Thursday, March 13, 2008

Eve of St Patrick

According to the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, still charged with the care of the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite since Good Pope Benedict's motu proprio, St Joseph's feast is to be moved to Saturday the 15th of March this year in both the new rite and the old; for utterly the same reason, it seems to me that St Patrick's Day - here in Australia as in Ireland, a feast of highest rank - should be observed by those following the 1962 Missal and Breviary on the same day as the vast majority of the faithful in these lands, which by decree of the relevant bishops' conferences has been moved in 2008 to Friday the 14th: to tomorrow, in other words.

(It goes without saying that this has been done because such solemnities are transferred out of Holy Week and Easter Week, and if the rubrics had been followed this would have entailed celebrating the Annunciation on Monday after Low Sunday, followed by St Joseph and St Patrick on the Tuesday and Wednesday. Personally, it seems to me more appropriate to fill Paschaltide with feasts, but it wasn't my decision!)

So, Traddie or not, tonight is St Patrick's Eve, and to celebrate my housemates and I had a meal together, washed down with some Guinness.

If I had thought of it, I'd have served some black pudding too...

...for on one fairly recent St Patrick's Day, the seminarians in Melbourne, including friends of mine, celebrated in a very Irish fashion, by eating a full Irish breakfast in the evening, with eggs, bacon, black pudding, and Guinness, and I very much agree with the idea!

Let us pray.

Thou didst drive out the serpent, that is, Satan, his devils, and the evil sins of pagan idolatry from Ireland, and by thy preaching win the heathen Irish for Christ, that it might be an isle of saints and scholars, of priests and holy virgins: St Patrick, pray for us.

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