There is a Western custom of having a look at the Annunciation (and often also the Visitation) in the run-up to Christmas. The instinct for this is an obvious one, and led to the special celebration of our Lady in the Ambrosian Rite on the last (sixth) Sunday of Advent. Similarly, the Roman postconciliar 'reforms' made Advent IV a Marian celebration; not unintelligently, once you have conceded the everything-into-the-mixing-pot model of liturgical 'reform'. For, although in one sense it is rational to make the Annunciation precede the Nativity by nine months, in another sense the mind naturally groups together events which are inextricably bound together, and wishes to revisit the Annunciation while its thoughts are occupied with the ventura sollemnia of the Birth. I will attempt the briefest summary of what the Roman Tradition has to offer.
Old Rite EMBER DAYS
The December Ember days, originally apparently associated with the Olive Harvest, were soon transformed into preparations for Christmass. The old mass for the Wednesday in the week before Advent IV, beginning Rorate, has the Annunciation for its theme (the Friday mass commemorates the Visitation). Slightly adapted, this became, in the Old Rite, the Advent Votive of our Lady (translation in the English Missal).
Appendix pro aliquibus locis
The old nineteenth century Supplement under this name has a feast Expectatio Partus BMV on December 18. It combines Advent elements (such as the Rorate introit) with things from March 25. Incidentally, England was one of the very many countries where it was on the local calendar, back in the days when the Holy See had granted a Calendar for England and before it replaced it with different Calendars for the respective RC dioceses (I wonder when that was?).
This feast, which one might have assumed to be an agreeable piece of Hispanic baroquery, is in fact quite old; it is said to date back to the Xth Council of Toledo in 656, when the Spanish bishops ordered a Feast of the Annunciation just before Christmas. This was partly because of its inherent thematic suitability, partly because the feast on March 25 is either overshadowed by Lenten themes or (when transferred) confuses the days after Low Sunday. The Spanish feast had an Octave leading up to Christmas itself, during which there was a daily High Mass attended by expectant women.
New Rite WEEKDAYS
The Roman Revisers who created the Weekday Eucharistic Lectionary (which is also authorised for use in the Church of England) made the Gospels for December 20 and 21 the Gospels respectively of the Annunciation and the Visitation (vide also the Collectio of Marian Masses). Additionally, they provided Votive Masses for our Lady, a different one for each season. The Advent votive begins with a translation of the Introit Rorate. If you used, from the selection offered, the Reading from Isaiah 7 and the Gospel of the Annunciation, you would have a close modern approximation of the ancient Mass for the Ember Wednesday. (Those who confine themselves to Common Worship could simply use the Mass provided for March 25 with appropriate Marian hymns.)
"THE RORATE MASS"
A beautiful custom arose in Germany and Eastern Europe of saying an Advent Votive Mass of our Lady in the darkness just before dawn, entirely by candlelight. As well as being very ancient and very suitable to the few days before Christmass, it also comes round about the time (in the Northern hemisphere) of our shortest day. It thus has pastoral potential just when the human frame and psyche need to be cheered up by the prospect of lengthening days and the return of Light.
Fr John Hunwicke
was for nearly three decades at Lancing College; where he taught Latin and Greek language and literature, was Head of Theology, and Assistant Chaplain. He has served three curacies, been a Parish Priest, and Senior Research Fellow at Pusey House in Oxford. Now incardinated into the Personal Ordinariate of our Lady of Walsingham, he has his base within the Oxford Ordinariate Group. This blog now replaces the Blog Father Hunwicke's Liturgical Notes. Its main purpose is to explore, ad mentem Summi Pontificis, the possibilitiesfor mutual enrichment between three forms of the Roman Rite: the Extraordinary Form, the Ordinary Form, and the Anglican Use. I have been told that my previous blog was disliked because of some the comments on the 'thread'. I take the point. In this blog, all comments will be moderated, and anything which is even implicitly critical of the English Hierarchy or of any member of it, will not be published.
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Raffaello's Madonna di Foligno
The original once graced the high altar of the church of Sancta Maria in Ara Coeli on the Capitoline Hill. A fine copy is at the centre of the great baroque reredos at S Thomas the Martyr, Oxford.
9 comments:
There may not be a direct connection, but the East Syriac rite is parallel to the Spanish tradition, and does Annunciation in Advent. I think they later adopted the March 25 feast from outside.
Fr Yousuf Rassam
The Diocese of Toledo still maintains the December Annunciation tradition. In fact, it is the one day of the year when the entire diocese is required to celebrate the Mozarabic Mass.
I've just had a moment of stupefied amazement when trying to imagine all the local priests being required to celebrate the Mozarabic Rite even once a year!
They would be, as the saying is, As confused as a Jesuit in Holy Week...
It's done in Spanish these days, and though heavily 'reformed', it is still massively different from the Roman rite. There is a special missal with just the texts for this day which, I assume, most parishes use.
If you read Spanish, there is a site with lots of stuff, including videos here:
http://www.arquired.es/users/mrgreyes/ermita/index.htm
Thank you, Father, for the reference - though I know that site well! The reform of which you speak appears to be fairly reasonable, stripping back late mediæval Romano-Toledan interpolations to reveal the pre-Conquest Spanish Rite. (To remove mediæval accretions from the Roman Rite I consider reprehensible, but it is a different matter when sundry such were inserted into another Rite entirely.) I had been under the impression from what is there that the Rite has no official Spanish translation, and is still done in Latin, but I may well be mistaken. As it is, suffice to say that I hope to visit Toledo and assist at Mass in the Capilla Muzarabe one day.
For those interested, the proper of the Mass in the Mozarabic Rite for the 18th of December is available at:
http://personales.ya.com/mrgreyes/ermita/Liturgia/Renov/mis-dic-18.htm
(It appears the Spanish is not an official translation, according to the endnote.)
Joshua: The site I quoted was simply something I found when trying to find you a pointer to the Spanish translation. I bought a copy in the little religious shop attached to Toledo Cathedral: it is an altar copy certainly for liturgical use. Alas I don't have it with me (I am away from base for a few months). I expect that it would be too much to expect all priests in a diocese to celebrate in Latin these days (sigh!).
I did assist at Mass in the Mozarabic chapel of Toledo Cathedral a few years ago. It was done facing the people, in Latin. There were very few worshippers (though, to be fair, it was a weekday in July, in a city where there were probably hundreds of other Masses). The celebrant gave me an amused tolerant glance ('another liturgist nut!')
Thanks again, Fr!
I think I prefer the term "liturgy tragic" (on the model of "cricket tragic")...
Glad to hear that the Mozarabic Mass is used throughout Toledo at least once a year, even if - I might be daring and say especially if - it is in the local vernacular; since from what I recall reading, the Spanish translation of the Roman Rite Mass is actually quite good, and one may expect similar quality. (I suppose it would be easier, all things considered, to render Latin into a Romance language than into a less closely related tongue.)
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