For myself, I remain without a strong opinion. On the one hand, I think an octave is a good, solid, traditional practice that could put Pentecost (rightly) up there with Easter and Christmas. On the other hand, Pentecost is preceded by a novena, the original and primal novena even, and maybe this holds that function and should be privileged as such.
In any case, somewhat à propos of the question, there's an interesting note in my Italian ordo:
In the places where, according to custom, the faithful participate in the Mass on the Monday and Tuesday after Pentecost, the readings of Pentecost Sunday are used again, or those proposed in the Rite of Confirmation are proclaimed.(Without prejudice, of course, to the Monday now being the obligatory memorial (with the power to displace any other obligatory memorial) of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church.)
Personally, I don't have any experience of the Pentecost Monday and Tuesday that the Italian ordo mentions. Maybe folks who do can share about them in a comment.
2 comments:
Greetings from Ireland, Brother Charles. I've just come across your blog through 'Breathing with Both Lungs', the blog of Brother Tom Forde OFMCap of the Irish Province. I'm a member of the Missionary Society of St Columban, known in the USA as Columban Fathers. I grew up in Dublin before Vatican II. Pentecost Monday, known as Whit Monday, used to be a public holiday here but in 1973 was replaced by the 'June Holiday' the first Monday of June but now without any connection to Pentecost. That change was a harbinger of things to come here in Ireland
The churches of the religious orders in Dublin used to have a Solemn High Mass on Whit Monday, as they did on Easter Monday, and my late father would take me to one of these, sometimes to the Capuchin church, sometimes to the Dominican church. Though I didn't appreciate being 'dragged along' as a kid it was one of the ways in which Dad passed on his quietly strong and deep faith. I don't know if such Solemn High Masses were celebrated elsewhere but the Italian Ordo seems to suggest that they were.
At this stage of my life - I was ordained in December 1967 and spent most of my life in the Philippines - I see that with all the talk about 'active participation' in the Mass after Vatican II the reality is that, in the Western world, the vast majority don't participate at all and have just walked away. Perhaps one of the reasons is dropping the Pentecost Octave, turning Lent into 'Lent Lite', trying to make the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass 'relevant' and in doing so making it irrelevant to so many, etc. And yet I see God's love and the Gospel breaking through daily around me. Thank God for that.
God bless your ministry.
(Fr) Seán Coyle of ‘Bangor to Bobbio’
Thanks for the comment and all the info, Father!
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