March 24, 2012

Very Pedantic Liturgical Dubium

Here's a liturgical dubium at the heights of pedantry.

I have Masses in two parishes this weekend, one a Saturday vigil and the other on Sunday. At the Mass on Saturday afternoon, the readings will be from Year B, but at the one on Sunday, the readings from Year A will be substituted per the option for RCIA.

That means two different Sunday homilies, but that's o.k. I don't mind being kept on my toes in that regard.

My question is about the hinge hours of the Divine Office. On Sundays I usually use the typical edition Liturgia Horarum, which offers three different antiphons for the Magnificat at Evening Prayer I and II and for the Benedictus at Morning Prayer. These three correspond to the three-year cycle of readings. (I have observed that most editions of the Hours do this; it is only the American English edition that does not, instead offering but one that matches year A at Evening Prayer I, year B at Morning Prayer, and year C at Evening Prayer II. That's something worth fixing when a new edition comes out, which is all the more necessary now that the collects are in the new translation, but I digress.)

So, the question: which antiphons do I use for the gospel canticles? My best guess is to use the B antiphon for Evening Prayer I and the year A antiphon for Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer on Sunday, as will correspond to the Masses I celebrate in the course of the veritas horarum of the Sunday.

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