Thursday, June 11, 2009

My how the Liturgy of the Hours for today is difficult

OK, so...

Today is Corpus Christi... except, in the U.S., it's not. Fine. I think that moving the Solemnity so people don't have to attend Mass more than once a week is a bad idea, but I'm not in charge and - since I don't have access to a 1962 Breviary and thus cannot choose to use the old calendar for today - I am obediently praying the Liturgy of the Hours for St. Barnabas the Apostle.

One problem. St. Barnabas is on the calendar as a memorial. Both the Ordinary of the Liturgy of the Hours, i.e. the rubrics written in red, and the General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours say that memorials are not celebrated during the daytime hours of terce, sext and none (or midmorning, midday, and midafternoon prayer, if you prefer). But St. Barnabas has proper readings for terce, sext and none. So what's a man to do? Does the fact that he has proper readings trump the general norms? I am leaning towards not using the readings in his proper since both the rubrics and the praenotanda seem to say that I shouldn't.

Does anyone out there have a 2009 Ordo for the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite in the United States? What does it say?

3 comments:

ari said...

Isn't this covered in the slim white booklet that one usually purchases annually which specifies such things as this?

brendon said...

The booklet isn't an official Ordo. It is a shortcut to make praying the Liturgy of the Hours easier. But I have seen it be wrong before. I think it was wrong today, since both the rubrics and the praenotanda contradicted it.

I went with the hour of the day for none. I assume St. Barnabas has proper readings because there are some cathedrals, diocese and/or countries where his memorial is a feast or a solemnity due to patronage. He is a companion of St. Paul and an Apostle after all.

If I was supposed to use the proper reading, well, I'm not yet bound by law to pray the Liturgy of the Hours, and it was an honest mistake made by trusting the instructions that govern in. I'm sure St. Barnabas will forgive me my error.

Anonymous said...

If you email your postal address to me, I'll have a 1962 (Latin only) Breviary (the one from pcpbooks.com) sent to you.

Congratulations on being accepted into Seminary.