The Ferial Office During Lent

It seems as though we were just celebrating Christmas.  Already, the wheel of the liturgical year has moved through the seasons of the Epiphany and Septuagesima, and now we have entered the holy season of Lent.

In the Dominican Breviary, the ferial office in Lent season is similar to that of the Roman Breviary, with slight differences.

The ferial days in Lent (Quadragesima) are III Class, and take precedence over III Class feasts of saints and blesseds.  So when the III Class feast of a saint or blessed occurs on the calendar, a commemoration is made of that feast.

Though March is a sparse month in the in the 1962 Dominican sanctorale, it does contain the feast of the Angelic Doctor on March 7.  This feast, which temporarily lightens the heaviness of the penitential season of Lent is 1st Class in the Dominican Rite.  It takes precedence over the ferial days of Lent, so we only make a commemoration of the ferial office (error alert on my calendar!!) at Lauds and Vespers.  

February 13: St. Catherine de Ricci, V., O.P., III Class

Today, in the 1962 Dominican Rite Calendar, we celebrate the feast of St. Catherine de Rici, virgin of the Order of Preachers.  The feast is III Class, so the Ordinary Office is prayed.  Like many II Class feast in the Breviary, her office contains propers as if the feast were II Class.  At Lauds, the Psalms of Sunday are prayed.

From the Martyrology yesterday:

At Prato in Etruria, St. Catherine de'Ricci of Florence, virgin, of the Order of Preachers. She was remarkable for the abundance of her divine gifts, and was canonized by the Sovereign Pontiff, Benedict XIV. She died rich in virtues and merit on February 2, but her feast is celebrated today.

Also, at Pretiosa today, we remember the obit of Fr. Aniceto Fernandez, 82nd Master General of the Order, who died on this day in 1981.  He gave his approval to the 1967 English translation of the Dominican Breviary, and his name appears on the title sheet.

From “Short Lives of the Dominican Saints” (London, Kegan Paul, Trench, and Trübner & Co., Ltd., 1901):

Season after the Epiphany: The Wounds Of Sin

In the Dominican Rite (and in other medieval rites as well, I am sure) the season of Epiphanytide includes the wonderful Magnificat antiphon Peccata mea, Domine..., which is prayed at 1st Vespers of the Sundays after the Epiphany, up to and including Septuagesima Sunday.

I don't know anything about it's origin, but it is a brief and beautiful summary of the absolute necessity of humility and repentance for any healthy interior life.  I look forward to praying it each year.

The Ferial Office During Epiphanytide

 In the Dominican Breviary, the ferial office in Epiphany season is similar to that of the Roman Breviary, with slight differences.  The hymn at Lauds is different, as are some of the versicles.

The ferial days in Epiphany-tide are IV Class, so when a III Class feast occurs on the calendar, no commemoration is made of the ferial office.

January is a nice month in the Dominican sanctorale, even in the 1962 calendar.  The month starts off with St. Zedislavae Berkianae, Mat., O.P. on January 3.  Next up is St. Francis de Capillis and St. Peter Sanz and Companions on January 15.  Traditionally, January 15 was the feast of Bl. Francis de Capillis.  However, when St. Peter Sanz and his companions were canonized in 2000, being martyrs of China they were grouped together with St. Francis, who is considered the protomartyr of China.  Next comes St. Margaret of Hungary on January 18, one of the numerous saints of the Hungarian nobility, and a personal favorite of mine.  Finally, on January 23, we have the feast of St. Raymond of Pennafort, patron saint of canon lawyers.

The Ferial Office During Christmastide

In the 1962 Breviarium S.O.P., the ferial days of Christmastide (January 2-5) contained no feast days of saints or blesseds, so the ferial day was prayed on each of those days, unless one of them fell on Sunday.  The liturgical rank of these ferial days was IV Class.  Of course, in previous editions of the Breiary, January 2 was the feast of Blessed Stephana Quinzani and January 3 was the feast of St. (then blessed) Zedislavae Berkianae.  On my calendar, I follow Fr. Augustine Thompson rule of including the Dominican saints who were merely blessed in the older calendar.  

So I add St. Zedislavae back into the calendar, even though she was removed in the 1962 revision.

The Christmastide ferial office is is prayed as follows:

COMPLETE: The 1967 Dominican Breviary in English Online

I am pleased to announce that the complete 1967 Dominican Breviary, in English, is now available on this blog site.

If you click on the link above, entitled "1967 Dominican Breviary in English" you will be taken to a table of contents page.  Each entry in the table is a hyperlink to pdf texts of the breviary.  The table of contents is arranged in the order that the actual breviary is arranged.

In the 1967 English edition, all of the preliminary texts, Ordinary, Psalter, Commons, Appendices, etc., are the same in both editions.  The only thing that changes between the two volumes is the Proper of the Seasons, and the Proper of the Saints.  In addition, at the end of the Proper of the Saints in Volume II, there are two sections with additional office texts.

The first is called "Office of the Saints O.P." whose feasts are in some places celebrated with I or II Class rank, For the Second Order.  So this section contains texts for additional lessons for Matins, or 1st Vespers, etc., so that the office of the saints can be celebrated as I or II Class.

The second is called "On The Missions", and contains additional office texts for the saints associated with the Missions, so that they can be celebrated in certain places as I or II Class.  These saints are St. Teresa of the Child Jesus, and St. Martin de Porres, O.P., and Bl. John of Vercelli, O.P..

WARNING:  Some of the files are rather large (in excess of 100 MB) and the pdf viewer on your browser may not support a file that large for preview.  If that happens, you can simply download the file.  Please let me know if you find any missing pages, or double pages.  I will fix them as soon as I can.

Perhaps, some day, I can do the same thing for the 1962 Breviarium SOP, so that both editions will be online for anyone who wishes to do research or possibly even use them to pray.

Veritas!

UPDATE: The 1967 Dominican Breviary in English Online

After a long hiatus, I have restarted the project of putting the entire 1967 English translation of the Dominican Breviary online, here on this blog site.  Thanks to the help of a generous follower of this blog, Volume I was completed a few years ago.

I am now in the process of completing the project, by scanning and packaging the temporale and sanctorale from Volume II.  Once this is done and uploaded, the entire 2-volume breviary will be complete and available for anyone who wishes to view it.

As of today, the Prayers & Homilies for Sundays after Pentecost is complete and uploaded.  It can be viewed by clicking on the link above.  The temporale from Volume II has been scanned.  I am hoping to have the sanctorale scanned by tomorrow.

Hopefully, the entire project will be complete by New Years Day.

UPDATE:  The Proper of the Seasons from Volume II is now uploaded too.