12 December 2020

Working towards an Octave ...

The nearly total abolition of Octaves in the post-Conciliar "reforms" went against all natural human instincts, as well as Biblical precedent. Having a great festival ... and then putting on green vestments the next morning as if nothing has happened ... is upsetting as well as counterintuitive. Those who worship according to Byzantine and other rites can bear witness that, among themselves, a great festival lingers in the liturgical mind until a 'leave-taking'.

Surely, it is interesting that the Octave of the Immaculate Conception has been gradually, imperceptibly, with snail-like tread but non sine numine, creeping back. On December 9, there was S John Didacus Cuauhtlatoatzin, the Visionary of Guadalupe, in the Novus Ordo. By the legislation of March this year, he may be observed also in the Vetus Ordo. On December 10, our Lady of Loreto has for many decades been in the Appendix pro aliquibus locis of the old Rite. And today, Dececember 12, there is our Lady of Guadalupe in the Novus Ordo. These celebrations help to keep the Theotokos in mind for half an Octave!

Those of us who are Vetus women or men (as opposed to merely veteres) should remember that the EF department of the CDF expects us, on such days, to use Communia and not to 'adapt' the Novus Ordo texts until they have been revised for the Old Rite.

This is wise. Let me give you an example of a problematic Novus Ordo text.

The Novus Ordo texts provided a few years ago by the CDW for our Lady of Guadalupe give a good example of the need for care. The Collect has an EH (Elementary Howler) in its Latin: 'quaereant' must a mistake for 'quaerant'. And, elegantly matching this mendosa Latinitas, there is an iffy political allusion: to the opening and programmatic two words of S Paul VI's Encyclical Populorum Progressio

I don't want to overstate the case against this sort of phraseology or that Encyclical. And I'm sure you don't either. We are all moderate men and women. But I do sense, in both, a danger that the Faith, and the Church, may be demoted from being  God's Saving Truth, and His Ark of Salvation, into being valued for the contribution they can make to secular aims, however laudable. Our Patrimonial C S Lewis perceived and warned against this error back in 1941. See my post of October 29; or Screwtape Letter VII near the end.

My comments, of course, do not apply to the old Propers for our Lady of Guadalupe, which lack EHs and do not refer to the encyclicals of S Montini! These 'old' propers are presumably those authorised by Leo XIII (Benedict XIV had granted earlier propers which I have not seen). Readers will be reassured to know that the Propers in the Ordinariate's Divine Worship Missal are translations of the Leo XIII texts!

Footnote: My comments relate to the texts as published in Notitiae. It may be that EHs have been corrected in subsequent publications. Perhaps somebody could let me know?! On the feast of our Lady of Guadalupe, as well as the EH in the Collect, there are (at least!) these errors in the Lectio: last paragraph, ella should be illa and mirabant should be mirabantur. In the antepenultimate paragraph, accipere should be acciperes.

4 comments:

Rubricarius said...

It is worth remembering that there is only one octave less after the 'Conciliar reforms' than before the Second Vatican Council.

The real slayers of octaves were two popes bearing the regnal name Pius.

There is a very useful chart shewing what was lost, and when, on this interesting Italian 'blog.

pdiek said...

In the "Liturgia Horarum. Textus inserendi" from the Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2005, these mistakes are still there.

PM said...

And my Anglican neighbours still have a Christmastide that runs till Candlemas.

Grant Milburn said...

I see why the wolf is the symbol of Rome: as well as the wolves that threatened Benedict XVI, there is also the sorrowful wolf of the EH.