The Divine Office - Rev. E. J. Quigley
3. In, former ages it was decreed by Popes and Councils and by monastic
laws that the whole Psaltery should be recited weekly. Pope St. Pius
V., Pope Clement VIII., and Pope Urban VIII. in their revisions of the
Breviary ordered this weekly recitation. And even at the present time,
such would be the recitation of the Psalter had not the condition of
things changed.
4. This arose from the multiplication of saints' offices (_officia de
sanctis_), which after the canonization of saints gradually grew to
such a huge number that very often the Dominical and Ferial Office
remained unread, and hence not a few psalms were neglected, which yet
are as the rest, as St. Ambrose says, "the benediction of the people,
the praise of God, the praise offering of the multitude, the acclamation
of all, the expression of the community, the voice of the Church, the
resounding confession of faith, the truly official devotion, the joy of
liberty, the shout of gladness, the re-echoing of joy."
Many complaints from prudent and pious men reached the Pope about the
omission of psalms, which took away from those bound to recite the
Office not only helps, well suited for God's praises and for the
expression of their inmost souls, but also diminished that desirable
variety in prayers which is so appreciated and which so well accords
with and aids our worthy, attentive, and devout praise of God. For St.
Basil says that "in smooth uniformity the soul often grows weary and
while present is yet away, but when in psalmody and chant are changed
and varied in every hour, the fervour is renewed and its attention is
restored."
5. This matter of the reform of the order of the psalter was brought
before the Holy See by many bishops and chiefly in the Vatican Council,
where the demand for the old custom of reciting the whole psalter
weekly was renewed, with the provision that any new arrangement should
not impose a greater onus on the clergy, now labouring more arduously in
the vineyard of the sacred ministry on account of the diminution of
toilers. These requests and wishes were repeated to Pope Pius X., and he
took up the matter cautiously, so that the honour due to the cult of the
saints should not be diminished, nor the onus on the clergy increased by
the weekly recitation of the full Psalter. Begging the help of God, the
pontiff formed a commission of learned and industrious men, who with
judgment and care carried out his wishes. The results of their labours
were submitted to the Sacred Congregation of Rites, and after careful
consideration by the members of the Congregation the matter was
submitted to the Pope, who sanctioned the new arrangement, that is, as
regards the order and the division of the Psalms, Antiphons, Versicles
and Hymns, with the rubrics and rules pertaining to the same. And the
Pope ordered an authentic edition of these new arrangements to be
prepared and issued from the Vatican Press.
6. The arrangement of the Psalter has an intimate connection with the
Divine Office and the Liturgy; and by these new decrees regarding the
Office and the Psalms a first step in the improvement of the Breviary
and the Missal has been taken. These matters will be dealt with by a
commission of learned men which is soon to be formed. Amongst other
things that this first step established was that the recitation of the
Scripture lessons with the proper responses according to the rubrics
should receive due honour and more frequent recitation, and that in the
Liturgy the most ancient Masses of the Sundays throughout the year,
especially those of Lent, should be restored to their places.
7. The use of the old order of Psalms found in the Roman Breviary is
abolished and interdicted from 1st January, 1913, and the use of the new
Psalter for all clergy, secular and regular, who used the Roman Breviary
as revised by Pius V., Clement VIII., Urban VIII., and Leo XIII., and
those who continue to use the old order do not satisfy their obligation.
8. Ecclesiastical superiors are to introduce the new order of the
Psalter, and chapters are permitted to use it if the majority of the
members agree to its introduction.
9. Establishment and declaration of the validity and efficacy of the
Bull, notwithstanding all previous apostolic constitutions and rulings,
whether general or particular. Any person infringing these papal
abolitions, revocations, etc., sins and merits God's anger.
10. Date and place of promulgation.
SECTION II.
THE YEAR AND ITS PARTS.
The Council of Trent, Sess. XXIII., c. 18, orders "_ut in disciplina
ecclesiastica clerici commodius instituantur grammaticas, cantus,
computi ecclesiastici, aliarumque bonarum artium disciplinam
discant_." The minute study of the ecclesiastical calendar is not
now so necessary for each priest, as it was centuries ago. The _Ordo
Divini Officii recitandi_, issued yearly, and prepared with great
accuracy, relieves priests of much labour and secures them from many
doubts. And the decision of the Congregation of Rites (13th January,
1899) regarding the authority of the _ordo_ gives greater security.
"_Qui probabilius judicat errare Calendarium tenetur eidem Calend.
stare, nec potest proprio inhaerere judicio quoad officium, Missam vel
colorem Paramentorum._" Of course this decision does not apply to
errors which are _openly_ and _plainly_ at variance with the
rubrics of the Missal and Breviary. However, it may be well to revise
and to recall the student days' lessons on the Church's Calendar. The
study is not an easy one, and in labouring to be brief, probably, I may
be obscure and incomplete.
"_Annus menses habet duodecim..._" says the Breviary. The year has
twelve months, fifty-two weeks plus one day, or 365 days and almost six
hours. But these six hours make up a day every four years, and this
fourth year is called bisextile.
In making calculations the six hours were taken as six complete hours,
and not six hours wanting some minutes. And the aggregate miscalculation
continued until the minutes added yearly, amounted to ten days and
changed the date of the spring equinox. Pope Gregory XIII. (1572-1585)
sought to remedy the error. He re-established the spring equinox to the
place fixed by the Council of Nice (787). The year had fallen ten days
in arrear from the holding of the Council until the year of the
Gregorian correction, 1582. He again fixed it to the day arranged by the
Council, the 14th of the Paschal moon. And he arranged, that such a
time-derangement should not occur again. He omitted ten full days in
October, 1582, so that the fourth day of the month was followed
immediately by the fifteenth. He determined that the secular year must
begin on 1st January, that three leap years should be omitted in every
four centuries, e.g., 1700, 1800, 1900, 2100, and his arrangement has
been observed throughout nearly the whole world.
_Quarter Tenses_ fall on the Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays after
the third Sunday of Advent, after the first Sunday of Lent; after
Pentecost Sunday, and after the feast of the exaltation of the Cross.
_The Nineteen Years' Course of the Golden Number_. This course or
cycle was invented by an Athenian astronomer about 433 B.C. It was not
exact, but was hailed with delight by the Greeks, who adorned their
temples with the key number, done in gold figures; hence the name. The
cycle of course is the revolution of nineteen years, from 1 to 19. When
this revolution or course of years is run there is a new beginning in
marking, No. 1, e.g., in the year 1577 the nineteenth number, the golden
number, was 1; the following year it was 2, and so on until in 1597 the
golden number again is 2. A table given in the Breviary shows how the
golden number may be found and a short rule for the finding of it in any
year is given. To the number of the year (e.g., 1833) add 1; then divide
the sum thus resulting by 19 and the remainder is the golden number; if
there be no remainder the golden number is 19.
EPACTS AND NEW MOONS.
The Epact (Greek [Greek: epaktos] from [Greek: eapgo] I add) is nothing
more than the number of days by which the common solar year of 365 days
exceeds the common lunar year of 354 days. So that the epact of the
first year is 11, because the common solar year exceeds the common lunar
year by 11 days, and these added to the 11 days of the first, produce 22
as the epact. At the end of the second year the new moon falls 22 days
sooner than in the first year. The epact of the third year is three,
because if 11 be added to the 22, the result is 33, and from this 33 we
subtract 30 days which make up a lunar embolism and the remainder gives
us 3, the epact for the year, and so on.
In the Breviary there is a table (_alia Tabella epactarum_)
corresponding to the golden numbers from the year 1901 to the year 2000
inclusive. To take away all doubt in the use of this table, a new table
of epacts, an example may be quoted. In the year 1901 the epact was X,
which is placed under the golden number 2; and new moons appear on the
21st January, 19th February, and 21st March.... Again, in 1911 the epact
is not marked by a number, but by an asterisk (see Table in Breviary)
which is placed under the golden number 12, and in the calendar for the
whole year will indicate the new moon on January 1st, January 31st (for
in February there is no new moon indicated in the Table; the sign [*] is
not found), on March 1st, March 31st, and on April 29th. In the year
1916 the golden number is 17 and the epact is 25 (written not in Roman
numerals but in ordinary figures), the new moons occur on 6th January,
4th February, 6th March, 4th April, etc. For when the epact is 25,
corresponding with golden numbers greater than the number 11 in the
calendar, we must take in computation the epact 25 (written in modern
figures) but where the epact corresponds with numbers less than the
number 11, in the _tabella, the epact_ XXV. in Roman numerals must be
taken in calendar countings. This change takes place with epact 25 only,
so that the computation of the lunar years may more closely respond to
the solar year. It is for this cause, too, that in six places in the
calendar two epacts, XXV. and XXIV., are given.
The new Breviary contains a _tabella_ of Dominical letters, up to the
year 2000 A.D. It needs no comment.
_Indiction_. Indiction was a cycle of fifteen years, the first of which
dated from the third year of the Christian era. It was usual to indicate
the number of the year in a cycle and no mention was made of the cycles
already completed. Thus, the _indictio sexta_ meant the sixth year of a
cycle and not the sixth cycle or period of fifteen years. Hence, to know
the year of indiction is useless for determining the date in old
documents of State. Indiction was instituted by Constantine in 313 for
fiscal purposes. In papal and imperial documents the name of Pope or
emperor was generally given and the regnal years noted.
_Movable Feasts_. In virtue of the decree of the Council of Nice, in
325, Easter, on which all other movable feasts depend, must be
celebrated on the Sunday which follows immediately the fourteenth day of
the moon of the first month (in the Hebrew year), our March. Easter,
then, is the first Sunday after the Paschal full moon (i.e., the full
moon which happens upon or next after March 21st). If full moon happens
on a Sunday, Easter Sunday is the Sunday after the full moon. The matter
of the arrangement of Easter was for long a subject of very bitter
contention in the Irish and in the English Church. The Irish, clinging
tenaciously to the calendar of St. Patrick, carried it everywhere in
their missionary labours, so that the controversy was not confined to
Ireland and England. It was long and bitter, until at last the Irish
Church agreed to follow the reform. (See Healy, _Ireland's Schools and
Scholars_, p. 592; Moran, _Irish Saints in Great Britain_, "The
Conference at Whitby in 664," pp. 255-261).
Calendar study is interesting, and many valuable contributions on this
matter have been given to us by Father Thurston, S.J., and other English
and Irish scholars.
GENERAL RUBRICS OF THE BREVIARY.
The next document in the Breviary, Part I., has the title "Rubricae
Generates Breviarii," the general rubrics of the Breviary. They are
called _general_, as they apply to every part of the Breviary and are to
be distinguished from the rubrics dealing with the proper (_proprium_)
of the Breviary, the proper of time or of the saints. The word "rubrics"
was originally applied to the red marking lines used by carpenters on
wood, later it referred to the titles used by jurisconsults in
announcing laws, which were written in red colours. The word appears in
Church literature to refer to signs and directions as early at least as
the fourteenth century (_Cath. Encyclopedia_--word "rubrics").
The general rubrics are divided into thirty-seven Titles. Attention will
be given to each; of these Titles, some of which must be modified by
recent legislation. The order followed may not be the order followed in
the general rubrics as given in the Breviary, as matters treated in the
general rubrics found in the Breviary are treated under other headings
here. However, a look at the table of contents or at the index shows the
pages treating of these Titles.
TITLE I. THE DOUBLE OFFICE.
"Consequently, the civilised peoples already in remote antiquity have
found a call to the worship of God in the changing seasons and times and
so have introduced sacred seasons. Sacred times and places are common to
all religions in general. The change of times bringing with them
corresponding changes in nature made a religious impression upon
mankind. In turn, man sanctified certain times and dedicated them to
God, and these days, thus consecrated to God, became festivals."
The entire number of ecclesiastical holydays and seasons is codified
for us in the different Church calendars. Their contents fall into two
essentially different divisions, each possessing an entirely different
origin and history. The first division consists of festivals of our
Lord, distributed over the year, regulated and co-ordinated in
accordance with certain laws. The second division consists of
commemorations of saints in no wise connected with festivals of our Lord
or with one another. Occupying to some extent an intermediate position
between these two chief divisions come the festivals of our Blessed
Lady, which have this in common with the festivals of the saints, that
they fall on fixed days; but, on the other hand, they are to a certain
extent connected with each other and with some feasts of our Lord. This
is carried out in such a way that they are distributed throughout the
Church year and are included in each of the festal seasons (Kellner,
_Heortology_, Part I.).
From Apostolic times the feasts of Easter, the Ascension and Pentecost
were celebrated. In the second century feasts of the Apostles were
celebrated and the cult of the Martyrs was of speedy and widespread
development. But it was not, probably, till the fourth century, that the
feasts of saints who were not martyrs were celebrated.
_Origin of the different grades of feasts_. To-day, we find Church
festivals arranged in three grades, doubles, semi-doubles and simples,
and it is very difficult, to determine clearly and accurately the origin
and the nature of the arrangements. But from the works of scholars, who
have studied this matter, the following may be considered as a fair and
accurate summing up:--
In the first ages of the Church the Apostles and Martyrs only were
commemorated in public prayers and, above all, in the Mass, perhaps, by
a special prayer. Then, in time, followed the reading of a panegyric in
their honour, and later still hymns and histories of martyrdom were
added to the public recitation of the Office. Still later, there were
added the feasts of the saints with an office resembling our simple
office. Matins were entirely ferial, but had either a biography of the
saint or a long extract from the Fathers added. The other hours were as
in a Sunday office, save that these feasts had no Vesper matter.
In still later times, the Church added to the list of names on her saint
roll, the names of saints who were honoured neither as Apostles nor as
Martyrs. For these, special Masses, offices and feasts were established.
St. Martin of Tours was the first confessor so honoured in the Western
Church. For the more important feasts, an office of nine lessons was
established and this came to be known as a semi-double office, and later
such feasts were called doubles. Hence, before the thirteenth century,
we find celebrations of simple feasts, of semi-doubles and of doubles.
And Durandus, who wrote in the thirteenth century, tells us of the
existence of doubles major and doubles minor. The Breviary of St. Pius
V., published in 1568, gives three classes of doubles: doubles of the
first class, doubles of the second class, and doubles per annum. But, in
the revision by Clement VIII. the doubles per annum were again divided
into doubles major and doubles minor. In the new Pian Breviary (1913)
doubles are divided into Primary Doubles of the First Class, Secondary
Doubles of the First Class; Primary Doubles of the Second Class,
Secondary Doubles of the Second Class, Primary Doubles Major, Secondary
Doubles Major. The list of feasts under each of these six headings may
be seen in the Breviary.
Do double offices differ specifically from each other? No, the form is
the same in all double offices. What then is the difference between
doubles of different classes? The difference is chiefly in the
preference which is given to them in cases of concurrence or occurrence
of feasts of greater or of lesser rite.
The word "double" (_duplex_) is derived, some authors hold, from the
ancient custom of reciting two offices or saying two Masses on the same
day--one for the current feria and one for the feast (_festa_). Other
authors say that the word is derived from the ancient practice of
chanting twice or in repetition the complete responses and versicles.
And, above all, the recitation of the full antiphons before and after
each psalm, at Matins, Lauds and Vespers, was called "duplication," and
this name, it is said, was given to the office (double, duplex) in which
the practice of duplication took place.
It is often asked why are there different grades of feasts. Three
reasons are given by writers on liturgy. First, to mark the diversity of
merit in God's saints, their sanctity and their different degrees of
service to His Church. Second, to mark their different degrees of glory
in Heaven. "One is as the sun; another, the glory of the moon; and
another the glory of the stars. For star differs from star" (1 _Cor_.).
Third, for some special national or local reasons--e.g., patron of
a country.
The rules laid down in the general rubrics in the new Breviary, for
doubles and semi-doubles, are left unchanged almost by the regulations
laid down by the Commission and by the _Variationes_. Their numbers were
reduced, so that there now stand in the new Breviary only seventy-five
doubles, sixty-three semi-doubles, and thirty-six movable feasts.
A reason for the new arrangement of double feasts in the Pian Breviary
is the general one, that the Pope wished above all things the weekly
recitation of the Psalter, and to bring about this weekly recitation and
the restoration of the Sunday Office a mere rearrangement of the Psalms
was quite insufficient, and a rearrangement of the gradation of feasts
of concurrence and of occurrence was necessary.
TITLE II.--THE OFFICE OF A SEMI-DOUBLE.
_Etymology, nature and synonyms_. The word semi-double (_semi-duplex_)
is derived from the Latin; and some writers hold that the word indicates
feasts which are of lower rank and solemnity than double feasts. Others
hold that it means simply, feasts holding a place between double feasts
and simple feasts. Most writers on liturgy hold that on some days a
double office--one of the feast and one of the feria--was held, and that
in order to shorten this double recitation there was said a composite
office, partly of the saint's office and partly of the feria; and they
say that from this practice arose the term semi-double, or half-double.
Synonyms for the term "semi-duplex," are "non-duplex," "office of nine
lessons."
1. The antiphons are not doubled in a semi-double office.
2. The Sundays of the year, excepting Easter Sunday, Low Sunday,
Pentecost and Trinity, are said according to the semi-double rite. In
the new Breviaries the Psalms for Matins are only nine in number,
instead of the eighteen of the older book.
3. The versicles, antiphons, responses, preces and suffrages of saints,
which are recited in semi-double offices, are given below under their
own titles.
TITLE III.--THE SIMPLE OFFICE.
_Etymology, nature_ and _synonyms_. The word _simple_ comes from the
Latin _simplex_, to indicate the least solemn form of office and it is
the direct opposite in meaning to the term "double." It is synonymous
with the term so often found in liturgical works, the office of
three lessons.
This form of office is of great antiquity, going back to the fifth
century. In the early ages of the Church and down to the fourteenth
century the simple office consisted of the ferial office with lessons,
antiphons and prayers. But in the end of the fourteenth century, simples
came to be celebrated in the same manner as semi-doubles, with nine
lessons and their nocturns, and in case of occurrence were transferred.
As a result the offices of Sunday and the ferial offices were
practically crushed out of the Breviary. The Commission of Reform
applied an easy remedy, by restoring simple feasts to their ancient
place and status. Now, they are not to be transferred; but in case of
occurrence with a feast of higher rite they are merely commemorated.
These feasts have first Vespers only. At Matins, the nine psalms and
three lessons are said as one nocturn. The psalms in semi-double feasts
are from the Psalter under the day of the week on which the feast is
celebrated. "_In quolibet alio Festo duplici etiam major, vel semi
duplici vel simplici et in Feriis Tempore Paschali, semper dicantur
Psalmi, cum antiphonis in omnibus Horis, et versibus ad matutinum, ut in
Psalterio de occurrente hebdomadae die" (Tit, I. sec, 3. Additiones et
Variationes_).
In commemorations in the Office, the versicle, response, antiphon and
collect of a semi-double is made _after_ the following commemorations
(if they should have a place in the recitation of the day).
(1) Any Sunday, (2) a day within the privileged octave of the Epiphany
or Corpus Christi, (3) an octave day, (4) a great double, (5) a lesser
double. Of course the first commemoration is always of the concurring
office except it be a day within a non-privileged octave, or a simple.
In reckoning the order of precedence between feasts which occur on the
same day, lists given in _The New Psalter and its Use_, p. 108, show
that thirteen grades of feast stand before the feasts of semi-double
rite. And in the order of precedence as to Vespers, between feasts which
are in occurrence, these feasts stand in the eleventh place, being
preceded by (1) doubles of the first class of the universal Church, (2)
lesser doubles.
TITLE IV.--SUNDAY.
We translate the Latin _Dies Dominica_ by our word Sunday, for in
English the days of the week have retained the names given to them in
Pagan times. In Irish, too, Deluain, Monday, moon's day, shows Pagan
origin of names of week days.
The literal translation of the Latin _Dies Dominica_, the Lord's Day, is
not found in the name given to the first day of the week in any European
tongue, save Portuguese, where the days of the week hold the old
Catholic names, _domingo, secunda feira, terca feira_, etc. It is said
that the seven days of the week as they stand in numerical order were
retained and confirmed by Pope Silvester I. (314-336): "_Sabbati et
Dominici diei nomine retento, reliquos hebdomadae dies Feriarum nomine
distinctos, ut jam ante in Ecclesia vocari coeperunt appellari voluit;
quo significaretur quotidie clericos, abjecta caeterarum rerum cura, uni
Deo prorsus vocare debere" (Brev. Rom_. in VI. lect. St. Silvester Pope;
31st Dec.).
There is no evidence of the abrogation of the Sabbath by Christ or by
His Apostles, but St. Paul declared that its observance was not binding
on Gentile converts. Accordingly, in the very early days of Christianity
the Sabbath fell more and more into the background, yet not without
leaving some traces behind it (see art. _Sonnabender_ in Kraut's
_Realenzyklop_). Among Christians the first day of the Jewish week, the
_prima Sabbati_, the present Sunday, was held in honour as the day of
our Lord's resurrection and was called the Lord's Day (Apoc. i. 10; I.
Cor, xvi. 2), This name, _dies dominica_, took the place of _dies
solis_, formerly used in Greece and in Rome. This day has many names in
the works of Christian writers. St. Ignatius, M. calls it _Regina omnium
dierum_; St. Chrysostom, _dies pacis; dies lucis_; Alcuin, _dies
sanctus; feria prima_, Baronius tells us, was another name for
our Sunday.