Liturgical Time

  • Thread starter Thread starter DL82
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
D

DL82

Guest
Industrial time is so boring, every day is the same, every hour the same. The puritans robbed us of our time!

I want to start a thread to collect as much information as possible about how Catholic time runs, its variations and richness.

The Church understands time in a different way from the world, each second, each hour, each day, each year, is unique and significant. So, to begin, I’ll share what I know, hope people can fill in the gaps:

At the smallest level of time, the Eastern fathers recommend the prayer of the breath, with each inhalation “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God”, with each exhalation “have mercy on me, a sinner”.

The hours of the day: 7 liturgical hours:
Prime - the hour Chirst rose
Lauds
Terce - “the third hour”, i.e. the hour Christ died
Sext
None
Vespers
Compline

The days of the week: 7 days:
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday - the day Christ died
Saturday - dedicated to the Blessed Virgin
Sunday - the day Christ rose

The months of the year: 12 months:
January
February
March
April
May - dedicated to the Blessed Virgin
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

The Liturgical Seasons:
Advent - fasting in preparation for the nativity
Christmas - celebrating the nativity
Epiphany - celebrating the baptism of the Lord
Lent - fasting in preparation for the resurrection
Easter - celebrating the resurrection
Pentecost - celebrating the coming of the Holy Spirit
Ordinary Time
The Kingdom Season - celebrating the Church

Years:
Not sure about years, though I understand there are years of jubilee?

Benedicimus Domine in omni tempore!
 
DL82 said:
The hours of the day: 7 liturgical hours:
Prime - the hour Chirst rose
Lauds
Terce - “the third hour”, i.e. the hour Christ died
Sext
None
Vespers
Compline
Click to expand...
Terce is actually mid morning (roughly 9’oclock), Sext is noon (hour Christ was Crucified), None is ~3 (The hour Christ died).

To extend then Vespers (~6 pm) could be the Institution of the Eucharist.
 
nightwalker said:
Terce is actually mid morning (roughly 9’oclock), Sext is noon (hour Christ was Crucified), None is ~3 (The hour Christ died).

To extend then Vespers (~6 pm) could be the Institution of the Eucharist.
Click to expand...
That’s great, so a correct reading would be:
Prime - the hour Christ rose
Lauds -
Terce -
Sext - the hour Christ was crucified
None - the hour Christ died
Vespers - the institution of the Eucharist
Compline -

4 down, 3 to go!
 
Prime - the hour Christ rose
Lauds -
Terce -
Sext - the hour Christ was crucified
None - the hour Christ died
Vespers - the institution of the Eucharist
Compline -

Actually, Lauds comes BEFORE Prime, and THIS Is the hour of the Resurrrection. Prime is the hour Christ was condemned.
 
DL82 said:
Industrial time is so boring, every day is the same, every hour the same. The puritans robbed us of our time!

I want to start a thread to collect as much information as possible about how Catholic time runs, its variations and richness.

The Church understands time in a different way from the world, each second, each hour, each day, each year, is unique and significant. So, to begin, I’ll share what I know, hope people can fill in the gaps:

At the smallest level of time, the Eastern fathers recommend the prayer of the breath, with each inhalation “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God”, with each exhalation “have mercy on me, a sinner”.
Click to expand...
You make a very interesting and for me personally significant observation, DL82. I spent years away from the Lord and the Church. In that situation I often perceived the way we mark the passage of time to be pointless and arbitrary, merely artifacts of history with no real meaning. Since I made my reconciliation with the Lord, my understanding of time has changed completely. During Lent, how eagerly I await the celebration of the Easter Vigil Mass because of what the Resurrection means! The joyful anticipation of the Lord’s birth during Advent!

To add another brief moment to your dossier but one with enormous significance: when the priest says the words of consecration, and the bread and wine are transformed.
 
A book I read on the Liturgy of the Hours, refereed to them as the “Seasons of the Day.”

Jim
 
fixing Lauds/ Prime (thanks bpbasil):

Lauds -the hour Christ rose
Prime - the hour Christ was condemned
Terce - so scourged?
Sext - the hour Christ was crucified
None - the hour Christ died
Vespers - the institution of the Eucharist
Compline - the agony in the garden?

I know the months are out there: from Catholic Encyclopedia

Jan- Holy Name
Feb-? usually lent
Mar-St Joseph
Apr- ? always Easter season
May-Mary
June-Sacred Heart
July-Precious Blood
Aug-?
Sept-Seven Sorrows of Mary
Oct-Holy Rosary
Nov-Holy Souls
Dec-? Advent/Christmas

and days of the week:

Sunday- Resurrection
Monday-?
Tuesday-?
Wednesday-?
Thursday- Institution of the Eucharist
Friday-the Passion
Saturday-Mary

need to go, but just found that fisheaters has the months and days of the week.
 
**Jan- Holy Name
Feb-? usually lent
Mar-St Joseph
Apr- ? always Easter season
May-Mary
June-Sacred Heart
July-Precious Blood
Aug-?
Sept-Seven Sorrows of Mary
Oct-Holy Rosary
Nov-Holy Souls
Dec-? Advent/Christmas

and days of the week:

Sunday- Resurrection
Monday-?
Tuesday-?
Wednesday-?
Thursday- Institution of the Eucharist
Friday-the Passion
Saturday-Mary**

**This particular dedication of months is NOT liturgical. It doesn’t affect either the Divine Office or Mass. For one thing, April is not always the Easter Season Pascha can be as late as 25 April. (Popular devotion is another matter.)

Neither is the dedication of the weekdays liturgical in the Western rite. There are specific mentions of certain points on weekdays in the Byzantine tradition that DO effect the Office and Eucharist (but I won’t mention them here).
**
 
bpbasilphx said:
Neither is the dedication of the weekdays liturgical in the Western rite. There are specific mentions of certain points on weekdays in the Byzantine tradition that DO effect the Office and Eucharist (but I won’t mention them here).
Click to expand...
Please do mention them if they are significant in the Eastern Church. I think the West has lost so much of its’ sense of time, if we can learn anything from the Byzantine tradition, so much the better.
 
The concluding prayer of first vespers, the seventh Sunday of Easter, reads:

Eternal Father, reaching from end to end of the universe, and ordering all things with your mighty arm: for you, time is the unfolding of truth that already is, the unveiling of beauty that is yet to be. Your Son has saved us in history by rising from the dead, so that transcending time he might free us from death. May his presence among us lead to the vision of unlimited truth and unfold the beauty of your love. We ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord.

This is an elegant reckoning of time for the Christian.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top