‘Weekly Post. Anno Domini 2023 June 10

Beloved of the Lord:

 

Today is Saturday, 10 June, in the year of our Lord 2023. The scheduled services are as-follows:

• Sunday (tomorrow): 8:30 & 10:00 AM, Mass, Sunday within the Octave of Corpus Christi.
• Monday: 10:00 AM, Mass, Of the Octave of Corpus Christi,
• Tuesday: 5:30 PM, Mass, Of the Octave.
  6:30 PM, Evensong & Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.
• Wednesday: Sext (monastic office of Noonday prayers).
• Thursday: 6:30 PM, Mass, Octave Day of Corpus Christi, followed by Soup & Supper.
• Friday: 9:00 AM, Mass, S. Barnabas, Apostle & Martyr, with the Gregorian Canon.
  Immediately following, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
• Saturday: 5:00 PM, Mass, S. Botolph, Abbot.
• Sunday: 8:30 & 10:00 AM, Mass, Trinity II.

Those of you who are interested in Liturgical oddities will no-doubt have noted that the first two Sundays in Trinitytide are always White, never Green. Trinity Sunday, of-course, makes sense to be in White, as would other Feasts of our Lord, and of our Lady, unless a Marian Blue set is available for the latter. What would otherwise be Trinity I is a bit more complicated.

The Feast of Corpus Christi, instituted c. AD 1230, always falls on the first Thursday after Trinity Sunday. The logical place for this Feast, which marks the institution and gift of the Holy Sacrament, would be Maundy Thursday. However, the memory of the passion being expressed on that day made the finding of another day suitable; the appropriateness of the Thursday following the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity made it the reasonable choice.

In the system by which Feasts are ranked for Holy Church, Corpus Christi is a Double of the 1st Class; moreover, it has a Privileged Octave, which confers a rank similar to that of the Feast to the days of the associated Octave as-well. If you look in the People's Anglican Missals in your pews, you will find that there are no propers for Trinity I listed. That Day is permanently displaced by the Octave of Corpus Christi. Thus, it is always described as The Sunday within the Octave of Corpus Christi.

This year, yet a further complication occurs. The date assigned for the Feast of S. Barnabas would place it tomorrow, on the Sunday. Unbeknownst to many, most of the Feasts of the Apostles are only ranked as Doubles of the 2nd Class, lesser than Corpus Christi. As-such, not only is S. Barnabas bumped from his usual date, but his Feast cannot occur 'til after the Octave Day, when the Octave concludes. Hence, we see his Feast on this-coming Friday.

With this brief glimpse, you may see how complex the creation of the Ordo Kalendar can be. Why do we care? Holy Church, from before time, has ever been an hierarchy ~ top-down, in all ways at all times. This order, instituted by God the Father, is reflected in the Feasts that His Church celebrates ~ the honour, and lessons to be taught that He wishes to see observed. As it has been written, so shall it be. I remain

in His praise,

The Rev'd Canon. T. L. Crowder

Pastor, Saint Matthew's Parish