Vespers, gospel of st. john and st. michael prayer

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Can anyone explain to me what vespers are and how they are done? I read the 1962 Missal and that’s 1 thing that I don’t really understand. And why do we no longer say the gospel of St. John at the end of mass or the St. Michael prayer at the end of mass? I wish there were more Latin masses offered.
 
klmt123 said:
Can anyone explain to me what vespers are and how they are done? I read the 1962 Missal and that’s 1 thing that I don’t really understand.
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Vespers, or evening prayer, is one of the major hours of the Liturgy of the Hours, a set of prayers prayed at certain times of the day by the Church. The clergy, consecrated, and religious are required to pray at least morning and evening prayer. Some orders, particularly contemplative ones, pray all the hours, major and minor. Here’s a link for Vespers today in the 1962 breviary:

http://www.divinumofficium.com/cgi-bin/horas/officium.pl

Every day has its own set of prayers (proper of time/seasons), and each feast day/solemnity/memorial has it’s own set (proper of Saints).
 
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So it’s not something that the whole congregation does after or during mass?
 
Nope! Generally evening prayer is done around 3-5 PM, I’d say. So generally way after Mass, and definitely not during it. It’s called the Liturgy of the Hours for a reason, and should never overshadow the liturgy of the Mass.
 
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In the eastern churches, great vespers (the beginning of the liturgical week), are traditionally prayed on Saturday evenings in which many in the community come and participate in.

ZP
 
The “Last Gospel” at the end of Mass was originally a “sacristy devotion” that got added to the end of the Mass by Pope Pius V in the late 1500s. Originally there were different Last Gospels; at some point they started using the same one all the time. It was removed as part of the 1950s liturgical reforms. There doesn’t seem to be a clear consensus on why it was removed - some say it was just to make the Mass shorter, others say it was an attempt to make Mass more appealing to Protestants, still others say that the “Last Gospel” didn’t appear in a lot of the old rites that the reforms were trying to imitate.

As for the St. Michael prayer at end of Mass (after Mass), that along wih the Hail Holy Queen and some other prayers are the “Leonine Prayers” that Pope Leo XIII directed everyone to say. The intention of saying the prayer varied over time (originally they were for the sovereignty of the Holy See, later for the conversion of Russia), and in 1964 the Vatican simply released a directive saying “The Leonine Prayers are suppressed.” There has been much speculation over whether that was done because the Pope felt the Devil had been vanquished and there was no reason to continue with the prayers, or whether it was done because these prayers really weren’t part of the Mass, etc. In the last few years I’ve noticed that a number of priests saying OF Masses will work the St. Michael Prayer in, either at the end or sometimes after Holy Communion or at homily time, etc. Technically it’s only supposed to be done after Mass is ended as one isn’t supposed to add prayers to the Mass, but I don’t think most people know or care enough to complain.
 
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Although the two can be “conjoined” (Mass and Evening Prayer) with one leading into the other, per the General Instructions.
 
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I just thought it was part of it because it’s with several masses right after the post communion section.
 
Ah, the Angelus Press one also has the propers in the same place. I can’t think of where else they’d put them.
 
A section specifically called vespers with a brief explanation and what to do that specific day then several pages of just vespers.
 
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I like Divinum Officium a lot. Being a member of the OCSP I also use the St. Bede app.
 
If you want to pray the Daily Office with a hard copy it’ll set you back $$$. The apps listed above are good.
And I agree about the '62 Angelus Press. It’s a winner I even take it to the NO oops I mean OF Mass. Seems like “Breaking Bread” is phasing out the Aquinas prayers.
 
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klmt123 said:
So it’s not something that the whole congregation does after or during mass?
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Vespers, or Evening Prayer (or in the Anglican tradition Evensong), is usually some time after 4 pm up to around 7 pm (depending on where; for example in countries that eat dinner quite late it can be at around 7 pm). Clergy are required to pray the Liturgy of the Hours; for priests in most places, 5 offices (Readings, Lauds, Terce, Sext OR None, Vespers and Compline); deacons, Lauds and Vespers, and since Vatican II, the laity have been encouraged to pray at least some of it as their situation allows. I pray the whole thing on a monastic schema (the joys of retirement!). Contemplative orders pray all three minor hours (Terce, Sext AND None).

In pre-Conciliar days, the public prayer of Vespers was relatively common on Sundays and major feasts which is probably why it was included in the missal. Now alas not so much.

The liturgy of the hours is the public liturgy of the Church for the Church (even when prayed privately, even by laity), and second only to the Mass in the prayer life of the Church.

If there is a late afternoon Mass it can be prayed before or after the Mass, or since the Council, even combined with the Mass.
 
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