Would you like to see the Octave of Pentecost restored?

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Prodigal1984 said:
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Some history. Before 1955 there were many octaves, to the point they were classified in order of their importance.
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I am Byzantine Catholic and we have the Sunday of All Saints on the Sunday following Pentecost Sunday. Pentecost begins with Vespers of Pentecost (Saturday evening) and the leave-taking is on the Saturday after Pentecost Sunday, the fifth All Souls Saturday. There is not octave.

Catholic Encyclopedia states that:
The Apostolic Constitutions (Book V, Part 20) say that Pentecost lasts one week, but in the West it was not kept with an octave until at quite a late date. It appears from Berno of Reichenau (d. 1048) that it was a debatable point in his time whether Whitsunday ought to have an octave.
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Holweck, F. (1912). Pentecost (Whitsunday). In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15614b.htm
 
Well I agree.
All of those other Octaves were supressed in 1955.
The Pentecost Octave however remained until 1969.
 
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I agree, the Octave of Pentecost should be restored. That said, I do agree with scaling back the Octaves. It’s a bit ridiculous to have Octaves of St. Stephan’s Day and the Holy Innocents, as these overlap the Christmas Octave. I think it’s also a bit silly for the Epiphany to have a higher rank than Christmas, but putting Pentecost and Epiphany on equal rank with Christmas makes sense.
 
I mean Trinity Sunday could be seen as the preparation to the climax of the Octave. That is where Trinity Sunday even came from was the Octave day.
 
I decided to restore it myself by saying the Regina Coeli instead of the Angelus for an extra week. It was a bit weird doing Ember Days during the Octave but oh well.
I really don’t like Ordinary Time.
 
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Tis_Bearself said:
I really don’t like Ordinary Time.
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As someone who prays the LOTH daily, I LOVE Ordinary Time. As do the monks. It sets a contrast against the feasts, if every day was a feast, they would no longer be special. I love it when my favourite psalms and antiphons regularly come up in the 4-week cycle (or 1-week if I’m praying the monastic Office), like a metronome.

Our prior (and sacristan) quipped that he had a very big devotion to “Saint Feria”. He especially loved the Octaves of Saint Feria (8 ordinary days in Ordinary Time in a row) 🤣

June is a big month for solemnities: we had Pentecost and Holy Trinity, upcoming Thursday is Corpus Christi, then next Monday are St John the Baptist, then next Friday is the Sacred Heart followed by Saints Peter and Paul the following day. (our youngest monk is being ordained a priest on that day!)

Six solemnities in one month… that’s a lot of time in the festival psalter hacking through unfamiliar hymns and antiphons that only come up once a year.

I for one am grateful that the Octave of Pentecost doesn’t gum up the works even more.
 
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I’ll just think of happy monks making bread, cheese, beer, fruitcakes etc and that will make me feel better when we hit “Ordinary Time” which always makes me feel like I’m in some New Yorker fiction story about a couple having a boring time in their relationship.
 
Ha! You just have to think of “ordinary” as “ordinal” or “regular” instead of “plain” 😉

With 6 solemnities this month, they will be making a lot less cheese, cider and applesauce, they get the day off. Well not cheese so much, they have a cheese factory that is supervised by a monk but uses lay employees.
 
Yah.
I prefer the traditional calendar honestly.
Like the 1960 one which is used for the EF of mass.
I know ordinary doesn’t mean it in the sense most people think but ordered but most people wouldn’t know that.
In fact I heard some broadcasters kind of making fun of ordinary time on the Catholic Channel on Sirius XM once, like saying, “whose bright idea was this?” They were just kidding but in a way it is true.
I don’t know, I understand why Paul Vl may have downsized the amount of saints on the calendar with the new daily readings of mass and also that many were legendary in nature, but as for the rest of the calendar, Pentecost Octave, Septuagesima, Passiontide, Ember and Rogation Days, and even calling it ordinary time instead of weeks after Pentecost, Epiphany etc etc, was a mistake I think.
Calling it weeks after Pentecost gives the impression we are being guided by the Spirit after Pentecost. After Epiphany gives the sense we are manifesting Christ to the world. Ordinary time, what does that do but just make us feel like it is just well, ordinary?
 
The Octave of Pentecost is really ancient and has roots in biblical tradition. Although it is right and just that Pentecost Sunday should bring Eastertide to a close, I’d personally propose that the Octave be restored in its full glory, although now as part of the time throughout the year.
 
Technically an Octave is one liturgical day I believe. So like Easter Sunday is extended into the week as an Octave, so was Pentecost.
 
Octaves are obviously 8 days in the literal sense, but mystically/liturgically they are considered to be 1 unending day.
 
Yah it is one day.
Octaves were generally used to prolong a solemnity which could go on longer than a day. It is an octave but it is considered one day.
 
As an aside, October was the 8th month in the ancient calendar. Just thought I’d mention that. 🙂
 
ProVobis said:
As an aside, October was the 8th month in the ancient calendar. Just thought I’d mention that. 🙂
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I do not know how much you know about ancient calendars, but the pre-Christian Roman calendar had ten months, and another 50+ days for winter. Eventually they made winter into 2 more months.

They did not count the days 1-30, instead counting down to the kalends or first day, nones, the fifth or seventh day before ides, the day before midmonth. These may have been correlated to the moon’s phases.

They also had nundinae every eight days; these were market days, weekends, etc. They may have been a day without a patron added on to the seven governed by the gods in the sky =the planets, moon and sun.

The nundinae are likely the origin of octaves in the Chriatian calendar. Most people had probably forgotten the origins, only knew the 8 day practice that did not really jibe with the more common 7 day week that was 1/4 of a month.

In an era with nanoseconds and 365&1/4 days in a year, it is hard to see a reason for octaves. But if they somehow work for people, I have no objection.
 
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