The Paschal Candle, blessed after Evening Prayer on Holy Saturday, only appeared in my last year there before I became a Catholic. The last days of Holy Week were marked by an early Sung Eucharist on Maundy Thursday (0615h), Mattins and Litany on Good Friday plus the ‘Three Hours’ Devotion’ in the afternoon, and nothing on Holy Saturday except the ‘Ante-Communion’ at 0800h. Growing up in a ‘Prayer Book Catholic’ parish in North London in the 1950’s, we had the ashes (I think). It is within my lifetime that Ashes on Ash Wednesday, The evening Eucharist of the Lord’s Supper and the Liturgy of Good Friday and Easter Vigil have been gaken up in English anglican churches. It is a fearsome text, containing curses against just about every antisocial behaviour (‘Cursed is he that removeth his neighbour’s land-mark’), followed by a lengthy exhortation and the recitation of Psalm 51. The Commination claims to be a step on the way to resoring that ancient observance. The priest’s introduction to the rite mentions the first day of Lent as anciently having a ‘godly discipline’ of the admonishment of sinners. The 1662 Book of Common Prayer has for Ash Wednesday (referred to there only as ‘the first day of Lent’) a rite called ‘A Commination Or Denouncing Of God’s Judgements Against Sinners.’
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |