Posted on 04/23/2016 7:10:56 AM PDT by Salvation
Prior to 1970, the Church observed the feast for more than 8 days, marked liturgical calendar by it
Question: Shouldn’t we be celebrating Pentecost for more than one day? Given the amount of time we celebrate Christmas and Easter, it seems appropriate that Pentecost be given at least a short season.— Dianne Spotts, via email
Answer: Before 1970, the Church emphasized Pentecost in two ways. The first was the celebration of an “octave.” An Octave is a stretch of eight days that included and followed the actual feast of Pentecost Sunday.
It is one of the quirks of the post-conciliar liturgy of 1970 that the octave of Pentecost was dropped. Generally, the post-conciliar age has tried to emphasize the gifts and works of the Holy Spirit. But, paradoxically, the octave of Pentecost was dropped. The feast, as you note, ranks right up there with Easter (which has an octave) and the Nativity (which has an octave).
But strangely, the octave of Pentecost fell away. And thus, suddenly, on the Monday after Pentecost, we are back to something now called Ordinary Time.
Priests however, have the option of celebrating votive Masses of the Holy Spirit for the days that follow Pentecost (unless there is an obligatory memorial or feast). Perhaps you might encourage your priests to consider celebrating a sort of unofficial octave of Pentecost through the use of votive Masses.
A second way that Pentecost was emphasized prior to 1970 was that the Sundays and weeks of the year were counted in relation to the feast of Pentecost. Thus, a certain Sunday would be called the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost, or the Fifth Sunday of Pentecost. In 1970, that was dropped, and a practice of numbering the weeks independent of Pentecost was adopted. Thus we hear of the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time and so forth.
It should be noted that currently, with the wider use of the extraordinary form of the Mass and its calendar, there does still exist in the Roman Rite the octave of Pentecost and the older enumerations. Hence, they are still officially celebrated and enumerated in that form of the rite.
Monsignor Pope OSV Ping!
The 1928 version of the Book of Common Prayer of The Episcopal Church had Propers for the Monday and Tuesday following Pentecost. These were dropped in the 1979 version.
The 2005 Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod hymnal Lutheran Service Book has Propers for the first three days following Pentecost.
There still is an Octave of Pentecost: The Feast of the Most Holy Trinity.
There is also the very small problem that Pentecost is the successor holiday to Shavuot which is celebrated as a single day, not a week.
Considering that the Christian Pentecost celebrates the writing of the new law not on tablets of stone but on the living hearts what you point out is a very small problem, indeed.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.