If most saints' feast days were a simple save for the most important ones, there would still be Mass said for the saints on their days, but nearly all of the psalms would always be said each week in the Office. I would also say that I think the Office is a separate (though certainly related) question. Some development in this regard is fine, but to have a calendar crowded with saints, and rubrics that require a festive office for many/most of them overshadows this very important component of the office.įor this reason, I agree that it is the calendar, not the office itself, that needed/needs reform. But wouldn't it be accurate to say that the purpose (or at least its primary purpose) was to recite/sing the psalter? I understand there were always feast days, but certainly not many to begin with. I understand we have 'development' of the liturgy, in this case the Divine Office. By Sunday night I knew instinctively to begin Vespers with Domine quinque talenta tradidisti mihi.įor the life of me I can't figure out how to post under my own name. At second Vespers of S Camillus de Lellis it instructed me to read Vespers as at first Vespers for a Confessor, non-martyr, non-bishop until the Chapter, at which point I was to switch to the Vespers of S Vincent de Paul, and read onward from the Vespers of a Confessor, non-martyr, non-bishop. This would not be a problem, as octaves are replete in the old kalendar and repeat aspect of the same Office for eight days aside from readings, if not for the fact that this particular Common is used numerous times every single month. None of the saints were Doctors or martyrs, so aside from the occurring commemorations and Scripture, the exact same Office was said for four days without an octave occurring. This past week my Breviary called for the exact same texts of a Confessor for four consecutive days (five if factoring in first Vespers). In this kalendar May and June have more feriae than July.ĭespite the density of feasts, August has no sequence of identical days. This is a remarkable contrast because in the kalendar of S Pius V the month of July compares to Lent in its sparsity of feasts in between the comparatively festive months of June and August. The rest have been impeded by John Gaulbert, Vincent de Paul, and Saint Anne, the mother of Our Lady. This month only the first Sunday was a Dominical Semi-Double.

However, given the rarity of adjoining Simples and feriae even in as sparse a month as July, the Vespers of the day are rarely sung unless a lesser feast falls on Sunday. Most of the variability happen at Mattins, where the ferial psalms would be said on all of these days. Simples still use the Dominical Lauds and Prime psalms, but those hours already have very little true daily variability. This month the 7th and 9th were feriae while Pius I (11th), Praxedes (21st), Pantoleon (27th), Ss Abdon and Sennen (30th), and the vigil of the Apostle James (24th) all employ the psalter of the day on Simple feasts. That said, there are still a sufficient number of feriae and Simples in a given month to give the psalter its place.

Divine office 1962