The Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul

Today's feast or solemnity, of Saints Peter and Paul, is ancient, according to Dom Prosper Gueranger:

After the great solemnities of the movable cycle, and the Feast of St. John the Baptist, none is more ancient, nor more universal in the Church, than that of the two Princes of the Apostles. From the beginning, Rome celebrated their triumph on the very day itself which saw them go up from earth to heaven, June 29th. Her practice prevailed, at a very early date, over the custom of several other countries, which put the Apostles’ feast towards the close of December. It was, no doubt, a fair thought which inspired the placing of these Fathers of the Christian people in the cortège of Emmanuel at his entry into this world. But, as we have already seen, today’s teachings have intrinsically an important preponderance in the economy of Christian dogma; they are the completion of the whole Work of the Son of God; the cross of Peter fixes the Church in her stability, and marks out for the Divine spirit the immutable center of his operations. Rome, therefore, was well inspired when, leaving to the Beloved Disciple the honor of presiding over his brethren at the Crib of the Infant God, she maintained the solemn memory of the Princes of the Apostles upon the day chosen by God himself to consummate their labors and to crown, at once, both their life and the whole cycle of mysteries.

But the celebration of the feast/solemnity has changed through the years. According to the Calendar of the Roman Missal of 1962, the Missal and Calendar Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI chose in his 2007 Apostolic Letter Summorum Pontificum, the feast was preceded by a Vigil, then emphasized St. Peter on the actual feast day, and then followed up with a Commemoration of St. Paul, which included another commemoration of St. Peter--so St. Peter the Apostle, Bishop of Antioch and First Bishop and Pope in Rome was the primary focus of this feast/solemnity.

In The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch asks his readers to imagine themselves at "an ancient Roman vigil" gathered "at the grave of Peter the Rock"; they "intend to remain throughout the night". He emphasizes that St. Peter is alive to them and urges us "to keep the feast, like the ancient Church" (p. 212, volume 4)

The Vigil of the Apostles Saints Peter and Paul, on June 28, according to my copy of Roman Missal of 1962, "records the powers given by Jesus Christ to SS. Peter and Paul, the two foundation pillars of the Church", and the priest wears Violet vestments; the Gloria is not chanted or recited; the Epistle is from Acts 3:1-10 and the Gospel from John 21:15-19. On June 29, the "lessons and prayers of this Mass describe how his Lord and Master Jesus Christ prepared the fervent Apostle, St. Peter, for the supreme office of the Papacy." The Epistle is from Acts 12:1-11 and the Gospel from Matthew 16:13-19. On June 30, the Commemoration of St. Paul, Apostle includes the Epistle from Galatians 1:11-20 and the Gospel from Matthew 10:16-22. The feast even had its own breviary hymn, "Decora lux æternitatis, auream".

On the current calendar for the Novus Ordo of the Latin Rite, the Solemnity has a Vigil Mass with the same readings as above, plus Galatians 1:11-20, and on the actual feast day the first reading and Gospel are the same as the 1962 Missal, with the addition of the Second Reading from the second letter of St. Paul to Timothy (4:6-8; 17-18). 

Pope Francis will bless the pallia to be conferred on new Metropolitan Archbishops today at St. Peter's during Mass, although the archbishops won't be there to receive them. It is a Holy Day of Obligation in England today, and was in 1962 also. It is not a Holy Day of Obligation in the United States of America, however, and was not in 1962 either. Before Pope Pius XII revised the General Roman Calendar in 1955, this feast was celebrated with an Octave, and had been for centuries.

So when St. Thomas More wrote to his daughter Meg on July 5, 1535, hoping that his execution would be scheduled for the next day, July 6, he speaks of two martyrs' feasts (not mentioning St. Paul):

I cumber you, good Margaret, much, but I would be sorry, if it should be any longer than tomorrow, for it is Saint Thomas' Even and the Utes [Octave] of Saint Peter and therefore tomorrow long I to go to God, it were a day very meet and convenient for me.

The Even of St. Thomas was the the vigil of the feast of the Translation of the Relics of St. Thomas of Canterbury. 

Just as the execution of St. John Fisher was liturgically inconvenient for Henry VIII (either on the feast of St. Alban, the first English Martyr or on the vigil or the feast of the Birth of St. John the Baptist, another great feast celebrated with a vigil), so was St. Thomas More's. It was during the Octave of St. Peter, the first Pope and Vicar of Christ whose successor Henry VIII had displaced in England and on the Vigil of the feast of the Translation of St. Thomas a Becket's bones, which Henry would soon have dug up and his shrine destroyed. The amateur theologian Henry VIII, who'd just celebrated his birthday on June 28, would have known the significance of these dates.

But to St. Thomas More it was a "very meet and convenient" day to "go to God"--more on More next week!

Image Credit (public domain): Jésus-Christ ressuscité entouré de saint Pierre, saint Paul et deux anges by Anthonis Mor

Whitsunday and the Vigil of Pentecost

A couple of weeks ago at Sunday Mass, our Parochial Vicar at Blessed Sacrament opined during his homily that many Catholics do not understand the Holy Spirit. As with many things in the Church today, I think part of the problem is that our liturgy has not celebrated the Holy Spirit as it should. For example, how many Catholics realize that the Solemnity of Pentecost is one of the greatest celebrations of the Church year--second only to Easter? How many realize that the Vigil Mass of Pentecost has different readings from the Mass of Pentecost Sunday? (Usually the evening Mass on Saturday has the same readings as the Mass on Sunday.) Since for many Catholics what they see and hear in Sunday Mass or in the parish bulletin is all they know of the Church's doctrine and tradition, it's essential that something at Mass this weekend makes these distinctions clear for those with eyes to see. The sequence that we will chant or recite on Sunday fulfills that role, for example.

As the Adoremus Bulletin website explains:

The Roman Missal’s most recent English edition includes several revised rites, new prayers, and adjustments to the rubrics. While many of these revisions require further explanation, one rite in particular deserves some special attention—the Vigil Mass for Pentecost. The two previous editions of the post-conciliar Roman Missal included only a proper Vigil Mass for Pentecost. However, the extended form of the Vigil proposed in the current Roman Missal brings forward to the present a part of our liturgical tradition that has both deep roots and contemporary value.

In our earlier tradition, Pentecost was a principal occasion, along with Easter, for the Church to carry out the baptism of adults. The mysteries of the Resurrection and Pentecost, in ways unique to their respective commemorations, express a sharing of divine life with those who belong to Christ, and especially so for those to be newly incorporated into his body, the Church. Over time these two days saw the development of vigils to watch for the following day’s solemn observance. The proclamation of the Word of God and a response to it would be the chief manner for keeping watch. Also, over time, these vigil days would be marked by fasting and penance in anticipation of the celebrations of the events of the Lord on the solemnity to follow. Likewise, during different periods, these commemorations had octave celebrations associated with them to give liturgical expression to the eternal reality of these same mysteries of Christ. The recently reformed General Roman Calendar sees Pentecost Sunday as the Eighth Sunday of Easter, the conclusion of the eight week celebration of the Resurrection. So, Pentecost brings to a fitting and final end the celebration of the Resurrection with the promised sending of the Holy Spirit, which in a sense completes the event of Easter. The day before Pentecost is no longer a day of fasting and penance and there is no longer an octave. And, it is no longer a principal day for the baptism of adults. However, it is Pentecost and the anamnesis found in the euchology and the biblical texts is compelling and vivid. With the today—hodie—of Pentecost, there is a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Church. It is fitting to keep watch—with urgent prayer—for this coming of the Holy Spirit!

As the possibly apocryphal story goes, Blessed Pope Paul VI wept when he realized that the Octave of Pentecost had been suppressed, with his approval, because he saw green vestments prepared in the sacristy for Holy Mass on Pentecost Monday instead of white vestments. He could have reversed the change then and there, deciding that it was a mistake that should not be allowed to stand. As Yves Congar writes in his book The Meaning of Tradition, the liturgy is one of the main ways the Church hands on Tradition, the teachings that Jesus told his Apostles to hand on when He ascended into Heaven.