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 LESSONS

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LESSOmi

liturgical from the beginning and have a special Mass. Genesis goes on on the second and third Sundays of Lent; on the fourth comes a pcricope from Exodus. Passion and Palm Sunday have lessons from Jeremias .(beginning on Passion Simday) for a special reason (the connexion of the Prophet of the destruction of the temple with Our Lord's Passion). Easter Day and its octave have only one noctum, so no scriptura occur- tens. Low Sunday has special lessons (Col., iii) about the Resurrection. The Acts of the Apostles begin on the day after Low Sunday and are read for a fortnight — according to the old tradition that connects them with Eastertide. The Apocalypse begins on the third Sunday after Easter and lasts for a week. On the fourth Sunday St. James's Epistle begins, on th^ fifth St. Peter's First Epistle. Ascension Day naturally has its own story from Acts, i; but on the next day II Peter begins. The Sunday following brings the First Epistle of St. John; the next Wednesday, II John; the Friday, III John; Saturday, the Epistle of St. Jude. Pentecost and its octave, like Easter, have no scriptura occurrens.

It will be noticed tliat, just as Lent has on its ferise only lessons from the Old Testament, even in the EpLstlcs at Mass, so Paschal time has only the New Testament, even in the Office. The feast of the Holy Trinitv has special lessons (Is., vi — the Seraphim who cry: lloly. holy, holy); the next day we come back to the normal course and begin the First Book of Kings.

II Kings begins on the fifth Sunday after Pentecost,

III Kings on the seventh, IV Kings on the ninth. On the first Sunday of August (from which day till Ad- vent we count by the months except for the Mass and the lessons of the third nocturn) the Books of Wis- dom begin with Proverbs; Ecclesiastes comes on the second Sunday of August, Wisdom on the third, Ec- clesiasticus on the fourth. Job comes on the first Sunday of September, Tobias on the third, Judith on the fourth, Esther on the fifth. October brings on its first Sunday I Machabees, on its fourth II Maehabees. The Prophets begin in November: Ezekiel on the first Sunday, Daniel on the third, Osee on the fourth, and then the other minor Prophets in very short frag- ments, obviously in a hurry, till Advent. Advent has Isaias throiighout. The mst Sunday after Christmas begins St. Paul's Epistles with Romans; they con- tinue to Septuagesima. I 0)rinthians comes on the first Sunday after Epiphany, II Corinthians on the second Sunday, Galatians on the third, Ephesians the following Wednesdav, Philippians on the fourth Sun- day, CJolossians on the next Tuesday, I Thessalonians on Thursday, II Thessalonians on Saturday, I Tim- othy on the fifth Sunday, II Timothy on Tuesday, Titus on Thursday, Philemon on Saturday, Hebrews on the sixth Sunday. We have here again the same crowded changes as at the end of the season after Pentecost. The arrangement then is one of continu- ous readings from each book, though the books do not follow in order, but are distributed with regard to ap- propriateness. If we count the Pentateuch as one book (that seems to be the idea), we see that all the books of the Bible are read, in part at least, except Josue, Judges, Ruth, Paralipomenon, and the Canticle of Canticles. Cardinal (iuinones in his famous reformed Breviary (issued by Paul III in 1535, withdrawn by Paul IV in 1558) changed all thw and arranged the reading of the whole Bible in a year (see Batiffol, on. cit., 222-231). His proposal, however, came to notn- inff ^nd we still use the traditional Office, with the de- velopments time has brought.

The arrangement of Matins is this: On ferise and simple feasts there is only one nocturn with its three lessons. On ferias all three are from the scriptura oc- currens: on simples the third lesson is an account of the saint insteari of the Scriptural one. The exception is when a feria has its own Mass. Such are the days that were originally liturgical days — week-days in

Lenti ember-days, and vigils. In this case the lessons consist of the fragment of the Gospel with a homily as in the third nocturn of semi-douoles. On semi-dou- bles and all higher feasts (Sundays are semi-doubles) there are three noctums, each with three lessons. Such days are the festa novem lectianum. The first nocturn has always Scriptural lessons — ^those of the scriptura occurreris, or on special feasts, a text chosen for its suitability. The second nocturn has lessons from a Father of the Church, here called sermo, a life of the saint on his feast, or a description of the event of the day. Thus, for instance, St. Peter's Chains (1 August) tells the stoi^ of their finding and how they came to Rome; S. Maria tit. Auxiliiun C^hristianorum (24 May) in the sixth lesson teUs "ex publicis monu- mentis the story of the battle of Lepanto. Some- times papal Bulls are read in the second nocturn, as the Bull of Pius IX (Ineffabilis Deus) during the Oc- tave of the Immaculate Conception (8 December), The second nocturn continually receives new lessons, written by various people and approved by the Sacred Congregation of Rites. Many of the older ones are taken from the "Liber Pontihcalis". The third noc- turn has for its lessons first a fragment (the first clause) of the Gospel read at Mass followed by the words, et reliqua^ then a sermon (called Homiha) of a Father explaining it through the three lessons (the 7th, 8th, and 9th). In cases of concurrence of feasts, the feast commemorated (or the feria, if it be a liturgical day) has its own lesson (the life of the saint, or Gospel-fragment, and homily) read as the nintii lesson.

The monastic Office differs only in that it has four lessons in each nocturn (twelve altogether) and the whole Gospel of the day read after the Te Deum. This practice of reading the Gospel at the end of Matins was common in many medieval rites. Thus at (]?hristmas in England the genealogy of Our Lord from St. Matthew was read at Christmas, and the one in St. Luke at the Epiphany at this place. So in the By- zantine Rite the Gospel of the day is read at the Orth- ros.

The other canonical hours have short lessons called capitula, ori^nally lectiunculce, sometimes camtdla. The Ambrosian Breviary calls them epistolelus and collectiones. These are very short passages from the Bible, generally continuous throughout the hours, connected with the feast or occasion. Very often they are from the same source as the Epistle. At Lauds and Vespers the capitidum is chanted by the officiat- ing priest after the fifth psalm, before the hymn. At Terce, Sext, None he chants it af t«r the psalm. Prime and Compline (originally private prayers of monks) are in many ways different from the other hours. They have always the same capitula. Prime has I Tim., i, 17 (omitting the word autem) chanted in tile same place. Compline has Jer., xiv, 9b (adding the word sanctum after nomen and the final clause, Domine, Deus noster). This is sung after the hymn by the celebrant. At Prime the officiating priest chants a second lesson (called lectio hrevis) at the end, after the blessing that follows the pTece9 and the prayer "Dirigere et sanctificare". For the pro- prium temporis thi«» is ^ven in the Breviary (in the psalterium) ; on feastjj it is the capUulum of None, with the addition of "Tu autem Domine miserere nobis". 0)mpline begins after the blessing with a lectio bretds from I Peter, v, 8, 9a (with the additional word Fr aires at the beginning and the clause, Tu aiUem, ete., at the end). All these short lessons are answered by the words Deo graiias, but the capit- ula do not have the clause "Tu autem", ete. The Roman Ritual has a few isolated lessons for special occasions. The Office of the "Visitation and care of the sick" has four Gospels from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (all about healing the sick), and the b^inning of John. The " Order of commending a soul " has two