People like me tend to nag you about the desireability of keeping the Pentecost Octave. But there was an observance this week which is much older than the Octave; indeed, much older than Christianity itself: the Summer Ember Season.
The pagan Romans kept Feriae messis, Days of Harvest, connected with the corn harvest. In the ancient Liturgy of the (local) Church of Rome, which we are privileged to have received for our own, this ancient piece of local Romanita is preserved for us as the Ember Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday of the week following Pentecost. Like the other pagan agricultural festivals, this one was converted by the Church into a fast: S Leo regards fasting as particularly appropriate for the Ember Days this week "So that if, amid the joys of the festivities, negligent liberty and inordinate licence has made any presumption, this [fast] may discipline (castiget) it by the censure of religious abstinence".
So some elements in the Old Rite propers for these days precede the imposition of 'Spirit' themes by the Octave. Today's Gospel about the Bread of Life, for example, christianises the pagan celebration of the corn harvest. I will leave you to fish out your good old English Missals and find the evidence for this also in the readings for Friday and Saturday. (Remember that our forefathers in the Faith believed that healings from illnesses and exorcism of unclean spirits were closely related to fasting [see Mark 9:29 with the variant reading and Matthew 17:21], so also be on the lookout for pericopes about healings and exorcisms.)
In 455, the Arian Gaiseric was attacking Rome (he took it on the Ember Wednesday, secured thousands of potential candidates for the slave markets, and pillaged most of the basilicas ... it's the sort of thing heretics do). Pope S Leo wrote a number of collects on this occasion; one of them survives as the collect for the Ember Friday this week. Find it in your English Missal. You'll see the point of the phrase hostili nullatenus incursione turbetur. Relevant today?
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
was for nearly three decades at Lancing College; where he taught Latin and Greek language and literature, was Head of Theology, and Assistant Chaplain. He has served three curacies, been a Parish Priest, and Senior Research Fellow at Pusey House in Oxford. Since 2011, he has been in full communion with the See of S Peter. The opinions expressed on this Blog are not asserted as being those of the Magisterium of the Church, but as the writer's opinions as a private individual. Nevertheless, the writer strives, hopes, and prays that the views he expresses are conformable with and supportive of the Magisterium. In this blog, the letters PF stand for Pope Francis. On this blog, 'Argumentum ad hominem' refers solely to the Lockean definition, Pressing a man with the consequences of his own concessions'.
... once graced the high altar of the church of Sancta Maria in Ara Coeli on the Capitoline Hill.
Fr John Hunwicke
was for nearly three decades at Lancing College; where he taught Latin and Greek language and literature, was Head of Theology, and Assistant Chaplain. He has served three curacies, been a Parish Priest, and Senior Research Fellow at Pusey House in Oxford. Since 2011, he has been in full communion with the See of S Peter. The opinions expressed on this Blog are not asserted as being those of the Magisterium of the Church, but as the writer's opinions as a private individual. Nevertheless, the writer strives, hopes, and prays that the views he expresses are conformable with and supportive of the Magisterium. In this blog, the letters PF stand for Pope Francis. On this blog, 'Argumentum ad hominem' refers solely to the Lockean definition, Pressing a man with the consequences of his own concessions'.
Archive
-
▼
2017
(317)
-
▼
June
(22)
- Cats, skinning of, different ways of.
- Media -watchers ...
- Whom to celebrate on June 28 ???????
- Mixed Metaphors and Intimidation
- Sporting the Papal Oak*: the Vocabulary of Gesture
- Encaenia UPDATED
- Ordinations in the Ordinariate
- Cardinals, Collegiality and Amoris Laetitia UPDATE.
- A little elementary ... no; intermediate ... Latin
- Idolatry?? (2)
- Salus, honor, virtus quoque sit ...
- Idolatry?? (1)
- Kneeling for Communion
- Hugh Curwen (3)
- Panic!
- June 9 1968
- The Holy Spirit and the Roman Rite UPDATED
- Older than the Octave
- Lock'em up and grab the cash
- PAPAL ABDICATION
- Hugh Curwen (2)
- The enigma of Hugh Curwen (1)
-
▼
June
(22)
Popular Posts
-
More Update: Perhaps I should have been more explicit about the complete wrongheadedness of the sort of speculations which could be triggere...
-
There are wild rumours on the Internet about News due to break tomorrow, Sunday. They are, as far as I know, all wrong. Far too wild. Far to...
-
To refresh your memories, I reprint a piece I wrote when an earlier electronic edition of the Dictator Pope was published under a pseudonym:...
-
So a correspondent wrote on one of my threads. It set me thinking. I am convinced that PF is most certainly not the worst man ever to hav...
-
Perhaps a couple of years ago, in Western Ireland, I had the privilege to be in the company of a very great prelate just after he had offere...
-
"After this Magisterium, after this long journey, we can affirm with certainty and with Magisterial authority that the Liturgical Refor...
-
Lead us not into temptation. It is unlikely that the Greek and Latin words translated by temptation meant the sort of thing we mean by ...
-
Pope Francis breaks his silence! A "In authorising regular use of the older Mass, now referred to as the 'extraordinary form...
-
The heart of the Bergoglianist error is, in my fallible opinion, to be found in such texts as the letter Archbishop Nichols wrote last year ...
Followers
Links
Raffaello's Madonna di Foligno
... once graced the high altar of the church of Sancta Maria in Ara Coeli on the Capitoline Hill.
3 comments:
What was AD 455 known as back then?
I understand it was not yet usual to use AD, perhaps a. U. C.?
Presumably, during the harvest, the laborers were eating hearty at every meal, just to keep up energy while racing to get the harvest in, before any possible rains and storms. Threshing and storage tasks would also mean a lot of work being supported by big meals.
So a little bit of fasting and resting after the harvest, after all the camaraderie and hard work, and after the Pentecost solemnity and fun, would have a very different feel from Lent. More like the feeling we get from making resolutions and prayers after New Year's Day.
Heaven forbid that I start or even suggest another round of liturgical tinkering with the Extraordinary Form, but having Ember Days in the midst of the Octave of a great feast has always seemed anomalous. The Lenten and Advent Ember Days precede the feasts they are preparation for by some time. And the Autumn Ember Days occur before Michael Mass. Would not the week before Pentecost be a better time for Ember Days? Friday and the Vigil Saturday are already days of abstinence. And the whole period between Ascension Thursday and Pentecost are imbued with a spirit of penitential watchfulness and expectation, as we are encouraged to make the only novena sanctioned by the Church, the Novena For the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost. Am I off base, Father?
Post a Comment