, believe me, a considerable education.
What I am urging you to purchase, if you are not already familiar with it, is The Saint Lawrence Press ORDO for 2017. OK, you may very well not wish to follow it Liturgically, but simply contemplating, day by day, what the old Roman Rite did before itching and twitching fingers got to work on it, is, believe me, a considerable education.
The Compiler of that ORDO also runs a Blog explaining the pre-Pius XII Roman Rite
THE SAINT LAWRENCE PRESS LTD
If "Tridentine" is to refer to the actual Liturgical Books of Pope Saint Pius V, as I think it probably should, then you can find out about The Tridentine Rite by looking at another Blog by the same erudite author, called THE TRIDENTINE RITE
If "Tridentine" is to refer to the actual Liturgical Books of Pope Saint Pius V, as I think it probably should, then you can find out about The Tridentine Rite by looking at another Blog by the same erudite author, called THE TRIDENTINE RITE
There you will discover that The Common Preface is (I mean, in The Missal actually issued by Pope Saint Pius V) used on these Green Sundays ! You will also, I suspect, be surprised by some of the rather Puritanical prunings of The Calendar; for example, the elimination of "non-biblical" Feasts, such as Saint Anne and The Presentation of Our Lady. They soon returned, by popular demand; but they had sunk without trace under Pope Saint Pius V.
And The Office Hymns of Pope Saint Pius V, of course, will not be those with which users of The 1962 Breviary are familiar. Those Texts were produced in the 1620s by Pope Urban VIII, a.k.a. Papa Barberini. The Breviary of Pope Saint Pius V had the ancient Texts, sometimes totally different from the Barberini versions, which one will also find in The Sarum and Benedictine Breviaries.
And The Office Hymns of Pope Saint Pius V, of course, will not be those with which users of The 1962 Breviary are familiar. Those Texts were produced in the 1620s by Pope Urban VIII, a.k.a. Papa Barberini. The Breviary of Pope Saint Pius V had the ancient Texts, sometimes totally different from the Barberini versions, which one will also find in The Sarum and Benedictine Breviaries.
