The Divine Office Part 5

When several offices fall on the same day, only one office, the one of highest rank or most important, is said. The others are transferred or commemorated. The last section dealt with commemorations, and now we come to the difficult question of the translation of feasts. t.i.tle X. of the general rubrics must be read in connection with the Apostolic Const.i.tution, _Divino Afflatu_ (1911) and with the _Abhinc duos Annos_ (1913).

Translation of a feast may mean the removal of a feast from an impeded day to a day which is free. Thus a feast of higher rank may fall on a feast day of a saint whose feast is of lower rank; the latter may then be transferred. Transference is either perpetual or accidental and temporary. The former applies to feasts which are always impeded by the meeting with a feast of higher rite on their fixed days. A feast which would fall on 6th January would suffer perpetual translation. This translation bears different names in rubrics, decrees and liturgical writings--_translatio ad diem, fixam, translatio ad diem a.s.signatam, mutatio, etc._ Accidental translation means occasional transference, a transfer in one year and not in another.

t.i.tle II., section i, of the _Divino Afflatu_ gives the characters of preferential rank which are to be considered in occurrence, concurrence or translation of feasts, _Ritus altior, ratio primarii aut secundarii, Dignitas Personalis, solemnitas externa_.

Although in the General Rubrics of the Breviary, the t.i.tle _De Festorum praestantia_ is not found, the four principles, (1)gradation of rite, (2)cla.s.sification as a primary or secondary feast, (3)personal dignity, (4)external solemnity, are mentioned in the sixth section of t.i.tle X., _De Translatione Festorum_, and the degrees of personal dignity are added in the second section of t.i.tle XL, _de commemorationibus_. Before 1897 precedence, and hence transference, was settled first by the rank of the rite (Double major, etc.); then, too, between two feasts of the same rite, transference was settled by dignity and finally by solemnity.

But in 1897 the Sacred Congregation of Rites indicated two further notes to be observed in the weighing of claims for transference, (1)the cla.s.sification into primary and secondary feasts, (2)the distinction between fixed and movable feasts. This latter distinction--between fixed and movable feasts--has been suppressed by the new legislation and some changes made in the others.

I. _Gradation of Feasts_ makes a distinction between doubles, semi-doubles and simples, and distinguishes the various kinds of doubles. The order of procedure will be--(1)Doubles of the first cla.s.s, (2)doubles of the second cla.s.s, (3)greater doubles, (4)doubles, (5)semi-doubles, (6)simples. But as the section shows (t.i.t. II., sec. i) this is subject to the privileges of certain Sundays, ferias, and octave days or even days within an octave. And hence, an ordinary Sunday, though! only a semi-double, will take precedence of a double; and an octave day, though only a double, takes precedence of a greater double.

II. Cla.s.sification as a primary or a secondary feast. Tables of cla.s.sification are to be found in the prefatory part of the new Breviary, under the headings _Tres Tabellae_. They give a revised list of feasts with their rank and rites. Some feasts are reduced from primary to secondary rank (e.g., Feast of the Dolours); and the tables give a new division of primary and secondary doubles and semi-doubles.

III. Thirdly, the order of precedence among feasts will be determined by the dignity of the person who is the special object of the office that is to be recited. Hence, in the order set down in General Rubrics (t.i.tle XI, _De Concurrentia officii_, sec. 2) all feasts of our Lord, other things being equal, take precedence of the feasts of our Lady. And then, in order, come the festivals of the angels, of St. John the Baptist, of St. Joseph, of the Apostles and other saints. Amongst the saints who are honoured as martyrs, confessors or virgins there is no precedence as to personal dignity.

IV. Lastly, there is the note of "external solemnity," which may give precedence to one or two feasts, which are equal in the above-mentioned matters--i.e., in Gradation I., Cla.s.sification II., Precedence III. But the main point is that only doubles of first and second cla.s.s have the right, as a rule, of transference. Transference is now rather rare.

"From these rules it will be seen that in cases of concurrence, occurrence, perpetual transfer or translation, precedence between two feasts will first be decided by gradation of rite, a double of the first cla.s.s being preferred to one of the second, and so on. If the feasts are of equal rank recourse must be had to the second test, the distinction between primary and secondary feasts. If both happen to be primary, or both are secondary, then precedence will be granted to the feast which has the greater personal dignity. And if both feasts should have the same dignity, then the fact of external solemnity would confer precedence" (_The New Psalter and its Uses_, p. 79). For practical help, a look at the first of the _Duae Tabellae_ is a guide to find out which office is to be said, if more than one feast occur on the same day.

Before discussing new offices it may be well to remember that votive offices of all kinds, including the votive offices conceded by the decree of July, 1883, are abolished. These offices were drastic innovations, introduced to get rid of the very long psalm arrangement of the ferial office. The new distribution of the psalms got rid of the onus, and votive offices are no longer given in the Breviary.

t.i.tLE XL--CONCURRENCE.

_Concurrence_ is the conjunction of two offices which succeed each other, so that the question arises to which of the two are the Vespers of the day to be a.s.signed. The origin of this conjunction of feasts was by some old writers traced to the Mosaic law in which the festivals, began in the evening, and they quote "from evening until evening you shall celebrate your sabbaths" (_Leviticus_, xxii. 32). The effect of concurrence may be that the whole vespers may belong to the feast of the day or may be said entirely from, the feast of the following day; or it may be that the psalms and antiphons belong to the preceding festival and the rest of the office be from the succeeding feast. The General Rubrics, t.i.tle XI, must be read now in conjunction with t.i.tles IV., V., and VI. of the _Additiones et Variationes ad norman Bullae "Divino Afflatu"_. The rules for concurrence are given in Table III. of the _Tres Tabellae_ inserted in the new Breviary (S.C.R., 23 January, 1912).

These tables supersede the tables given in the old editions of the Breviary. The first of these two tables shows which office is to be said, if more than one feast occur on the same day, whether perpetually or accidentally. The second table is a guide to concurrence--_i.e._, whether the first vespers of the following feast is to be said entirely without reference to the preceding feast, or if second vespers of the preceding feast is to be said entire, without reference to the following; or, again, first vespers of the following with commemoration of the preceding, or second vespers of the preceding with commemoration of the following, or vespers of the more n.o.ble feast with commemoration of the other--any of these may be the liturgical order to follow, and the _Tabella_ makes things clear.

The "tables" are to be used thus:--Opening the Breviary at the _I Tabella, "Si occurrat eodem die,"_ first find the number marked in that square in which the two feasts in question meet, and then read the direction printed, in column on same page to left-hand side, bearing the same number. For example: the question is about the occurrence of a Sunday of the first cla.s.s and a Double of the first cla.s.s. _Double of the first cla.s.s_ stands first word of page, and _Sunday of first cla.s.s_ will be found in column beneath the rows of figures. Now the square in which straight lines drawn from _double of first cla.s.s_ and _Sunday of first cla.s.s_ meet bears the number 6, and reference to number 6 in column of directions found on same page gives the rule, "_Officium de 2, Translatio de I_," that is, the office must be of the Sunday of first cla.s.s and the double of the first cla.s.s must be transferred according to the rubrics. When in these brief directive notes, (1-8), mention is made of the "first or the preceding," the reference is made to feast or office printed in the upper part of the Table, e.g., Double of first cla.s.s. Reference to "the second" or "following" refers to feast printed in the lower section of the Table. Where _O_ stands in a square in the _Tabella_ it signifies that there can be no occurrence or concurrence between feasts whose "lines" meet in that square. These two tables are very ingeniously arranged. The lists, given in the Breviary following these tables, give the lists of greater Sundays and Ferias, privileged vigils, doubles of first and second cla.s.s and greater doubles, and tell whether feasts are primary or secondary.

t.i.tLE XII.--THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE OFFICE ACCORDING TO THE RUBRICS GIVEN ABOVE.

If any one wish from the rubrics given in the Breviary to arrange the office, he can see in the calendar and in the tables of movable feasts which office he is to say on the following day. And when he has found out the feast he determines, from the rules given, the vespers and the other hours.

If the office be the office of an excepted feast, the whole office is said from the feast as it is in the Proper or Common of saints; but the psalms of Lauds and the hours are taken from the Sunday psalms, as they stand in the new Psaltery, At Prime the psalm _Deus in nomine_ is said in place of _Confitemini_. Compline is said from the Sunday psalms. If the office be the ordinary non-excepted office it is recited according to the rule laid down in the new rubrics. t.i.t. I., n. 5,:--

"_Ad matut, invit. Hymnus, Lectiones II. et III. nocturni ac responsoria 2 et 3 nocturnorum propria vel de communi; antiphonae vero, psalmi et versus trium nocturnorum necnon Lestiones I. Nocturni c.u.m suis Responsoriis de feria occurrente...."_

_"Ad Laudes et ad Vesperas ant. c.u.m Psalm. de Feria; Capit. Hym. Vers.

et Antiph. ad Benedictus vel ad magnificat c.u.m oratione aut in Proprio aut de Communi ad Horas minores et Complet. aut c.u.m Psalm semper dicitur de occurrente Feria. Ad Primam pro Lectione breve legitur capit. Nonae ex Proprio, vel de Communi. Ad Tertiam, s.e.xtam et Nonam, capit. Respons.

breve et orat. pariter sumuntur vel ex Proprio vel de Communi_."

(Matins and the other hours are treated of in another section.)

PART II.

RULES FROM MORAL AND ASCETIC THEOLOGY FOR THE RECITATION OF THE BREVIARY.

MORAL THEOLOGY GIVES THE RULES AND LAWS, WHICH MUST BE FOLLOWED FOR THE VALID AND LICIT RECITATION OF THE HOURS. ASCETIC THEOLOGY EXPLAINS THE MEANS, WHICH ARE TO BE USED IN THEIR FERVENT RECITATION.

CHAPTER I.

MORAL AND ASCETIC THEOLOGY.

Q. Who are bound to recite the Divine Office?

R. 1. Religious, that is, all those who have made Religious Profession, in the Canonical sense, and who are bound to Choir recitation (Canon 610, Juris Canonici).

2. Clerics in Holy Orders (Canon 135, Codex).

3. Beneficed Clergy.

Who are Beneficed Clergy?

Beneficed Clergy are those who hold a Canonically erected benefice.

Canon 1409 of the _Codex Juris Canonici_ defines an ecclesiastical benefice to be a "Juridical ent.i.ty const.i.tuted or erected by competent ecclesiastical authority, consisting of a sacred office and the right of receiving revenues from endowments attached to the office." Hence under this Canon, as previously three conditions are required for a benefice, first, a sacred office, second, the right of receiving revenues from endowment attached to that office, third, erection by ecclesiastical authority. There never was any doubt in the many discussions on this subject, that the work and care of a parish is a sacred office, and that parish priests hold such an office. But the second condition mentioned above received different interpretations. Some held that it implied a certain amount of ecclesiastical property set aside, from the revenues of which the holder of the benefice would derive his income. Hence the revenues of parish priests in these Kingdoms, arising from certain and voluntary offerings of the faithful, were not fixed revenues, did not fulfil the conditions of "endowment," and parishes must not be regarded as benefices. This opinion is no longer tenable. Canon 1410 says:--"The endowment of a Benefice is const.i.tuted either by property, the owners.h.i.+p of which pertains to the Juridical ent.i.ty itself, or by certain and obligatory payments of any family or moral personality, or by certain and voluntary offerings of the faithful which appertain to the rector of the benefice, or, as they are called stole fees, within the limits of diocesan taxation or legitimate custom, or choral distributions, exclusive of a third part of the same, if all the revenues of the benefice consist of choral distributions."

This Canon seems to make it clear that the second condition is fulfilled in all the parishes of these Kingdoms, since to the sacred office is attached the right of receiving revenue from the certain and voluntary offerings of the faithful or from stole fees or from both.

The third condition, erection by ecclesiastical authority, is qualified by Canon 1418 which prescribes that benefices should be erected by a legitimate doc.u.ment defining the place of the benefice, its endowment and the duties and rights of the person appointed.

This law has not an invalidating clause, hence it is not now necessary nor ever was it necessary to have such a written doc.u.ment. A valid appointment was and can be made without any writing.

Where these three conditions are fulfilled there is a benefice, true, real, and canonical. Normally parishes are benefices. (See _Irish Ecclesiastical Record_, Vol. XIV., No. 623; and _Irish Theological Quarterly_, October, 1917, p. 209.)

Every cleric in holy orders is bound under pain of mortal sin to recite daily the Divine Office. No General Council, no Pope, has made such a law, but the old-established custom has grown, until it has the force of a law (Bened. XIV., _Instructio Coptharum_). Authors are not agreed as to the date of the first traces of this old custom. Billuart quotes the text of the fourth Council of Carthage to prove that it existed in the fourth century, _Clericus, qui absque corpusculi sui inequalitate vigiliis deest, stipendiis privatus, excommunicatur_. Gavantus can find traces of it only as late as the sixth century. Several decrees of provincial councils regarding this custom are quoted by writers on liturgy. However, the matter is clearly and definitely dealt with by the General Council of Lateran (1213) and by the Bulls, _Quod a n.o.bis_ and _Ex proximo_, of Pope Pius V. (1571). This Pope expressly states that wilful omission of the Divine Office is a grave sin--"_grave peccatum intelligat se commissise_."

The obligation of reciting the office binds those in Holy Orders, even though they may be excommunicated, suspended, degraded or imprisoned.

The obligation binds for the first time when subdeacons.h.i.+p has been conferred. Subdeacons are bound to recite "the hour" in the office of the day, corresponding to the time of their ordination. If the ordination is finished before nine o'clock, the sub-deacon is bound to begin his recitation with Terce. If the ordination is held between nine o'clock and mid-day the recitation begins with s.e.xt. The question is discussed by theologians if the recitation of Terce or s.e.xt may be lawfully and validly made before the ordination. Some authors deny that it may be justly and lawfully done, while others, with some probability, affirm that before ordination the debt may be paid in advance.

Are priests bound to follow the Proper in their own diocese?

They are, if it has been approved by the Sacred Congregation of Rites (S.R.C., 4597-4746). But a priest travelling (_peregrinus_) should recite the office according to the calendar of the church to which he is attached regularly, but the obligation of following the calendar of his home church was not binding by a grave precept. A reply of the Sacred Congregation of Rites (Nov., 1831) arranged (1) that beneficed clergy are always bound to recite the office of their own proper church or diocese; (2) that simple priests may read either the office as arranged for the place they tarry in or travel in, or the office of their own home diocese; (3) for unattached priests (_vagi_) it is the wiser order to follow the office as laid down in their own diocese.

Must every holder of a benefice read the Divine Office?

Every holder is bound, under pain of mortal sin, to recite the Divine Office daily, if the benefice be an ecclesiastical benefice fulfilling the conditions named above. The omission of the recital of the Divine Office by a beneficed person is a grave sin against the virtue of religion and a grave sin against the virtue of justice. For the Church imposes on the beneficiary the duty of the Office recital, on condition that he may not take the fruits of his benefice if he do not recite the Office.

What sin is committed by the omission of a notable part of the daily office?