Saturday, January 06, 2007

Epiphany

Last night at the clergy dinner one priest assured me that the liturgy office for England and Wales had said that in using the 1962 missal one follows the calendar so it was right to celebrate the Epiphany on the 6th as we did this morning with a Missa Cantata. I was somewhat surprised by this but even if it had been said otherwise there would be nothing to stop a votive Mass of the Epiphany this morning. I`m glad to see I was in good company: there was a 1962 Solemn High Mass of the Epiphany at the Birmingham Oratory this morning. Apparently and surprisingly, this was the first time that such a Mass had been celebrated in the Oratory church since the changes. There is an account on the lacrimarum valle blog.

We talked last night about other aspects of the calendar. The new English calendar has moved the feast of St Cuthbert, our diocesan patron, to September 4th. This is understandable because in Lent, outside of this diocese, it would not be possible to celebrate it as a memorial and so putting it on the feast of the translation of St Cuthbert, means other parts of the country can celebrate him. In this diocese it remains on its traditional day of March 20th and has the rank of a feast. However it was regretted that we here have lost the interesting feast of the translation on September 4th and the day is now a feria. Time for a votive Mass again: that`s what I did last September 4th. However following the 1962 calendar keeps the traditional days. It will be interesting to see if the new indult, when it comes, will have anything to say about the calendar.

5 comments:

Alnwickian said...

'The new indult when it comes'...
Should that not be 'if it comes'?
There is no sign of it yet and every promised date has produced - nothing.
Rocco Palmo, who is usally pretty well informed, refers to it as a 'fantasy'.

Fr Julian Green said...

As regards the new indult... I was in Rome at the beginning of November at a meeting of a Pontifical Committee of which I am a member, and the indult was being spoken of as something which is going to come out. Now, I don't claim that anyone on that committee has any inside knowledge - though, being a Vatican committee there were 3 cardinals present - but the fact that it was being talked about as a given is significant.

As for the calendar, all I can say is poor old St Thomas of Canterbury...see my blog entry on our Friends with Christ blog for my views on that.

Fr Julian Green said...

PS As regards the parallel calendars - which inpinges on my life very little - it's just the comment of hebdom "the traditionalist faithful are never going to accept...". Not even if the Pope tells them to? Not very traditionalist or faithful then. Sorry - just being provocative.

Fr Michael Brown said...

Dear Fr Julian thanks for that little bit of hope from your Roman meeting. There must be a huge spanner in the works at the minute.

Fr Michael Brown said...

Hebdomadary I agree wholeheartedly with your proposals but it will be interesting to see what is said about the calendar and even, I imagine, the lectionary.