On this last Sunday some are doing the Feast of Christ the King because the Missal says it is for the last Sunday in October, for which you can link to a sermon I wrote last year. Others plan the Feast of Christ the King for a later date, and are doing the Feast of All Saints transferred from Nov. 1st. Again, I give you a link to a sermon. Still others may be doing the Twenty First Sunday after Trinity, for which I provide yet a third sermon link.
Next week I shall have something new for you. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy these reruns. New readers, you don't need to think of them as reruns.
It's also the Feast of SS. Simon & Jude,for which the Collect comment has been made this week.
ReplyDeleteEmbarrasment of riches, eh what?
ed
While I'm not a big fan of Vatican II liturgical changes (loss of the gesimas was a real mistake), they did have a good idea in moving the Feast of Christ the King to the Sunday Next Before Advent. After all, this feast is a 20th century addition to the Missale Romanum, going back as I recall to 1928. But it is a most appropriate way to round off the Trinity Season and shift gears for Advent. The lesson appointed from Jeremiah for NB Advent is alrady appropriate, and the Gospel from John 6 also is not irrelevant, since the following verse "Perceiving them that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself" is a wonderful text for preaching.
ReplyDeleteYesterday I celebrated St Simon and St Jude, the feast commanded by the Prayer Book, with a marvelous set of propers I wouldn't wish my people to miss. We will do All Saints next Sunday.
Laurence K. Wells+
Surely no one would celebrate All Saints' on the Sunday before the day! As I see it, St Simon and St Jude takes precedence over the Sunday, and All Saints' should be celebrated on the day itself.
ReplyDeleteHad November 1 fallen on a Sunday, All Saints' could take precedence of the Sunday, but (sadly) as it is, Sunday cannot be bumped by the observance of the Octave, and Trinity 22 should be observed.
Unfortunately, in the reality of today's Church, laity observe the feasts falling on weekdays by staying away from Mass in droves. They can't be bothered to show up. If we want our people to celebrate any feast, we need to move the feast to a Sunday, because we certainly can't seem to move the people to the feast. So we will need to pretend that "Sunday within the Octave of All Saints" trumps Trinity 22. Incorrect? Sure. But it's the only way to get the job done.
As for the Solemnity of Christ the King--well, the only reason to celebrate that feast is because it is ordered in the Western Rite, so it should be celebrated on the day it is observed in the wider Church (Last Sunday of the Year). No justification comes to mind for celebrating it on the day it used to--but no longer does--occur.
Well, it's nice to know that such matters have been given a dogmatic definition in Oecumenical Council.
ReplyDeleteFr Hart, if you don't care about such things, you needn't...but must you be snarky about it?
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