Was this sung in your parish in the Ordinary Form (OF); even in English as you can find at the link above?
Was it even just read after the Second Reading and before the Alleluia?
We are now in the Octave of Pentecost that was unfortunately lost in the Ordinary Form (OF). An "Octave" is the eight day period following a major feast, a prolongation of that feast. In the traditional, there are three, Christmas, Easter and Pentecost and of course in the OF, only Christmas and Easter. Prior to 1962 there were more including Epiphany. Others included Corpus Christi, Sacred Heart, Sts. Peter and Paul and more of lower rank.
There is this little story from Father Z. It seems that he was told this story by an elderly, retired Papal Ceremoniere or a Master of Ceremonies who (according to him) was present at the event about to be recounted.
The Monday after Pentecost in 1970 His Holiness Pope Paul VI rose bright and early and went to the chapel for Holy Mass. Instead of the red he expected, there were green vestments laid out for him.
He queried the MC assigned that day, "What on earth are these for? This is the Octave of Pentecost! Where are the red vestments?"
"Santità," quoth the MC, "this is now Tempus ‘per annum’. It is green, now. The Octave of Pentecost is abolished."
"Green? That cannot be!", said the Pope, "Who did that?"
"Holiness, you did."
And Paul VI wept.
And the rest of us have been weeping ever since.
And then there is the Vigil...
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8 comments:
Hello Vox. Glad to say that at my new Novus Ordo parish at the saturday vigil mass yesterday, presided by the pastor, a lector read the sequence aloud and we were asked to say it as well. Thank God I am making my new home there.
The two priests there are more traditionally minded and there are many more families there, unlike my prior parish with a pastorally/social welfare-minded pastor who lacked care for the spiritual welfare of all of us and rarely ever preached a spiritually nourishing homily (or at least hard hitting ones,) and the proof is in the huge lack of families and anyone over the age of 15 there, unless they were being taken by their families out of forced attendance.
The Byzantine priest, deacon, and servers had green vestments, which were Byzantine beautiful. We said a long prayer to the Holy Spirit, kneeling. Prayers are usually said standing.
Our choir sang it accompanied in my parish in Melbourne Australia at Vigil and Sunday masses
I'm interested in this Ocatve question from a historical and biblical perspective. From this perspective an Octave of Pentecost seems a little odd. The reason is that in the Bible Pentecost (i.e. the Feast of Weeks) is itsself already an "Octave of Octaves" so to say. For Pentecost by counting seven weeks or fifty days from Easter. Biblically this is based on the prescription in Leviticus XXIII to count fifty days from the "Day after the Sabbath" which occurs during the Passover week. This "day after the Sabbath" was the day the first barley sheaf was waved at the Temple as the firstfruits of the new harvest, a clear figurative type of the Resurrection. Seven complete weeks — or Sabbaths as the texts says — were to be counted and then the next day, the Octave days, which thus was a Sunday, was the Feast of Weeks (or of Firstfruits). So, biblically, Pentecost is itself already the Octave par excellence, since it is the conclusion of the entire Passover season, an Octave of Octaves after 7 x 7 days.
That's why it seems a little out of place to add this final day yet another Octave. The number 50 already indicates a completion which is perfect. Too much of a thing is simply too much and doesn't make it more beautiful.
Ven El Espirítu Santo was gustily sung twice at Holy Mass yesterday & the vestments were red. They were also red on Saturday at the Vigil Mass.
Crooned in a warbling voice with bells with an English translation. Ugh.
One small correction, if I may: one does not kneel during the Sequence ("Veni, Sancte Spiritus") but rather during the Verse for the second Alleluia, which also begins with the words "Veni, Sancte Spiritus."
Fr. J.
Our Ukrainian Greek Catholic priest always wears green vestments on Pentecost and during the week. We prayed to the Holy Spirit kneeling too.
We use red vestments for the Third Sunday of the Great Fast, the Exaltation of the Cross and (I think) great martyrs.
Also, in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church we have no fasting or abstinence, not even on Friday.
In contrast, on the traditional Latin calendar, the Friday after Pentecost is an Ember Day, I.e. you have to fast.
So half the Church is feasting and half is fasting.
Z nami Boh! God is with us!
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