While the Ordinary Form liturgy has helped our people to become comfortable with options during the Mass, i.e. variety of penitential acts, prefaces, and Eucharistic prayers (and thus there is no universal Mass around the world or even in various parish liturgies on any given Sunday, I think the diversity of calendars is a bit too extreme. I think just as we can live with various options of the Ordinary Form Mass concerning prayers, we can live with the diversity of Scriptures too that are read in terms of the differences in the OF and EF lectionaries. But the calendar needs to become more similar and it wouldn't be that difficult to do and to do it as soon as possible.
This is the Anglican Ordinariate Liturgical Calendar for the Personal Ordinariate
of the Chair of Saint Peter. It could and should be implemented by this coming Advent in all Latin Rite Ordinary Form liturgies as far as I am concerned. This calendar can be used with the revised Roman Missal already in place and its lectionary simply by changing the names of certain Sundays, especially in Ordinary Time. It uses the term "after Trinity" for the traditional "after Pentecost" Sundays. I prefer the traditional "after Pentecost" though. You'll note the reinstitution of ember days, rogation days and the season of Septuagesima!
If the former Anglicans now in full communion with the Church can have this calendar, why can't we? Here it is:
Temporale
The date of Easter being moveable, Sundays marked * are not needed in every annual cycle.
Advent
First Sunday of Advent
Second Sunday of Advent
Third Sunday of Advent
Fourth Sunday of Advent
Christmas Eve
Christmas
The Nativity of the Lord (Christmas)
Sunday within the Octave of the Nativity: The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph
(if there is no Sunday, December 30)
The Octave Day of Christmas: Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God
*Second Sunday after Christmas
Epiphany
The Epiphany of the Lord (The Manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles)
(January 6, or the Sunday between January 2 and 8)
The Baptism of the Lord (Sunday after Epphany, or on Monday, January 8 or 9)
Time after Epiphany
Time after Epiphany begins usually with Monday of Week 1 on the day following the the
Baptism of the Lord. For the weekdays following the Baptism of of the Lord, the propers
for the Week after Epiphany (Week 1) are used. Even when the Baptism of the Lord is
transferred to the Monday, the Sunday after the Baptism of the Lord is observed as the
Second Sunday after Epiphany. For the purposes of the lectionary, this is Sunday 2 in
Ordinary Time and the Sundays thereafter Sundays 3, 4, 5 &c. until Lent begins.
Second Sunday after Epiphany
*Third Sunday after Epiphany
*Fourth Sunday after Epiphany
*Fifth Sunday after Epiphany
*Sixth Sunday after Epiphany
__________________
Feast of the Lord
The Presentation of the Lord (Candlemas) - 2 February
__________________
Third Sunday before Lent (Septuagesima)
Second Sunday before Lent (Sexagesima)
Sunday next before Lent (Quinquagesima)
Lent
Ash Wednesday
First Sunday in Lent
Second Sunday in Lent
Third Sunday in Lent
Fourth Sunday in Lent (Mothering Sunday)
Fifth Sunday in Lent (Passion Sunday)
Palm Sunday
Monday of Holy Week
Tuesday of Holy week
Wednesday of Holy Week
Maundy Thursday
Good Friday
Holy Saturday (Easter Eve)
Easter
Easter Sunday
Monday of Easter Week
Tuesday of Easter Week
Wednesday of Easter Week
Thursday of Easter Week
Friday of Easter Week
Saturday of Easter Week
Second Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday)
Third Sunday of Easter
Fourth Sunday of Easter
Fifth Sunday of Easter
Sixth Sunday of Easter
Scheme A
Ascension Day (Thursday of Week 6 of Eastertide)
From Friday after Ascension Day begin the nine days of prayer before Pentecost
Seventh Sunday of Easter (Sunday after Ascension)
Pentecost (Whit-Sunday)
Scheme B
Ascension of the Lord (Sunday 7 of Eastertide)
Pentecost (Whit-Sunday)
Pentecost Octave
The ancient Octave of Pentecost began with Whit-Sunday and continued until Trinity
Sunday. For the midweek ferias following Pentecost the weekday lectionary is used, as
prescribed for Ordinary Time, but the mass propers and red as the liturgical colour may
sustain the themes of Pentecost.
3
Time after Trinity
This begins on Monday of the week following Trinity. For the purposes of the Roman
Lectionary, the numbering of Sundays (Sunday 8, 9, 10, 11, 12) resumes either on the
First Sunday after Pentecost or on the first Sunday thereafter on which a solemnity is not
celebrated. Sunday numbers remain in sequence until Sunday 33. Sunday 34 is Christ the
King and Week 34 the final six days of the liturgical year.
Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity (Trinity Sunday)
(Sunday after Pentecost)
Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi)
(Thursday after Trinity Sunday, or as appointed on the First Sunday after Trinity)
Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
(Friday after the First Sunday after Trinity)
Sundays after Trinity
First Sunday after Trinity (if not kept as Corpus Christi)
Second Sunday after Trinity
Third Sunday after Trinity
Fourth Sunday after Trinity
Fifth Sunday after Trinity
Sixth Sunday after Trinity
Seventh Sunday after Trinity
Eighth Sunday after Trinity
Ninth Sunday after Trinity
Tenth Sunday after Trinity
Eleventh Sunday after Trinity
Twelfth Sunday after Trinity
Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity
Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity
Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity
Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity
Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity
Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity
Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity
Twentieth Sunday after Trinity
Twenty-first Sunday after Trinity
Twenty-second Sunday after Trinity
*Twenty-third Sunday after Trinity
*Twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity
*Twenty-fifth Sunday after Trinity
*Twenty-sixth Sunday after Trinity
*Twenty-seventh Sunday after Trinity
Last Sunday of the Church Year: Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe
The propers of the Sunday next before Advent are used during the final week of the
liturgical year, Week 34.
4
Dedication Festival - The First Sunday in October as permitted or required by authority, may
be kept locally as the Dedication Festival if the date of consecration or dedication of the church is
not known.
The Rogation Days are the three days follows Rogation Sunday (Sixth Sunday of Easter)
The Ember Days at the four seasons are the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after
First Sunday of Lent
Pentecost
14 September
13 December
18 comments:
It is possible. Why can't we just go back to the original calendar and add the Saints in who have been canonized since, with appropriate classes?
The old calendar was the epitome of "noble simplicity." The lessons were always apropos, the Gospel always fit and it would work with the Novus Ordo.
The thing that it would eliminate, is the overuse and confusion of Ordinary Time. In my estimation, the entire re-tooling of the calendar was a mistake. It caused all sorts of complexities, from logistics regarding the daily readings which don't necessarily follow the Sunday.
As it is, the current calendar is clunky and unwieldy. There are too many options and there isn't enough consistency, not to mention the fact that we're 50 years into it and the faithful still don't understand it without MAJOR catechesis on the subject.
I am an advocate of a return to the old calendar, on the basis of noble simplicity, called for by Vatican Council II.
I wouldn't have much of a problem with a return to the older calendar, but with some revisions, such as Christ the king Sunday moved to the last Sunday prior to Advent. The various designations for Sundays of (or after if they wish) Epiphany and Pentecost are better than the Ordinary Time designations.
I much, much more prefer the new designations of little "m" memorials, capital "M" Memorials, Feasts and Solemnities over the old usage that still confuses me.
Christ the King Sunday is an example of an instance in which I've come to think the OF calendar is a improvement, providing on the final Sunday of the Church year a true capstone feast. Although at the same time I would miss the truly important EF readings for this last Sunday of the year.
BTW, there's absolutely nothing confusing about the 1962 designations, which line up precisely with OF terminology:
EF 1st class = OF solemnity
EF 2nd class = OF feast
EF 3rd class = OF memorial
EF 4th class = OF feria
I'm not sure where you get this "m" memorials, capital "M" Memorials business. The Latin term for an OF day that's neither a solemnity, feast, or memorial is "feria", a word that is its own English equivalent?
People focus so much on the disconnect between the Tridentine and the NO that they don't realize that the disconnect between the calendars is at least as bad. If the new calendar had gone a little farther and moved the dates of Christmas and Easter, though, it would reveal the rupture between old and new a little better. (And yes, regardless of any continuity, there was rupture.) Then you'd see hippies celebrating Christmas on one day and orthodox Catholics celebrating it on another--a true, formal sign of the de facto reality that the two groups materially aren't in communion with each other, just as the Eastern Orthodox timing of Christmas does.
"I much, much more prefer the new designations of little "m" memorials, capital "M" Memorials, Feasts and Solemnities over the old usage that still confuses me."
The classes of feasts are simple to understand. A III Class is lower than a II, which is lower than a I Class.
As it stands, the memorials, are separated by a capital letter? Which one's are optional, which one's are obligatory? Do the readings fall in line with the rest of the year? It is much more complex.
I concede that you understand it better, but you've used that your entire priesthood. Look at it from the faithful's point of view though...what is easier to understand? Most of the time, we don't know if you're coming out in green, white, red or if you're going to celebrate the Mass. Are you going to celebrate the saint of the day, or just skip it? The faithful just don't know. It is much clearer in the EF. It is much easier to understand that which is contiguous and linear, with regard to the readings, as opposed to the manic aspirations of the new calendar.
As I said, I think that the faithful would much easier understand the old calendar.
The term "Ordinary Time" is neither overused or confusing. Is it more "overused" than having Twenty-seven Sundays after Trinity? Same thing, different name.
I know of no one who is "confused" by the term. How might you find it confusing?
Renaming the Sundays is easy and should be do-able merely by the USCCB petitioning for a translation change to the Holy See. That will take years, however.
On Ember and Rogation Days, those technically exist in the Ordinary Form. They are referenced in the GIRM. It's left to the bishops' conference to direct their purpose. The USCCB has never done so, therefore these have fallen by the wayside. But you could easily see a motivated USCCB doing Ember Day periods in honor of human life, religious liberty, traditional marriage, and helping the poor. Done and done.
Little "m" is optional, capital "M" is not. For feasts, the Gloria is said, for Solemnity, the Credo is said/sung in addition to the Gloria.
Although Henry's description is very good, 1st through 4th class, sounds like ordinary time, blah and an insult to those saints who aren't 1st class.
Let's just keep the OF designations which are less insulting to the Holy Souls in heaven, even though I suspect there is a hierarchy of there, but certainly no one is second class in heaven or worse yet, 4th class and in steerage.
I'm glad others have a pet peeve with big-M and small-m memorials. Obligatory and optional memorials have little rhyme or reason between them, and in most parishes small-m memorials are celebrated as a matter of course.
A name change here might be in order. For the sake of consistency, big-M memorials can simply be called "memorials." small-m memorials can use a term from the Church's past: I would suggest either "simple" or "commemoration" (though the latter might actually be more confusing).
Another pet peeve is that people routinely refer to all non-ferias as "the feast of saint x." it's very confusing to have a designation named "feast" as a result.
I've never heard of this little m memorial, cap M Memorial business. It's certainly unofficial, not appearing in any official liturgical books of the Church.
For instance, in the Roman Missal 3e for an (obligatory) memorial you see, for instance
January 4
Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, Religious
Memorial
whereas for an optional (non-obligatory) memorial you just see, for instance
January 20
Saint Fabian, Pope and Martyr
So if it's an obligatory memorial it says Memorial (cap), whereas if not, it says nothing, it does NOT say small-m memorial. Ditto with the official Missale Romanum, except of course it says Memoria if it's an obligatory memorial, nothing if not.
It is hard to avoid the conclusion that Bugnini and co. rejigged the calendar with the aim of making celebration of the old Mass difficult. Some of the saints' days have been moved for no apparent reason. If you are using the Graduale Propers the EF and OF are out of sync. for the Sundays after Pentecost (e.g. the Propers for the 10th a.P. correspond with the 15th in OT, and those for the 9th a.P. with the 16th in OT). The abandoning of pre-Lent, an Eastern custom adopted in the West in the first millennium is particularly galling, especially for those like myself who attend Sung Latin Mass in either form; it is a jolt following Sexagesima (Birmingham) with green vestments and Alleluia (Oxford or London).
The Ordinariate calendar has a foot in both camps, so we now have a choice of three calendars. Of course in the Middle Ages there was a plethora of local calendars and Uses, but in those days most people didn't travel much.
For most in pew, Ordinary Time doesn't mean what it really is, "through the year," but rather that it is simply ordinary.
When one uses a calendar which speaks of a number of weeks after Pentecost, which the the Catholic tradition, then one's heart, mind, and soul harkens back to the last major feast and he is reminded of the great times of the year. The same applies to the Octaves.
To call "Per Tempus Annum" Ordinary Time, is as superfluous as saying, "And also with you."
It is just bad...
Ryan, there's at least one reference where the difference between obligatory and optional memorials is critical--the liturgy of the hours. For instance, on an obligatory memorial (Memoria), the use of the proper closing prayer (at morning or evening prayer) is mandatory, though for an optional memorial it is optional. Cf. No. 235c in the General Instruction on the Liturgy of the Hours.
Fr. McD,
Thanks for the explanation. How do reconcile the readings being so disjointed though. That HAS to play a part in this. There is no continuity between the readings of the week and the Sunday readings. Year I or II? Cycle A, B, or C? Or is this week exempt? The readings are just as integral as the rest. And they rarely follow.
It is hard to see how the use of Classes is anything other than what it is. Obviously, the Apostles are more important that Bl. John Paul II. Obviously, St. Philomena isn't as important as important as the feast of the Chair of St. Peter.
It's a little disingenuous to say, "...1st through 4th class, sounds like ordinary time, blah and an insult to those saints who aren't 1st class." Because why is one saint an "option" and another not? Whose dignity is being called into question?
I am all for some revision. However, the first priorities are these: no transferring Epiphany, no transferring Ascension, bring back Ember days and Rotation days. If this happens I will be satisfied.
Steven, Steven, Steven;
It is too much to ask our faithful to assist at Mass more than absolutely necessary. Life is soooooooooo busy these days.
And noble simplicity demands that we must, absolutely must make things easier for the faithful, so we eliminate HDOOs if they fall on a Saturday (sometimes) or a Monday. Or we can transfer them to a Sunday, but we'll leave a couple alone, because we don't want to look like we're doing what we're doing, but we're really doing that. And we all know what that is...keeping people from feeling obliged to be Catholic. Whatever.
I am in favor of returning to HDOOs being fully restored. Is it so hard to ask people to spend an extra six ours a year in church? Heck, that means that our total obliged hours in church would skyrocket back to 58 hours. Oh the horrors of spending a total of 2.417 days of the year in church, worshipping God, our Creator, and participating in the Ma...errrr....nevermind...we're to active as Catholics anyways. We don't need that. Let's just keep pushing everything to Saturday night...because as you know (I don't want to insult your intelligence), interrupting coffee and the Sunday funnies and/or football is too much to ask any family today. /sarcasm
You're dead on.
Andy - HDOO's were not transferred because "it is too much to ask our faithful to assist at Mass more than absolutely necessary." If you READ the rationale the bishop have given, you will understand that the idea you have suggested to wrong, whether you aggree with the rationale or not.
Personally, I think the transferral of soem Holy Days to Sunday and the odd situation of HD's that fall on Saturdays or Mondays, is not a good solution. I'd replace them in their historical place, but remove the "obligation."
"after Trinity" IS traditional... if you're Anglican. But I'm fine with Ordinary Time too, as long as we call it Ordered Time or anything but "Ordinary". There are no ordinary times with God.
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