Historical use of the term
Before the reform of the Missale by Pope Paul VI, concelebration was not permitted, and so each priest in a monastery or other house celebrated his own Mass privately, and then participated "in choir" in a conventual Mass celebrated by one of the priests of the house. [2]
Prior to the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), as a general rule, churches in which the Divine office was to be said publicly every day also had to have Mass said daily. This Mass was the "conventual" Mass (missa conventualis); it completed, with the canonical Hours, the official public service of God in such a church. A conventual Mass then was to be sung or said in all cathedrals and collegiate churches that had a chapter; in this case it was often called the "chapter" Mass (missa capituli), though the official books constantly used the general name "conventual" for this Mass too. A conventual (not chapter) Mass also had to be celebrated daily in churches of regulars who had the obligation of the public recitation of the office, therefore certainly in churches of monks and canons regular. [3]
Whether mendicant friars had this obligation is disputed. Some authors consider them to have been obliged by common canon law, others admit only whatever obligation they may have had from their special constitutions or from custom. Some extended the obligation even to churches of nuns who say the office in choir. That friars celebrated a daily conventual Mass according to the rule of monastic churches is admitted by every one (de Herdt., I, 14). A chapter Mass then was a kind of conventual Mass, and falls under the same rules. [3]
The obligation of procuring the conventual Mass rested with the corporate body in question and so concerns its superiors (Dean, Provost, Abbot, etc.). Normally it should be said by one of the members, but the obligation is satisfied as long as it is said by some priest who celebrates lawfully. [3]
The conventual Mass was always, if possible, a high Mass; but if this was impossible, low Mass was still treated as a high Mass with regard to the number of collects said, the candles, absence of prayers at the end and so on. It was not to be said during the recitation of the office, but at certain fixed times between the canonical Hours, as is explained below. The general rule was that the conventual Mass should correspond to the office with which it forms a whole. It was not allowed to sing two high Masses both conformed to the office on the same day. On the other hand, there were cases in which two different conventual Masses were celebrated. The cases in which the Mass did not correspond to the office were these: on Saturdays in Advent (except Ember Saturday and a vigil), if the office was ferial the Mass is of the Blessed Virgin; on Vigils in Advent that were not also Ember days, if the office was ferial the Mass was of the Vigil commemorating the feria; on Maundy Thursday and Holy Saturday; on Rogation Tuesday, if the office was ferial the Mass was of Rogation; on Whitsun Eve the office was of the Ascension, but the Mass a Whitsun Mass. When a Vigil, an Ember day or Rogation Monday fell within an octave (except that of the Blessed Sacrament) the office was of the octave and the Mass of the feria commemorating the octave. Except in Advent and Lent, on Ember days, Rogation days and vigils, if the office was ferial and the Sunday Mass had already been said that week, the conventual Mass could have been one of the Votive Masses in the Missal appointed for each day in the week. Except in Advent, Lent and Paschal time, on the first day of the month not prevented by a double or semi-double, the conventual Mass was a Requiem for deceased members and benefactors of the community. [3]
On doubles, semi-doubles Sundays and during octaves, the conventual Mass was said after Terce, on simples and ferias after Sext, on ferias of Advent and Lent, on Vigils and Ember days after None. There were also occasions on which several conventual Masses are said on the same day. On ferias of Lent, on Ember days, Rogation days and Vigils when a double or semi-double occurs, or during an octave or when a Votive office was said, the Mass corresponding to the office is said after Terce, that of the feria after None. On Ascension eve, if a double or semi-double occurs, the Mass of the feast was said after Terce, that of the Vigil after Sext, that of Rogation after None. In the case of the conventual Requiem mentioned above, if a simple occurs or if the Mass of the preceding Sunday had not yet been said, the Requiem was celebrated after the Office of the Dead, or if that was not said, after Prime, the Mass of the simple or Sunday after Sext. On All Souls' day (2 November) the Mass of the octave (or feast) was said after Terce, the Requiem after None. When an additional votive Mass had to be said (for instance for the Forty Hours or for the anniversary of the bishop's consecration or enthronement, etc.) it was said after None. On the Monday of each week (except in Lent and Paschal time) if the office was ferial the conventual Mass was permitted to be a Requiem. But if it were a simple or a feria with a proper Mass, or if the Sunday Mass had not been said, the collect for the dead (Fidelium) was added to that of the day instead. [3]
These rules concerning the celebration of two or more conventual Masses applied as laws only to chapters. Regulars were not bound to celebrate more than one such Mass each day (corresponding always to the office), unless the particular constitutions of their order imposed this obligation. [3]
In the practice of Christianity, canonical hours mark the divisions of the day in terms of fixed times of prayer at regular intervals. A book of hours, chiefly a breviary, normally contains a version of, or selection from, such prayers.
Ember days are quarterly periods of prayer and fasting in the liturgical calendar of Western Christian churches. These fasts traditionally take place on the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday of the weeks following St Lucy's Day, the first Sunday in Lent, Pentecost (Whitsun), and Holy Cross Day, though some areas follow a different pattern. The Catholic Church ended its practice of fasting on these days in 1966, and the Anglican Communion made fasting optional in 1976. Ordination ceremonies are often held on Ember Saturdays or the following Sunday.
The Paschal Triduum or Easter Triduum, Holy Triduum, or the Three Days, is the period of three days that begins with the liturgy on the evening of Maundy Thursday, reaches its high point in the Easter Vigil, and closes with evening prayer on Easter Sunday. It is a moveable observance recalling the Passion, Crucifixion, Death, burial, and Resurrection of Jesus, as portrayed in the canonical Gospels.
A memorial in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church is a lower-ranked feast day in honour of a saint, the dedication of a church, or a mystery of the religion.
In the liturgy of the Catholic Church, a feria is a day of the week other than Sunday.
The Liturgy of the Hours, Divine Office, or Opus Dei are a set of Catholic prayers comprising the canonical hours, often also referred to as the breviary, of the Latin Church. The Liturgy of the Hours forms the official set of prayers "marking the hours of each day and sanctifying the day with prayer." The term "Liturgy of the Hours" has been retroactively applied to the practices of saying the canonical hours in both the Christian East and West–particularly within the Latin liturgical rites–prior to the Second Vatican Council, and is the official term for the canonical hours promulgated for usage by the Latin Church in 1971. Before 1971, the official form for the Latin Church was the Breviarium Romanum, first published in 1568 with major editions through 1962.
The Office of the Dead or Office for the Dead is a prayer cycle of the Canonical Hours in the Catholic Church, Anglican Church and Lutheran Church, said for the repose of the soul of a decedent. It is the proper reading on All Souls' Day for all departed souls (Purgatory), and can be a votive office on other days when said for a particular decedent. The work is composed of different psalms, scripture, prayers and other parts, divided into The Office of Readings, Lauds, Daytime Prayer, Vespers and Compline.
In the Latin liturgical rites of the Catholic Church, a commemoration is the recital, within the Liturgy of the Hours or the Mass of one celebration, of part of another celebration that is generally of lower rank and impeded because of a coincidence of date.
The ordinary, in Catholic liturgies, refers to the part of the Mass or of the canonical hours that is reasonably constant without regard to the date on which the service is performed. It is contrasted to the proper, which is that part of these liturgies that varies according to the date, either representing an observance within the liturgical year, or of a particular saint or significant event, or to the common which contains those parts that are common to an entire category of saints such as apostles or martyrs.
Nones, also known as None, the Ninth Hour, or the Midafternoon Prayer, is a fixed time of prayer of the Divine Office of almost all the traditional Christian liturgies. It consists mainly of psalms and is said around 3 pm, about the ninth hour after dawn.
The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, also known as Hours of the Virgin, is a liturgical devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, in imitation of, and usually in addition to, the Divine Office in the Catholic Church. It is a cycle of psalms, hymns, scripture and other readings.
This article lists the feast days of the General Roman Calendar as they were at the end of 1954. It is essentially the same calendar established by Pope Pius X (1903–1914) following his liturgical reforms, but it also incorporates changes that were made by Pope Pius XI (1922–1939), such as the institution of the Feast of Christ the King, and the changes made by Pope Pius XII (1939–1958) prior to 1955, chief among them the imposition of the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary upon the universal Church in 1944, the inscription of Pius X into the General Calendar following his 1954 canonization, and the institution of the Feast of the Queenship of Mary in October 1954.
The Kyriale is a collection of Gregorian chant settings for the Ordinary of the Mass. It contains eighteen Masses, six Credos, and several ad libitum chants. This collection is included in liturgical books such as the Graduale Romanum and Liber Usualis, and it is also published as a separate book by the monks of Solesmes Abbey.
This article lists the feast days of the General Roman Calendar as approved on 25 July 1960 by Pope John XXIII's motu proprioRubricarum instructum and promulgated by the Sacred Congregation of Rites the following day, 26 July 1960, by the decree Novum rubricarum. This 1960 calendar was incorporated into the 1962 edition of the Roman Missal, continued use of which Pope Benedict XVI authorized in his 7 July 2007 motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, and which Pope Francis updated in his 16 July 2021 motu proprio Traditionis custodes, for use as a Traditional Roman Mass.
In 1955, Pope Pius XII made several changes to the General Roman Calendar of 1954; those changes remained in force until 1960, when Pope John XXIII decreed a new revision of the General Roman Calendar. The changes made by Pope Pius XII thus remained unaltered for only five years.
The Ambrosian Rite is a Latin Catholic liturgical Western Rite used in the area of Milan. The Traditional Ambrosian Rite is the form of this rite as it was used before the changes that followed the Second Vatican Council.
"Rorate caeli" or "Rorate coeli" are the opening words of Isaiah 45:8 in the Vulgate. The text appears at several points in the Christian liturgy of the Western Church during Advent.
In the liturgy of the Catholic Church, a votive Mass is a Mass offered for a votum, a special intention. Such a Mass does not correspond to the Divine Office for the day on which it is celebrated. Every day in the year has appointed to it a series of canonical hours and a Mass corresponding, containing, for instance, the same collect and the same Gospel. On most days, the Mass will correspond to the Office, but on occasion, other Masses may be celebrated. Votive Masses appear in the Roman and Gallican Rites. The Suffrage Mass is a type of votive Mass that is celebrated in favour to some dead people.
The ranking of liturgical days in the Roman Rite is a regulation for the liturgy of the Roman Catholic church. It determines for each liturgical day which observance has priority when liturgical dates and times coincide, which texts are used for the celebration of the Holy Mass and the Liturgy of the hours and which liturgical color is assigned to the day or celebration.
The Easter cycle is the sequence of the seasons and days in the Christian liturgical year which are pegged to the date of Easter, either before or after it. In any given calendar year, the timing of events within the Easter cycle is dependent on the calculation of the date of Easter itself.
