Question Title | Posted By | Question Date |
---|---|---|
Vigils and Office of Readings time..., Part 2 | Lee | Friday, February 11, 2005 |
Question: The relevant rubrics are these: indeed, the liturgical day runs from midnight to midnight, officially, except for days that begin with First Vespers. (Side note: the invitatory, rubrically, precedes only Matins and Lauds, "whichever" begins the day. The invitatory doesn't always signal a new liturgical day, because sometimes the day began already with First Vespers and, occasionally, a proper Vigil Mass). The issue here wouldn't seem to be "can" one legally do Saturday Matins in the evening, after First Vespers of Sunday. The thing is, there is a proper extended Vigil for Matins of Sunday, designed for anticipation on Saturday night. So, if one were to want to observe Matins on Saturday night, there is already a special form written for that time, and, in addition, the new liturgical day has already begun. There is no official time in the rubrics for when one can legally observe anticipated Matins; it just says in the evening, after Vespers. But it would make no sense to begin your liturgical day, for instance, with the First Vespers of Pentecost and possibly Pentecost Vigil Mass, and then pray Matins of the Saturday of the Seventh Week of Easter. Under such logic, one could attend an Easter Vigil at say 8:00 p.m. and then go home and pray Matins of Holy Saturday. The operative rubric would seem to be that the liturgical day always runs from midnight to midnight, except when there is First Vespers, and, perhaps more pointedly, that the Office provides proper texts for the anticipation of Matins on any Sunday, solemnity, or even feast. The most famous of these observances is Christmas, where the extended Matins is immediately followed by Midnight Mass. |
||
Question Answered by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OLSM
If a person has decided to offer the Office of Readings in the evening after Vespers each day because that is how it works into their schedule, or for whatever reasons, then it only makes sense to pray the Saturday Office on Saturday night, and the Sunday Office on Sunday night otherwise a person would be missing the Saturday Office and never read it under this schedule. |