Wednesday, February 22, 2012

March 25

An alert reader asked via email what to do about the Annunciation falling on a Sunday in Lent this year (Judica even - the beginning of Passiontide). Here's how I responded. 


No - nothing trumps Lent, even the Annunciation. When the latter falls on a Sunday, it is transferred to the first free weekday after Easter.

LSB allows the supplanting of a Sunday in Lent, but this is indicative of LSB's general permissiveness toward widespread practice and should not be read as a suggestion of what the best practice might be. The Historic Lectionary's Lent is a logical progression and something more than just one Sunday is lost if one Sunday is replaced.

For our part, we observe Annunciation at our first midweek service after Quasimodo Geniti, which is the first week without privileged readings of its own. If you don't have midweek services, then it would be appropriate it include the collect for Annunciation after the collect for the Sunday of Lent on March 25. This, by the way, is one of the great arguments to have a regular midweek Divine Service: it's an outlet for the many important days in the Christian calendar that don't quite merit displacing a Sunday.

+HRC

16 comments:

  1. Notwithstanding the modern insensitivity to the integrity of Lent so unfortunately general among us, against which you are right to react, I am afraid I must disagree with your conclusion, Father. That is, while the Annunciation indeed cannot take the place of a Sunday, whether in Lent or in Paschaltide, it need not be removed from Lent if it falls before Holy Week. Rather, falling on the fifth Sun. in Lent as it does this yr, it is most fittingly transferred to the next day. There are, however, two weeks which are best kept completely free of feasts of the sanctoral cycle, what I would call the great hinge of the Church Year, namely, Holy Week and the Paschal Octave (the Triduum being, I suppose, the hinge of this hinge). When the Annunciation falls therein, it is moved to the next day after, ie., the Monday after Low Sunday. With these things in mind, the Annunciation can be celebrated in two ways, in a Lenten manner (with gradual and tract and without alleluias), and in a Paschal manner (with, eg., the greater alleluia before the Gospel).

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  2. Deacon,

    I was under the impression that if it fell within Passiontide, not merely Holy Week, it was delayed until after the octave of Easter. But I did not check my sources before writing. Thanks for the correction.

    +HRC

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  3. We're bucking 2000 years of tradition to bump it to the evening before Judica. Observing Annunciation on Mar 24 lets Passiontide stay intact and still keeps the first celebration of Our Lord's Incarnation at the beginning of His Gestation.

    All of which is to say: you're not the boss of me.

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  4. I believe that when the Annunciation falls at any time within Passiontide--that is, the last two weeks of Lent--then it is transferred to Low Monday. Fr Curtis may not have checked his sources, but I believe he is correct. The Annunciation is not removed from Lent if it falls before Passiontide. Confusion has recently resulted from the shortening of Passiontide to one week (Holy Week) in recently crafted sanctoral calendars.

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  5. I am in agreement with Dcn. Gaba.
    This year the Annunciation falls on Sunday - Passion sunday to be exact. Therefore it is correctly transferred to Monday, the 26th.
    Should the Annunciation fall during Holy Week, it is commonly transferred to the first free day after Low Sunday - Quasimodogeniti Infantes.

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  6. According to Paul H.D. Lang in Ceremony and Celebration, p. 161:
    If either the Annunciation and/or the Visitation fall on a privileged Sunday or day,
    , such as a Sunday in Lent or a day in Holy Week, it is transferred to the next open date.
    This year the Annunciation would fall on Monday March 26 as the nest open day.

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  7. But CPH has already shipped out, put the Annunciation, parament color change on the children's bulletins for March 25, isn't this authoritative?

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  8. I believe strongly in preserving the traditional two wks of Passiontide, and I agree with you, Fr. Fritz, that the modern move to dismember it is a bad idea. However, that is really a separate issue from the present question. I am not near my bks, but I cannot think of a source which advocates keeping Annunc. out of Passiontide.

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  9. Well, I thought I saw it in Lamburn somewhere.

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  10. working from memory, you're right about Lamburn. However, I would say that while he represents a worthy stream of Western tradition, he cannot be seen as an authority on this question, where he represents not much more than his own stream.

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  11. Hm, I just went to Lamburn to see if I could find it, and all I can find is implicit support for your position, viz., that a First Class Feast falling during Holy Week is transferred, but that the Passiontide veils "are not removed for any festival, however high in rank, which may occur during Passion week." So it would appear that I stand corrected, unless there's something else in here somewhere.

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  12. And he makes a good point about the veils. This is one of the characteristic hallmarks of Passiontide. The character of Passiontide in this regard, and therefore a part of the character of the tradition of veiling the statuary, is compromised in many churches and chapels, both by how it is practised inside and outside of Passiontide. I suppose, however, I should simply celebrate our glorious diversity.

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  13. Ok, so I guess I'll change my mind, and have Annunciation on Wednesday of Passion Week this year.

    Now, meanwhile, I'm trying to figure out why St. Matthias is supposed to be moved to the 25th of February during a leap year.

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  14. So why is the Annunciation (usually) celebrated on the 25th of March?

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  15. The Feast of Saint Matthias doesn't really move so much as the modern calendar moves around it. It is always celebrated ante diem sextum Kalendas Martii, which is, in effect, the sixth day before 1 March. In leap years, of course, that same reckoning falls on the 25th.

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