Sources A quick note that the Vigil of Easter, as we know it today, does not appear in its entirety in any of the Lutheran sources surveyed, though, as with other days in Holy Week, some of the chants and texts do make an appearance. Blessing of the New Fire The Easter Vigil does not…
I had hoped to put this up two days ago, but I have been happily preoccupied with our first Holy Week in which we have services Monday through Wednesday. Preliminary Notes on Sources In the interest of clarity, the services and ceremonies described below are not necessarily found in their entirety in any of the…
Having dealt with the peculiarities of Palm Sunday in the last post, we are going to skip over Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of Holy Week for the time being, given the rather less frequent observation of these masses in comparison with Maundy Thursday. Three Masses of Maundy Thursday Near the beginning of the Middle Ages,…
With Holy Week rapidly approaching, it seems only appropriate to offer some response to the many and repeated queries about the rites and ceremonies of Holy Week. Given the complexity of the subject and the unfinished state of our research, it would seem to be unwise to try and even give some sort of provisional…
We’ve added a new tool to the missal database: the ability to visually represent the data for a given occasion on a diocesan map of late-medieval Germany. To illustrate the usefulness of this feature, consider the following list of gospel texts for Friday of Sexagesima: The chart above is an amazing amount of data to…
Listen to our very own Father Stefan discuss Septuagesima (and the current status of The Lutheran Missal) on the latest episode of the Gottesdienst Podcast. This interview was a follow-up to his previous blog post titled, Septuagesimal Strife.
Every year, without fail, the approach of Septuagesima sees Lutheran blogs and social media filled with confusion and questioning. The author has had the dubious pleasure of witnessing these discussions for the last decade or so, and the questions always seem to be the same. What, if anything, changes or disappears during Septuagesima? Are the…
The advent of Advent tends to bring with it an increase of services during the week. In most parishes, this probably takes the form of a Wednesday evening vespers, but an increasing number of parishes seem to be offering mass in place of or in addition to the evening office. This year has probably also…
It was with some mild surprise that I found myself contemplating preparations for Advent. All Saints? This Sunday? I can’t imagine how this happened. So it goes. The approach of Advent frequently brings with it the planning of additional midweek services. And, as you may have guessed, the preliminary research for The Lutheran Missal has…
Here’s a three-minute video about The Lutheran Missal. Please don’t be overly critical of the Latin pronunciation. It’s Billy Joey’s first project with us, and he did his best.
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