~ Semiduplex Vigilia I. classis
Sat, 5/22/26:
Today is the vigil of Pentecost (Whitsunday) under the 1954 (semi-double, privileged major feria of the I class) and 1962 (I class vigil) rubrics.
1954:
Office: The Office, with the exception of the lessons at Matins, is recited as on the Sunday within the octave of the Ascension through None inclusive. White. White. Matins of 3 nocturns of 9 proper lessons. Te Deum. Psalms and antiphons at Matins as on the feast of the Ascension. At Lauds and the hours, psalms of Sunday (Prime = 53, 118.1, 118.2) with antiphons as on the Sunday in the octave of the Ascension. All else as on the Sunday in the octave of the Ascension (Benedictus antiphon, collect, chapters Lauds and the hours, etc.). No commemorations at Lauds. Omit suffrage. At Prime, announce first in the Martyrology Dies Pentecostes etc.
Mass: After None has been sung in choir, the altar frontal and tabernacle veil are changed from white to violet. Flowers are removed from the altar. The celebrant of the vigil vests in violet chasuble and maniple; if solemn, deacon and subdeacon wear folded violet chasubles along with their maniples.
The vigil service begins with the chanting of six prophecies from the Easter Vigil, each with a proper collect. After the prophecies, the baptismal font is blessed as at the Easter Vigil. Catechumens are baptized if there are those present who were not baptized at the Easter Vigil.
The ministers return to the sanctuary and prostrate themselves while the choir chants the Litany of the Saints (doubled). Near the end of the Litany, the ministers return to the sacristy and put on red vestments. The altar is prepared for Mass; violet is changed to red, flowers are returned, and the candles are lighted. Mass begins as usual. There is no Introit; the altar is incensed after the prayers at the foot of the altar. Gloria. Paschal Alleluia. Torches are not carried when the Gospel is sung. The Credo is omitted. Preface of Pentecost (Hodierna die). Proper Communicantes and Hanc igitur for Pentecost in the Canon. Ite. No commemorations are permitted at Mass.
Unlike on the Easter Vigil, private (low) Masses are permitted today. At low Mass, red vestments are worn. The proper Introit for low Mass found in the Missal is read after the prayers at the foot of the altar. All else for Mass as above; no commemorations are permitted.
Introitus
Ezek 36:23; 36:24; 36:25-26
Cum sanctificátus fúero in vobis, congregábo vos de univérsis terris: et effúndam super vos aquam mundam, et mundabímini ab ómnibus inquinaméntis vestris: et dabo vobis spíritum novum, allelúja, allelúja
Ps 33:2
Benedícam Dóminum in omni témpore: semper laus ejus in ore meo.
℣. Glória Patri, …
Collect
℣. The Lord be with you.
℟. And with thy spirit.
Let us pray.
Grant, we beseech You, almighty God, that the brightness of Your glory may shine upon us, and that the light of Your light may, through the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, strengthen the minds of those who are reborn through Your grace.
Through Jesus Christ, thy Son our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the same Holy Ghost, God, world without end.
℟. Amen.
Continuation ✠ of the Holy Gospel according to John
℟. Glory be to Thee, O Lord.
John 14:15-21.
At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will ask the Father and He will give you another Advocate to dwell with you forever, the Spirit of truth Whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you shall know Him, because He will dwell with you, and be in you. I will not leave you orphans: I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world no longer sees Me. But you see Me, for I live and you shall live. In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me. But he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.
From the Treatise upon the Creed, addressed to Catechumens by St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo
Bk. iv. ch. I. tom. 9
We are yet the unborn offspring of a great Mother. Our Holy Mother the Church hath by the most sacred sign of the Cross received you into her womb, and from thence she is now just about to bring you forth, as she hath already brought forth your brethren, with thrills of spiritual joy. But until, through the washing of regeneration, she bringeth you forth into true light, she feedeth you in her womb with such food as becometh your condition, and in gladness matureth her children for the glad moment of her delivery. This Mother is not stricken by the doom of Eve, to bring forth children in sorrow, and they themselves oftenertimes weeping than laughing. Rather doth your spiritual Mother annul the sentence of your earthly Eve, by disobedience, endowed her offspring with death the Church, by obedience, giveth them newness of life. All the mystic prayers and ceremonies which have been and are still being performed over you by the ministry of the servants of God, exorcisms, prayers, spiritual songs, onbreathings, haircloth, prostrations, baring of the feet, the dread which ye feel, albeit so safe, all these things, I say unto you, are the nourishment which ye are ever. drawing from your Mother while yet ye are in her womb, that at the baptismal birth she may be able to present you strong and laughing babes unto Christ.
We have also received the Creed, which is the shield of the travailing Mother against the venom of the dragon. In the Apocalypse of the Apostle John xii. 4 it is written “And the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.” That this dragon is the devil ye all know. Ye know likewise that by the woman is signified the Virgin Mary, who, herself a Virgin, bore our Virgin Head, and who is revealed unto us as a type of the Holy Church, in that, even as Mary, though she bore a Son, remained a Virgin, so the Church doth in all times give birth to all her members, and yet is ever presented a chaste virgin to Christ. I have undertaken, with the help of the Lord, to expound every clause of the Creed, that I may bring home to your understandings what each containeth. Your hearts are ready, for the enemy hath been shut out of your hearts.
We have made profession of renouncing the enemy. At the moment of that profession it was not before men only, but in the presence of God and His Angels that ye said: “I do renounce him.” Renounce him, not only in your words, but in your ways not only with your voices, but with your lives not only with your lips, but in your works. Know ye well that the wrestling which ye have undertaken is a strife with an enemy who is subtle, and old, and patient now that ye have once renounced him, let him never again find in you his works never again give him the right to bring you into bondage. O Christian thou wilt be caught and exposed, if thou dost one thing and professest another, if thou art faithful in name, and makest it to be evident by thy works that thou hast broken the faith pledged by this promise if some while thou goest into a church to pray, and anon to the shows to join in applauding obscene representations. What hast thou to do any more with the pomps of the devil, which thou hast renounced?
Post Communion
P. The Lord be with you.
S. And with thy spirit.
Let us pray.
May the inpouring of the Holy Spirit cleanse our hearts, O Lord, and make them fertile through the dew He sprinkles upon them.
Through Jesus Christ, thy Son our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the same Holy Ghost, God, world without end.
℟. Amen.
