Second Sunday of Lent 1863

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1 SUNDAY. Second of Lent, semidouble. Violet. First Vespers of St Chad, commemoration of the Sunday. White. [In the Diocese of St David's and Newport Feast of St David, Bishop Confessor, Patron of Wales, double of the First Class, second prayers and Last Gospel of the Sunday. White. Second Vespers of the feast, commemoration of St Chad and of the Sunday. In the Dioceses of Liverpool, Northampton and Salford, collection for Ecclesiastical Education. In the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle Plenary Indulgence.]

2 Monday. St Chad, Bishop Confessor, double. Second prayers of the second Monday in Lent. White. [In the Diocese of Birmingham St Chad, Bishop Confessor, Titular of the Cathedral, double of the first class. In the Diocese of Beverley Plenary Indulgence.]

3 Tuesday. St David, Bishop Confessor, double of the first class (transferred from 1 March). White. [In the Diocese of St David's and Newport Feria. Violet.]

4 Wednesday. St Casimir, Confessor,  semidouble. Third prayers of St Lucius, Pope Martyr. White.

5 Thursday. Feria. Second prayers A Cunctis. Third prayers Omnipotens.  Violet.

6 Friday. The Holy Winding Sheet of OUR LORD, greater double. Second prayers and last Gospel of the feria. Creed. Preface of the Cross. Red. Plenary Indulgence.

7 Saturday. St Thomas Aquinas. Confessor Doctor, double. Third prayers of SS Perpetua and Felicity, Martyrs. Creed. White.

Even though we are in Lent, this week shows just how the calendar can vary from one diocese to another.  1 March is of course St David's Day but that feast, a double, is displaced by the Sunday, and as the feast of St Chad on 2 March is a double, St David has to move to 3 March instead. Except, of course, in Wales, where St David is the Patron Saint of the country, and the feast therefore outranks the Sunday (the prayers of which are nevertheless said, and the Gospel of which comes at the end of Mass).  In the modern calendar, as far as I can tell, St David is celebrated on 2 March, but only in Wales, and St Chad, also on 2 March, but only in Birmingham.

But then lots of other things have changed too. SS Perpetua and Felicity coexisted on 7 March quite happily with St Thomas Aquinas for nearly 700 years before Pius X decided to move them to 6 March.  They are back on 7 March now in the new calendar (though, as an optional memorial on a Saturday, probably not celebrated anywhere in England and Wales in the Novus Ordo) and St Thomas Aquinas has been shifted to January.

Friday's focus on the Holy Winding Sheet—this is the Holy Shroud of course—provides a respite from our focusing on the sufferings of Our Lord and reminds us that He died as a man and was buried as a man, receiving exactly the same burial as we shall receive. The Gospel is from Mark and tells of Joseph of Arimathea buying a shroud of fine linen for the Body of Jesus. 

The parish of Our Immaculate Lady of Victories in Clapham is served by the Redemptorist Fathers.  Fr Robert A Coffin is Vice-Principal and Rector, and the other priests are Frs John Baptist Lans, John Van Rooy, Donald Cameron, Francis Hall, Thomas Doyle, Peter Burke, and John Lalor. Masses on Sunday are at 5.30, 7.00, at 9.00 with Instruction, and High Mass and Sermon is at 11.00  Catechism is at 3.00 pm. Rosary, Sermon and Benediction at 6.30. The Way of the Cross is followed on the First Sunday at 6.30. On the Fourth Sunday, at 6.30 the faithful can follow the Exercise for a Happy Death. Masses on Holydays are at 5.30, 7.00, 8.30 and 11.00.  The 11.00 Holyday Mass is High Mass on Christmas Day, the Immaculate Conception, Corpus Christi, the Assumption, and the feast of St Alphonsus.  On weekdays, Mass is at 5.30, 7.00 and 8.30. Rosary and Benediction on Wednesday evenings at 7.00 October to April, and at 7.30 from May to September.  On Saturday evenings, the Little Rosary of the Immaculate Conception at 7.00 is followed by Benediction.  Devotions to the Infant Jesus are on the 25th of each month at 7.00 pm in winter and 7.30 pm in summer. The 40 Hours is celebrated on Quinquagesima Sunday. The Church is open daily from 5.30 am to 8.30 pm, except from 12.00 to 2.00 on weekdays, and from 1.00 to 3.00 on Sundays. The Redemptorist Fathers, besides giving public Missions and Retreats, also receive in their house those of the clergy or laity who wish to make the spiritual exercises in private.  The Confraternity of the Holy Family is established in this Church. The Division for Men meets in Church every Monday evening at 8.00.

Click on the picture to see this weeks advertisement for Messrs Hardman and Company. I wonder how much of their 1863 handiwork is still in use?

A Question For Liturgical Historians

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Finding myself reading Abbot Gasquet to chase down something he wrote about the state of Catholics in England in the eighteenth century (paying double taxes, at the mercy of non-Catholic neighbours who could demand their property etc) which reminded me of the place of Christians under Islamic rule, forced to pay the jizya, and forever second-class citizens at the whim of their neighbours,  I came across something odd; that following the 1778 Relief Act, the Vicars Apostolic had inserted the name of the King into the Canon of the Mass (he is precise enough to cite a document signed on 4 June 1778).

Before Pius V's Tridentine Missal, a prayer for the Monarch had been part of the Canon since at least the fourth century, coming immediately after the prayers for the Pope and the Bishop.  This was removed from the 1572 Missal, though it was retained as a privilege in countries with Catholic monarchs, and at the time the Catholic Encyclopaedia was published in 1911, Franz Josef was prayed for as Emperor in Austria, and as King in Hungary (and of course all rites and uses other than the Roman Rite remained unchanged).

But assuming Abbot Gasquet has got this right, the addition of George III to the Canon seems to imply three things that I would not have imagined possible: that such a change might be made so late in the eighteenth century without any perceived need for the sanction of Rome even though the Monarch was far from Catholic; that the Vicars Apostolic, who were administrators of districts, not Bishops in their own sees, felt they had the authority to do this; and that it should have lapsed before the restoration of the Hierarchy without any significant discussion which might have left an obvious trace to this day.

Does anybody have any further information on this?
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First Sunday of Lent 1863

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22 SUNDAY. First of Lent, semidouble. Violet. First Vespers of St Peter Damian Bishop Confessor Doctor (O Doctor), commemoration of the Sunday. White. 

23 Monday. Vigil. St Peter Damian, Bishop Confessor Doctor, double. Second prayers of the first Monday in Lent. Third prayers of the Vigil of St Matthias. Creed. White.

24Tuesday. (Feastday of Devotion) ST MATTHIAS, Apostle, double of the second class. Creed. Preface of the Apostles. Red.

25 Ember-Wednesday. St Peter's Chair at Antioch, greater double (transferred from 22 February). Second prayers of St Paul the Apostle. Creed. Preface of the Apostles. White.

26 Thursday. Feria. Second prayers A Cunctis. Third prayers Omnipotens.  Violet.

27 Ember-Friday. The Lance and Nails of OUR LORD, greater double. Second prayers and last Gospel of the feria. Creed. Preface of the Cross. Red. Plenary Indulgence.

28 Ember-Saturday. Second prayers A Cunctis. Third prayers Omnipotens.  Feria. Violet.

We did Ember Days in Advent here, so I won't repeat myself.  This is a pretty straightforward week. The feast of St Peter's Chair at Antioch (about which I wrote here) should have been celebrated on Sunday, but because Lenten Sundays are privileged, has been moved to Ember Wednesday instead, and as a feast of St Peter, includes a commemoration of St Paul. The Friday theme of the sufferings of Our Lord continues with a commemoration of the implements which caused specific and targeted piercings of His flesh, unlike the crown of thorns which was a more random act of horror.

The Secret prayer of the First Sunday of Lent is ancient enough to say that the first Sunday is in fact the first day of Lent, the prayer dating as it does from before the days from Ash Wednesday and the following Thursday, Friday and Saturday were tacked on to the beginning to make the forty day days up.  Bugnini and the Consilium, proud of this little bit of knowledge, and noting that non-Latin Rite Catholic Churches did not have this addition, proposed to "unLent" these four days. Pope Paul VI, who had a clearer idea of what people would think refused to allow the four days to be eliminated: "... now they have been accepted by all the peoples who follow the Roman Rite, it is not a good idea to suppress them, especially if the rite of the imposition of the ashes is to be observed on the Wednesday before the first Sunday, as is now the case". Stop and think: the Consilium "experts" knew that the four days had been introduced early in the seventh century, but not that the six week Lent itself probably only dates from the early fifth century: before that it was much shorter. And not knowing how the start of Lent was marked when it began on the first Sunday, they wanted to keep the imposition of the ashes on Ash Wednesday (or at the very least had not proposed an alternative), even though that ceremony would be shorn of any significance, falling, as it now would, in their new Ordinary Time rather than the season of Septuagesima. 

How could such clueless people have reached such a position of power?  Or perhaps better, who pulled what strings to get them there?

In Newmarket, the parish of Our Lady Immaculate and St Ethelreda is served by the Rev Thomas McDonald.  Sunday Mass is celebrated at 11.00 with a Sermon. Catechetical Instruction is at 4.00 pm, with Compline, Sermon and Benediction at 6.30.  On Holydays and weekdays, Mass is at 8.30. On Thursdays, the Rosary is said at 7.30 pm, followed by a Lecture and Benediction.  Confessions are on Saturdays and the eves of Holydays from 6.30 pm.

There is a boarding school for young ladies in Gloucester. Click on the image for a better view.

(For young people: a guinea is £1.05; 1l 11s 6d is a guinea and a half;  2l 2s is two guineas. 10s 6d is half a guinea. 15s is 75p. 2s 6d is 12.5p, and 2s is 10p. A guinea is a clever way to play on people's snobbery and make them pay a 5% surcharge on everything. And, it seems, men are worth a third more than women for teaching pianoforte and singing.)

Quinquagesima Sunday And The Beginning Of Lent 1863

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15 SUNDAY. QUINQUAGESIMA SUNDAY, semidouble. Second prayers of SS Faustinus and Jovita, Martyrs. Third prayers A Cunctis. Violet. Vespers of the Sunday. [In diocese of Clifton, fourth prayers for the Bishop.]

16 Monday. Feria. Violet.

17 Tuesday. Feria. Violet.

18 Ash-Wednesday. Feria. Second prayers A Cunctis. Third prayers Omnipotens. Preface of Lent (until Passion Sunday) unless otherwise directed. Violet. FAST.

The FAST OF LENT is to be continued until EASTER on all days except Sundays on which ABSTINENCE is to be observed, unless Dispensation be granted. The time for complying with the obligation of PASCHAL COMMUNION commences on ASH-WEDNESDAY and continues until LOW SUNDAY inclusively.

19 Thursday. Feria.  Violet.

20 Friday. The Crown of Thorns of OUR LORD, greater double. Second prayers and last Gospel of the feria. Creed. Preface of the Cross. Red. Plenary Indulgence.

On all festivals in Lent a commemoration of the feria is made, and its Gospel read at the end of Mass.

21 Saturday. Feria. Violet.

The Indulgence begins.

No more Friday warnings for the next few weeks. Lent is starting. Start planning now, because every Lenten day (not Sundays because Sundays aren't part of Lent) is a day of fasting and abstinence.  No meat, no eggs, only one restrained meal, as well as two snacks, which together mustn't add up to as much as the one meal.  Sundays are days of abstinence "only". 

Fasting, prayers, almsgiving: Lent is Lent.

If you are young in 1863, your Grandparents will talk about "Black Lents":  the olden days when they were very young and Lent meant six and a half weeks of serious fasting and abstinence. "You young 'uns haven't got a clue", they would no doubt have said, as they considered the fact that in most dioceses, between the start and the middle of the nineteenth century, meat (though not eggs) had begun to be allowed, on at least some, and then gradually all Lenten Sundays: this major change had happened in their lifetimes.

It isn't exactly dissipation, and, importantly, on pain of grave sin to the host if a dispensation hadn't been obtained beforehand, visitors to a Catholic home had to be made to abide by the restrictions in place on the household.  If it made entertainment difficult, or it made going about in Society difficult, then so be it: Lent was not a season for entertainment or Society. 

I still wonder, though, which serpent was looking at which apple when Lenten Sundays became such (comparatively) wanton occasions for the abandonment of tradition.

In spite of the harshness of Lent, we simply slip into it this year.  There are no non-Lenten feasts or festivals to divert us from the penitential season.

Friday's feast asks us to focus on the Crown of Thorns: if you are giving something up which will be difficult, think about the Crown of Thorns, and about how its pain would put into the shade what people like us suffer from the absence of something we are accustomed to which we have given up.

Every day in Lent has proper prayers and a proper Gospel, and these must be read, even if there is a feast whose celebration takes priority. So on Friday these prayers will be said after those belonging to the Feast of the Crown of Thorns, and the Last Gospel of the beginning of St John's Gospel will be replaced by the Gospel of the Friday after Ash Wednesday.

And you are hereby given notice that between Ash Wednesday and Low Sunday, the Sunday after Easter, you must go to Communion, and that means that you must go to Confession. Remember that, but remember too that an indulgence begins after None on Saturday and lasts until Vespers on the second Sunday of Lent. Its conditions are Confession, Communion, Almsgiving and, on the day of Communion, prayers to God for the state of the Church throughout the world, for bringing back all straying souls to the fold of Christ,  for the general peace of Christendom, and for the blessing of God on our nation. It shares these conditions with the Whitsun and All Saints indulgences.

At Whitworth, the Rev John Millward is the Parish Priest.  On Sundays, Mass is at 8.30 and 10.30. Baptisms are at 2.00, and Instruction at 3.30. vespers are at 6.30.  On Holydays Mass is at 5.00 and 8.00, with an evening service at 7.30.  On weekdays, Mass is at 8.00. Churchings are on Mondays after 8.00 Mass. On Thursdays, Rosary, Instruction and Benediction are at 7.30. Confessions are on Saturday at 3.30, and for children on Friday evening. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is offered once a week for benefactors of the parish.

More classified advertisements.  Click for a better view.

Sexagesima Sunday 1863

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8 SUNDAY. SEXAGESIMA SUNDAY, semidouble. Second prayers A Cunctis. Third prayers Ad libitum. Violet. First Vespers of St Ignatius, Pope Martyr with commemoration of the Sunday and of St Apollonia, Virgin Martyr. Red. [In diocese of Hexham and Newcastle, Plenary Indulgence.]

9 Monday. St Ignatius, Pope Martyr, double (transferred from 1 February). Second prayers of St Apollonia, Virgin Martyr. Red.

10 Tuesday. St Scholastica, Virgin, double. White.

11 Wednesday. St Titus, Bishop Confessor, double (transferred from 6 February). White.

12 Thursday. St John of Matha, Confessor, double (transferred from 8 February).  White.

13 Friday. The Passion of OUR LORD, greater double. Creed. Preface of the Cross. Red. Plenary Indulgence. Abstinence.

14 Saturday. Of the Immaculate Conception of the BVM, semidouble. Second prayers of St Valentine, Martyr. Third prayers of the Holy Ghost (Deus qui corda). Preface of the BVM. White. Plenary Indulgence.

The most striking thing to a twenty-first century dweller about this week's calendar is that there is no feast of Our Lady of Lourdes on Wednesday: that's because the apparitions at Lourdes haven't yet taken place. Even leaving aside the number of saints canonised by John Paul II, any future reform of the calendar to return it to a more traditional shape will have to think about what to do with the natural increase in feasts.  This series isn't proposing answers: it just gives an idea of the way the calendar was a century and a half ago when there were a lot of ferias, and, more importantly, what the calendar gave to the Church.

Otherwise, we have a shuffle of transferred feasts finding a place in the calendar, and the Passion being commemorated as the Friday preparation for Lent.  Eight weeks before Good Friday, six weeks before Passion Sunday, and we have a feast devoted to the Passion.  This simultaneously gives the lie to the fact that pre-Pius X the calendar was simply full of saints, while also showing that duplication and triplication are perfectly worthy tools to focus the minds of people: here, on the fact that Our Lord became Man and died for us; died, in fact most horribly for us.

Saturday isn't just Our Lady's Saturday: this Saturday we specifically commemorate the Immaculate Conception, and that commemoration is sufficiently important to push St Valentine into second place (the "calendar full of saints" meme is wrong again).  It's very rare that a feast in the calendar is completely missed, but we have to be prepared to budge saints about a bit.  Speaking purely for myself, I find this a very human aspect of the calendar: "we'll find somewhere to fit you in" is a lot nicer than "these are the rules".  If you were fanciful, you might even think back to Christmas Eve.

Two more plenary indulgences for the souls in Purgatory are available on Friday and Saturday: you'd almost think the Church was encouraging frequent communion as well as the liberation of the Holy Souls if you didn't believe that frequent communion was something thought up by Pope St Pius X.

The parish of St Marie in Sheffield is served by the Rev Canon William Fisher as Missionary Rector, and he is supported by the Revv Charles James Locke, Thomas Loughran and Patrick Kennedy.  Masses on Sunday are at 7.30, 9.00 (with Discourse), and High Mass at 10.30 (with Sermon).  Catechism, Instruction, and Devotions for children are at 3.00.  Vespers, Sermon and Benediction at 6.00 pm.  On Holydays, Masses are at 7.00 and 9.00, with High Mass and Sermon at 10.30, with Catechism, Instruction, and Devotions for children at 3.00, and  Vespers, Sermon and Benediction at 8.00 pm.  On weekdays, Masses are at 8.00 and 8.30.  On Days of Devotion and on every Thursday evening at 8.00 there are Prayers, Devotions and Benediction.  Every Friday from Septuagesima to Palm Sunday and on the first Friday of every month there are Stations of the Cross.  On other Fridays, the Bona Mors Devotions are said in the Mortuary Chapel.  Every Saturday evening at 8.00 Prayers, Rosary, Litany etc of the BVM are sung. In May, for the month of Mary, there are Devotions and a Discourse every evening.  There are Devotions, a Discourse and Benediction every evening in the Octave of Corpus Christi.  Every evening in the Octave of All Souls there are Devotions in the Mortuary Chapel.  There are Confraternities of the Blessed Sacrament, the Immaculate Heart of Mary for the Conversion of Sinners, the Scapular, the Rosary, and of Christian Doctrine.  Marriages are on Sunday at 9.00, and other days at 10.00.  Baptisms on Sunday at 2.00 pm and Wednesday at 10.00 am. Churchings on Monday mornings at 9.00.

(The Bona Mors devotions are fairly simple: a pall is put on the ground to stand as the catafalque and the Office for the Dead is recited.  In some places there are Confraternities of the Bona Mors.)

Click on the classified advertisements to see them in more detail.