Observing the Vigil of Pentecost

Earlier this evening I attended the Vigil for Pentecost celebrated at Blackfriars here in Oxford. In recent years this has become a regular part of my celebration of Pentecost, and I have posted about it before in Pentecost Vigil at Blackfriars and Vigil of Pentecost pictures  and in 2010, Vigil of Pentecost at Oxford Blackfriars from 2011, Pentecost Vigil at Blackfriars Oxford and with some thoughts about the way we really ought to celebrate the Solemnity in Celebrating Pentecost from 2012, and Pentecost Vigil at Oxford Blackfriars and The Pentecost Vigil at Blackfriars in pictures from last year.

Pentecost

Italian Master of the Dominican Effigies circa 1340

Single leaf, now in the J.Paul Getty Museum

Image: Wikimedia

This is also the patronal feast of Blackfriars, which is the Priory of the Holy Spirit, and so is a particularly special event for the Dominican community in Oxford. As a consequence there were a group of Dominican lay people from London in the congegation as well as members of the local Aquinas study group which meets at Blackfriars, this resulted in an almost full priory church, the best congregation I have so far witnessed for this celebration.

The church looked very handsome, with the tapers burning before the consecration crosses on this the patronal feast, the music well performed and the priory's very fine set of embroidered red vestments in use.

The Pentecost Vigil includes First Vespers of Pentecost, Vigil of Readings and First Mass of Pentecost - celebrtaed here in the format sometimes refrerred to as "Masspers". I am not sure that I particularly like the merging of the Office and the Mass, but overall I always like this occasion. It is similar in many ways to the Easter Vigil, but is simpler, shorter and without the blessing of the font - Blackfriars is not a parochial church - nor, obviously, the Pascal Candle. The Old Testament readings stress the promise of the gift of the Spirit in the future, with the four accounts from Genesis of the story of Babel, from Exodus of the people of Israel at Mount Sinai, from Ezekiel of the valley of dry bones and from Joel of the Day of the Lord. Tonight we are still awaiting the gift which will come symbolically tomorrow.

On its website the Priory describes the liturgy as a joyful and prayerful way to celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit, and that it is. I think, as I have written in previous years, this Vigil is a valuable thing to do. It emphasises more fully the importance of Pentecost, which is not just seen as the end of Eastertide - and, of course, I think the Octave should be restored to the Novus Ordo - but rather as a real time of renewal and new life in the Holy Spirit for the Church and for individuals.

Again, as I have written before, I think this modern form of the Vigil could be celebrated in many parishes to pastoral benefit and the recovery of liturgical bearings for the faithful.

Tomorrow I shall celebrate Pentecost at the Oxford Oratory with Mass in the morning and then Solemn Vespers and Benediction in the evening - always splendid ways in which to observe this feast.

The Pentecost Vigil at Blackfriars in pictures

I have now found two photographs of last Saturday's Vigil Mass at Blackfriars on the Dominican Godzdogz blog:

 

Images: Godzdogz/ Fr James Claffey OP

 

Thereis more about their celebrations of their patronal feast over last weekend from the Godzdogz site at  Pentecost Vigil and Doorkeepers' Dinner

 

Pentecost Vigil at Oxford Blackfriars

On Saturday evening, following my return to central Oxford, I went to the Pentecost Vigil at Blackfriars, which I advertised in a recent post. Last year I was unable to attend, but I had been on two previous occasions. This was, as I mentioned, a celebration of their patronal feast, so the candles were in place and burning before the consecration crosses around the church, adding to the sense of occasion.

The rite was a Dominican adaptation of the Novus ordo provision for the Vigil, consisting of First Vespers, Vigil readings  - four in number, from Genesis, Exodus, Ezekiel and Joel, with responsorial psalms or other sung pieces and prayers  - and Solemn Mass. The liturgy, staging of the ceremonial and the overall appearance of the church, all could be described as fulfilling the idea of "noble simplicity." Thus, although one might be drawn instinctively to a more ceremonious style, this was an elegant and dignified way of marking one of the great feasts of the Church by more than just Sunday observance - one felt that something significant was indeed happening in the life of the Body of Christ.

Thus in a simple context the use of handsome red vestments, the presence of six tall candles in simple holders on the forward altar  as well as those burning in the candlesticks on the high altar, the plentiful amount of smoke produced by the thurifer -  he is, incidentally, a young Dominican I had the privilege of teaching medieval church history in the autumn - and the extensive use of latin produced a fine blend of old and new, and with asense of the distinctively Dominican heritage.

The principal celebrant and preacher was Fr Richard Ounsworth OP. His sermon drew out the inherent meaning of the Spirit's action in "sighs too deep for words" - these are not mearly sighs, they are the groans of childbearing, and that through that pain comes the joy of new birth. Maybe having been to baptism that very afternoon made this all the more apposite, but it was a forceful elucidation of the spiritual quest of us all, and the action of the Holy Spirit in shaping our lives.

As in previous years this was a good liturgical occasion to participate in, and an indication of what other churches could perhaps offer to mark the Vigil .

If I can find some photographs of the liturgy online - I noticed  they were being taken - I will post them when I can.

Pentecost in Oxford - additional Masses

In addition to the usual pattern of Masses in Oxford this coming Sunday there are two others for Pentecost which might - indeed should - interest anyone with an appreciation of liturgy who is free to attend.

On Saturday evening to mark their patronal feast the priory of the Holy Spirit of Oxford Blackfriars are again celebrating the Vigil of Pentecost. This is a liturgy they have re-established in recent years as a novus ordo version of the traditional practice. It begins at 9 pm and consists of First Vespers, the Vigil readings and Office of Readings culminating in the First Mass of Pentecost.

On Sunday there will there will be a Sung Mass in the Extraordinary Form at 12 noon at the church of SS Gregory and Augustine in Woodstock Road.

The parish currently has the largest number of regular Masses in the Traditional form, and indeed the longest recent history of advertised public celebration of them, of any parish in a very wide radius. It has every Wednesday and Friday Masses offered in this at form 6 pm, as well as sung or solemn celebrations on days such as Ascension and Corpus Christi.

The Oxford Oratory will have Solemn Vespers of Pentecost at 5.30pm that evening - a three cope occasion.

Celebrating Pentecost

Were I to invited to suggest liturgical, or at very least calendric changes, in the cause of the "Reform of the Reform" I would give priority to amending the celebration of Pentecost.

In the current Missal we go from Pentecost straight into Ordinary Time, there no longer being an Octave. This is, in my opinion, to be regretted. Not only was the Octave an ancient feature of the liturgy but it provided a week to reflect on the gifts of the Holy Spirit day by day, and to assign time to reflect on the scale of the gift poured out upon the Church. So there are good practical and teaching arguments for extending the observance of the feast.

There is in the present arrangement, despite the renewed emphasis in recent years upon the role of the Holy Spirit, a constraint on observing the gifts and rejoicing in them which seems to be a result of stressing the unique, but enclosed period of fifty days from Easter to Pentecost. This is now all designated as Eastertide, with only the Easter Octave surviving as a sub-division. So the hinge of the Ascension, stressed by commentators such as Dom Gueranger, loses something of its significance - all the more so with its transference as a solemnity to the Sunday following. Pentecost can appear to be no more than the rounding off of Easter rather than the beginning of the next phase in Salvation-history.
My pre-1955 St Andrew's Missal begins its description of the rites of Whitsun with a clear reference to the discrete fifty days, but goes on to stress the significance of the established, interlocking liturgical components to it - Ascension and its Octave, the original novena of Penetcost and so on.


Restoring its Octave would redress that balance, as indeed would the restoration of the pre 1955 Whitsun Vigil. This would emphasise the solemnity of the feast and give it a symmetrical relationship with Easter, whose night time Vigil has become very popular since the liturgical changes under Pope Pius XII. Here a restored Pentecost Vigil would allow reflection on the nature of Christian initiation and participation in the sacramental life of the Church, and emphasise the importance of the feast.

I have drawn attention recently to the restored Vigil celebrated at Blackfriars in Oxford, and many priests will no doubt be celebrating votive Masses of the Holy Spirit this week - and may even keep red hangings in place for part of the former Octave. I heard of one church which began its celebration of Pentecost with Solemn Terce - that being the Hour at which the Spirit descended. There is an appetite for such renewal.


The emphasis by many in recent decades on the action of the Holy Spirit has at times disturbed and confused others within the Church. A revival of ancient practice and custom could serve as a reminder, along the lines of long established understanding, that the bestowal of the Holy Spirit is not, as it not infrequently appears to be seen, an ecstatic personal religious experience but rather that it is the baptism of the Body of Christ which is the Church and its sanctification. It is through the medium of the Church that we as individuals receive Grace, and through our membership our incorporation into it as a living Body and, hopefully our ultimate divinisation.

Pentecost Vigil at Blackfriars Oxford

If you are in or near Oxford this coming Saturday evening - May 26th - you might like to attend the liturgical celebration of the Vigil of Pentecost at Blackfriars on St Giles. As the Priory is dedicated to the Holy Spirit this is part of the celebration of their patronal feast by the Dominican community.

The liturgy consists of First Vespers, the Vigil and First Mass of Pentecost and commences at 9pm. I have attended for the last two years, that is since the Vigil was reinstated as part of their celebrations, and you can read my accounts of previous occasions - from 2010 at Pentecost Vigil at Blackfriars and from last year, with photographs, at Vigil of Pentecost at Oxford Blackfriars.

Vigil of Pentecost at Oxford Blackfriars

Last Saturday evening, as last year, I attended the Vigil of Pentecost at Blackfriars here in Oxford. 

This was the second year that this occasion has been marked in this particular way. As I said last year in my post about the Vigil it is a welcome return to older practice and it makes for more in the way of celebration and reflection on the gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church. Here are some pictures of this year's celebration from the Dominican website Godzdogz: 

Vigil of Pentecost pictures

Following on from the photographs I shared a few weeks ago of the pre-1955 Triduum Liturgy at St Gertrude the Great, West Chester, Ohio here are some pictures of their Vigil of Pentecost. I should add that I understand St Gertrude's is a sedevacantist parish, which raises certain issues. However we can hope and pray that they will return to the One True Fold of the Redeemer - their sense of tradition in liturgical matters may not be present in their ecclesiology now, but as with other groups the search for a return to true unity should be maintained.

The friend who forwarded them to me added the following health and safety warning:

Don't tell anyone with a weak stomach - this is hard-core liturgy!

I assume readers of this blog are old enough and mature enough to handle such material, but you have been warned. I understand this is the only set of photographs available online of the Pentecost Vigil.  Here is a sample:

Pentecost Vigil at Blackfriars

Last Saturday evening I attended the Pentecost Vigil celebrated at the Dominican Priory of the Holy Spirit here in Oxford - Blackfriars in less formal parlance. This is of course their patronal festival, and the Vigil was a new initiative. Provided for under the 2008 provisions, it was a move towards a return to a feature of liturgical practice that disappeared from the Missal in 1955.

For what was done before and in 1955 there is this piece from the New Liturgical Movement.

Saturday evening's liturgy was novus ordo, and used the vernacular for much of the celebration, but also used distinctively Dominican chant forms. It followed what is, I understand, a Dominican format of incorporating the celebration of Mass into Vespers. Personally I found that unusual, and perhaps not ideal. However the fact that the Vigil was being observed was, I think, more important than the specific format.

First Vespers was celebrated with its psalms, followed by the Kyries, four Prophetic readings suitable to Pentecost (rather than repeating the Easter ones) with collects, Epistle, Gospel, homily, the Canon - EP I - and then a reversion to Vespers with the Magnificat and concluding prayers and dismissal.

This was, then, a new liturgy rather than a restoration - for example, lights were carried at the Gospel unlike the traditional practice. As Blackfriars is not a parish church there is no font, so there was no blessing of that. Considerable effort had been put into the music and the Priory church was suitably decorated for the Feast - including tapers burning before the Consecration Crosses - and there were some fine red vestments in use.

The service book had a pertinent quotation from the Pope about the need to take time to listen to the record of the Holy Spirit's action in Salvation history if we are to avoid relegating Pentecost to a mere observance.

Although my own preference would be either for the pre-1955 rite or a reworking closer to it, I was impressed by the liturgy. There was a sense of occasion and new beginning, not just the end of the Easter season, a sense that this was a special time of preparation for the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Talking to members of the Community afterwards it was clear that they hope to establish this as part of their annual liturgical observance, and they are to be encouraged in that. It was a format that many parishes could copy, with genuine spiritual benefits for those attending. In a parish church the blessing of the waters of baptism would be practicable as well as of sacramental and symbolic value. I found it a valuable preparation for Pentecost Sunday, and I am sure others did as well.

My own inclination would, as I have suggested, be to go for something closer to the older forms, but this was a 'Reform of the Reform' and very welcome in what it achieved.

And, yes, of course, I want to see the restoration of the Pentecost Octave...