November 23, 2010

XXXIV Per Annum

In one my classes this semester the professor remarked that the most recent reform had removed the Dies Irae from the liturgy. True, it disappeared as the sequence for funerals and some Masses for the dead, but it didn't go away altogether.

The Dies Irae persists as an optional hymn for the Liturgy of the Hours during this last week of Ordinary Time. If you look in your breviary this time of year, you will find it broken up for the various hours. In the typical edition it appears at the beginning of the proper for the week, starting on page 489. If you have the Catholic Book Publishing Company American English LoH, it's in an appendix, starting on page 2013.

But here's my question. I know this will be a surprise, but I can't find the rubric that permits the Dies Irae this week. Perhaps that's all it is, the note at the beginning of the proper for the week in the typical edition, conveniently omitted in the English version. Does this option appear anywhere else?

5 comments:

Mark said...

I can't find any mention of it at all in the London/Sydney/Dublin "Divine Office" (i.e. our equivalent of your LoH).

Brother Charles said...

Nevertheless, it is a lovely edition. I have the one-volume version from when I was alleged to be studying philosophy in Galway.

Paul A. Zalonski said...

This question may be something you might pose to Shawn Tribe on the New Liturgical Movement blog.

I have heard that some more "adventuresome" liturgical musicians have included the Dies Irae in the NO funeral liturgy by placing all or some of it in places like the preparatory rites or perhaps after the post communion prayer and before the prayers of final commendation.

blogmeister said...

I pointed it out to Moe in the sacristy in the Cap Ordo that is stuck in the door. He declined to use it.

Brother Charles said...

I'm shocked!