Vespers in the Morning?

Vespers in the Morning?
(Abed Al Hashlamoun/Pool Photo via AP)

In the Breviary of St Pius V, the following rubric is placed before Vespers of Ash Wednesday. "Today and the following two days, Vespers are said at the accustomed hour. But on Saturday, and thenceforth until Easter, they are said before eating (ante comestionem), both on feasts and on ferias, except on Sundays, on which they are said at the accustomed hour." This is based on the rubrics to the same effect which appear in the Ordinal of Pope Innocent III (1198-1216), the ancestor text of the Tridentine missal and breviary; it appears in all the revisions of the Tridentine books subsequent to St Pius V, until it was expunged in the revision of 1960. This custom derives from the Church's very ancient discipline of Lenten fasting, its connection to the celebration of the Mass and the Divine Office.

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