Sunday, Dec. 1 – Terce @ 10:30am
Friday, Dec. 6 – Sung Vespers @ 6:30pm; Compline @ 8:20pm
Sunday, Dec. 8 – Terce @ 10:30am
Sunday, Dec. 15 – Solemn Vespers @ 1:15pm
Sunday, Dec. 22 – Terce @ 10:30am
Sunday, Dec. 29 – Terce @ 10:30am
Wednesday, Jan. 1 – Terce @ 10:30am
Friday, Jan. 3 – Sung Vespers @ 6:30pm; Compline @ 8:20pm
Sunday, Jan. 5 – Solemn Vespers @ 1:15pm
Sunday, Jan. 12 – Terce @ 10:30am
Sunday, Jan. 19 – Solemn Vespers @ 1:15pm
Sunday, Jan. 26 – Terce @ 10:30am
In a few days hence, the Church transitions from the Cycle of the Incarnation to the Cycle of the Resurrection commencing with Septuagesima Sunday. Symbolic of the 70 years of the Babylonian Captivity, the name “Septuagesima” is a Latin adjective meaning “Seventieth” (in the feminine to agree with the feminine noun “Dominica” for Sunday), though this Sunday is not literally 70 days before Easter, but a symbolic name to correspond with the Latin name for Lent “Quadragesima” meaning “fortieth”.
The Liturgy on this Sunday goes back to the Creation and Fall of Man with the assignment of the Matins’ lessons from the Book of Genesis. Paralleling this theme of Creation and Fall, the word of joy “Alleluia” is sung at the beginning (the Creation) of First Vespers on Saturday evening and solemnly sung again at the end of the same Vespers, and then snuffed out (the Fall) absolutely for nine weeks until it is sung most beautifully after the Epistle at the Mass of the Easter Vigil. It rises again, as it were, at the Resurrection to mark the restoration of the original Creation before the Fall.
Medieval customs arose to dramatize the dismissal of the Alleluia through processions, song, and burial. Given below is the Latin text (English translation follows) of the Farewell to the Alleluia, the Alleluia Dulce Carmen. Some of the text is taken from Ps. 136 which speaks about the Babylonian captivity.
1. Alleluia dulce carmen,
Vox perennis gaudii,
Alleluia laus suavis
Est choris coelestibus,
Quam canunt Dei manentes
In domo per saecula.
2. Alleluia laeta mater
Concivis Jerusalem:
Alleluia vox tuorum
Civium gaudentium:
Exsules nos flere cogunt
Babylonis flumina.
3. Alleluia non meremur
In perenne psallere;
Alleluia vo reatus
Cogit intermittere;
Tempus instat quo peracta
Lugeamus crimina.
4. Unde laudando precamur
Te beata Trinitas,
Ut tuum nobis videre
Pascha des in aethere,
Quo tibi laeti canamus
Alleluia perpetim.
English Translation:
1. Alleluia, song of sweetness,
voice of joy that cannot die;
alleluia is the anthem
ever raised by choirs on high;
in the house of God abiding
thus they sing eternally.
2. Alleluia thou resoundest,
true Jerusalem and free;
alleluia, joyful mother,
all thy children sing with thee;
but by Babylon’s sad waters
mourning exiles now are we.
3. Alleluia cannot always
be our song while here below;
alleluia our transgressions
make us for awhile forgo;
fort the solemn time is coming
when our tears for sin must flow.
4. Therefore in our hymns we pray thee,
grant us, blessed Trinity,
at the last to keep thine Easter,
in our home beyond the sky,
there to thee for ever singing
alleluia joyfully.
The schedule for public Divine Office services at Mater Ecclesiae for the next five months is as follows:
1. Sung Vespers – Every Sunday of Lent, except Palm Sunday (i.e. from February 17-March 17 inclusive), and on the Second Sunday after Easter (April 14). These will generally take place at 1:00pm on the assigned days unless subsequently noted otherwise.
2.Sung Compline – After the evening Mass on every First Friday from February 1-May 3.
3. Sung Terce - on Pentecost Sunday (May 19) at 10:30am. The recitation of Terce continues on all other Sundays not mentioned above at 10:30am. Hence, there will be no recited Terce on the Sundays of Lent, save for Palm Sunday, and the Second Sunday after Easter.
4. Tenebrae (Matins & Lauds) at 9am on the three days of the Sacred Triduum (March 28,29, and 30)
The weekly public recitation of Terce will resume on Sunday, January 13 at 10:30am at Mater Ecclesiae. Unless Vespers be scheduled or otherwise noted, Terce will be prayed every Sunday as such, inclusive of the summer months.
A pending schedule of sung Vespers and Compline services for the next five months is currently under review and will be published here once approved.
December 30 – Sunday within the Octave of Christmas: Terce (recited) at 10:30am
January 1 – Terce, sung in full chant, for the Octave Day of Christmas at 10:30am
January 4 – Compline (sung) after the evening Mass of First Friday (Ferial Day of Christmastide)
January 5 – First Vespers of the Epiphany at 6:00pm
January 6 – Sext (recited) of Epiphany after the 11:00am Mass/Benediction
January 13 – Holy Family: Terce at 10:30am
Vespers for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, including the Great “O” Antiphon “O Emmanuel” for 23 December, will be chanted at Mater Ecclesiae @ 1:00pm.
As we begin another liturgical year, the Confraternity renews one of its primary aims, which is to promote the public, communal praying of the Divine Office. Yesterday, on the First Sunday of Advent, we recited the Office of Sext in the chapel at Mater Ecclesiae following the High Mass & Benediction. Each Sunday, our goal will be to recite either Terce at 10:30am or Sext immediately following Benediction. This will be a minimal basis point to have more regularity with communal recitation going forward; hence, other more solemn functions such as Vespers will also be scheduled but on a less frequent basis.
Terce or Sext will be simply recited in Latin for the time being. We will be doing some training so that regular participants can sing these short offices in full Gregorian chant in the near future.
Note the following:
Saturday, 12/8 – Immaculate Conception: Sext after the 11:00am Mass.
Sunday, 12/9 – 2nd. Sunday of Advent: Terce at 10:30am.
Sunday, 12/16 – 3rd. (Gaudete) Sunday of Advent: Terce at 10:30am
Sunday, 12/23 – 4th. Sundayof Advent: Sung Vespers at 1:00pm
Please check back for an updated schedule for the coming months.
After an unfortunate, fallow period, public Divine Offices have restarted at Mater Ecclesiae with Compline and then Matins & Lauds during the 40 Hours’ Adoration this past weekend. Fr. Pasley and I are still working on a schedule for the upcoming year, so stay tuned to this site for regular updates.
Also, we bring to your attention our neighbor to the North, the Diocese of Trenton. Under Fr. Brian Woodrow, public Vespers’ services have been reintroduced in his diocese on an occasional basis. On Tuesday, October 2 @ 7:00pm in Immaculate Conception Church in Trenton, NJ, Fr. Woodrow will celebrate Vespers according the 1962 Breviarium Romanum for the feast of the Holy Guardian Angels. The CSB will continue to publicize and work with Fr. Woodrow to advance the spread of the public celebration of the Divine Office, the other “lung” of the Church’s Liturgy.
Lastly, Fr. Pasley has approved our use of Mater Ecclesiae chapel for the CSB to pray offices in common, even without his presence, provided that we do not conflict with anything else already scheduled and that the church is already open. Check here regularly for any gatherings of two or more members who plan to pray an office together in the chapel. For example, Terce could be recited between the two Sunday morning Masses.
The Confraternity of St. Benedict calls the readers’ attention to the discussion going on over at Rorate Caeli concerning the 100th. Anniversay of St. Pius X’s monumental liturgical reforms commissioned under Divino Afflatu. Divino Afflatu was and continues to be a significant piece of liturgical history and legislation especially for those of us who pray the Divine Office according to any Roman edition dated 1911-1968. Rorate also has an excellent and informative article written by Fr. Anthony Cekada (the CSB does not endorse his sedevacantist views but admires his love for the Divine Office and his seemingly endless knowledge of matters liturgical).
We added a new page to explain the components, rubrics and ceremonial associated with the Office of Matins here: