Jejunantes in Quattuor Temporibus in Tempore Paschali
The literal 50 days of the Easter Season having been completed yesterday with Pentecost Sunday itself, the Ember Days assigned to precede the Summer Season are placed on the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday following. However, a later development in the Liturgy assigned an Octave (of the highest order) to Pentecost, while retaining the Ember Days along with their associated penances during the same week. In 1966, Pope Paul VI abolished the penitential requirements for the Ember Days, and in 1969 with the new Liturgical Calendar for the Novus Ordo, the Ember Days completed disappeared.
I have always been a strong advocate for the "One does not fast on a feast day" principle. Hence, no fasting on a weekday of Lent if it happens to be a First Class Feast. No abstaining from meat on Easter Friday and the Feast of the Sacred Heart. All of these "bending" the rules would have been sinful under the disciplines in force in 1962. In a post-1966 world in which the old rules no longer apply, we are free to choose to follow in whole, or in part, the exact dietary disciplines under the 1917 Code of Canon Law as long as they do not contradict the current laws in force (of which I can't think of any actual case where this may be). That being said, I think that a legitimate development, both from a liturgical calendar perspective and a penitential perspective, would be to observe the Ember Days in the week following the Octave of Pentecost because the Easter Season will then have been finished and there will not be a permanent fixture of First Class Feasts on the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday surrounding Corpus Christi. The Octave of Corpus Christi is Second Class.
The whole week in which we are now is one continuous string of First Class Feasts. Every day is Pentecost. The Office assigned to the Ember Days this week in no way evokes themes of penance; in fact, the same formulae of the Octave are employed every day without exception. From a calendrical perspective, the nomenclature of the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday this week include "Quattuor Temporum" (i.e. of the quarter times), but that is simply a title and in no way alters the flow of the Office for the Octave. The Gloria and Credo continue to be employed at each Mass this week, indicative of a First Class Feast.
The Church historically does not change many disciplines at once because the custom of fasting was embraced and ingrained in the psyche of the laity. To do the liturgically correct thing of transferring the Ember Days to after the Octave of Pentecost would have been disruptive and imprudent; however, we now live in a time in which any restoration of these practices can now be done to "correct" for technical nuances from the past with very minimal impact to the common knowledge and praxes of many laity.
I have always been a strong advocate for the "One does not fast on a feast day" principle. Hence, no fasting on a weekday of Lent if it happens to be a First Class Feast. No abstaining from meat on Easter Friday and the Feast of the Sacred Heart. All of these "bending" the rules would have been sinful under the disciplines in force in 1962. In a post-1966 world in which the old rules no longer apply, we are free to choose to follow in whole, or in part, the exact dietary disciplines under the 1917 Code of Canon Law as long as they do not contradict the current laws in force (of which I can't think of any actual case where this may be). That being said, I think that a legitimate development, both from a liturgical calendar perspective and a penitential perspective, would be to observe the Ember Days in the week following the Octave of Pentecost because the Easter Season will then have been finished and there will not be a permanent fixture of First Class Feasts on the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday surrounding Corpus Christi. The Octave of Corpus Christi is Second Class.
The whole week in which we are now is one continuous string of First Class Feasts. Every day is Pentecost. The Office assigned to the Ember Days this week in no way evokes themes of penance; in fact, the same formulae of the Octave are employed every day without exception. From a calendrical perspective, the nomenclature of the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday this week include "Quattuor Temporum" (i.e. of the quarter times), but that is simply a title and in no way alters the flow of the Office for the Octave. The Gloria and Credo continue to be employed at each Mass this week, indicative of a First Class Feast.
The Church historically does not change many disciplines at once because the custom of fasting was embraced and ingrained in the psyche of the laity. To do the liturgically correct thing of transferring the Ember Days to after the Octave of Pentecost would have been disruptive and imprudent; however, we now live in a time in which any restoration of these practices can now be done to "correct" for technical nuances from the past with very minimal impact to the common knowledge and praxes of many laity.
posted by John R at 3:58 AM
3 Comments:
Hi John. I noticed that even in the Liturgical Year Dom Gueranger scarcely mentions this Embertide fast. In the St. Andrew missal it says that this fast allows us to offer up the first fruits of Pentecost, but I don’t see why that couldn’t also be the case if the Summer Embertide was bumped out to the next week.
It’s worth noting that before 1955 only Whit Monday and Tuesday were 1st class doubles. The rest of the octave was semi-doubles. So it might have made more sense at that time to have Ember days in there, or at least less out of place. But after bumping them all up to the highest rank, it does seem that the Embertide should have been moved. Frankly is sounds like the same sloppiness that characterized the hacking of the Pentecost Vigil. Changes were made without regard for the incongruities they would cause.
As a side note, the Octave of Pentecost was probably instituted around the 4th century (according to the Catholic Encyclopedia). The Embertide feasts probably predate the octaves, but they were not fixed in their current spot on the liturgical calendar until the 11th century (again, from the CE). Prior to that they were celebrated at times based on the natural seasons. The Summer Embertide was usually in June I think. So when Pope Gregory VII fixed the ember days to the liturgical calendar, he did so knowing the Summer Embertide would overlap the Octave of Pentecost. It could be that at the time, the intervening days of an octave were not considered particularly special, but only the octave day itself. I’m really not sure.
Tony,
While it is true that the first three days of the Octave were Double First Class and the latter days Semi-double, the entire Octave was always, neverthless, considered of the First Order - i.e. no other Feast of any rank could be celebrated during this Octave. The same pattern of classification happens during the Easter Octave as well. The Semi-double classification had more to do with how certain elements of the Office (e.g. whether or not some Antiphons were "doubled", the allowance of Commemorations) would be determined and not so much to do with the actual precedence of liturgical days.
Here is yet another case of why the John XXIII classification system was needed and makes everything very clear cut as to the order of precedence.
"the entire Octave was always, neverthless, considered of the First Order"
True, good point. In any case, I wonder what Pope Gregory VII's rational was for fixing the Summer Embertide were he did. There must be some commentary on it by some Medieval liturgist somewhere.
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