One of purposes of Pope St. Pius X’s liturgical reform was to rescue the Masses of the temporal cycle (i.e. the Sundays of the year, the weekdays during Lent, etc.) from being drowned out by the feast days of the Saints. Put simply, there were so many Saints on the Calendar with Feasts that ranked higher than a normal Sunday or weekday during Lent, that these ancient and venerable Masses were almost never said, especially not with the Holy See and most of the world’s bishops moving certain feasts to Sundays to encourage greater participation among the laity (sound familiar?).
This was not a new problem in the Church: past popes had opted to purge the calendar every couple of centuries to make room for new saints. In addition, special feasts celebrating different aspects of our Lord’s Passion were instituted for the eight Fridays before Good Friday, so the season of Lent would not entirely lose its focus. St. Pius X suppressed all but one of these (The Seven Sorrows of our Lady, celebrated on the Friday before Holy Week.) Most of these Masses can still be celebrated as votive masses, but their Offices are celebrated seldom, if at all.
For your devotion and edification, I will be posting the texts of these masses, as well as the readings from Matins.
The first of these Forgotten Feasts is The Prayer of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, celebrated eight Fridays before Good Friday. This is an appropriate place for it. Not only is it the Friday in the week of Septuagesima (a traditional Pre-Lent in the Pre-Vatican 2 calendar), in which we have begun to look forward to Our Lord’s Passion and Death, but the Matins Readings for this week are from the very beginning of Genesis, focusing on the Creation of Adam and Eve, their transgression and fall in the Garden of Eden, the betrayal and murder of Abel by his brother Cain, and Cain’s founding of what St. Augustine calls the City of Man, a society of fallen human beings centered on and driven by violence, vice, and vainglory. Such were the men who seized our Lord in the garden. Such will we be, unless we repent of our sins and follow Jesus on the hard road of the Cross.
Lessons from Matins
First Lesson.
The Lesson is taken from the of Tobias (xii. 8.)
Prayer is good with and to lay up alms rather than to lay up stores gold. For alms doth deliver from death, and the same it is which purgeth away sin, and causeth to find mercy and everlasting life. But they that work sin and iniquity are enemies of their own soul. Therefore I show you the truth, and will not keep an hidden matter from you. When didst pray with tears, and bury the dead, and leave thy dinner, and hide the dead in thine house by day, and bury them by night, I did bring up thy prayer before the Lord. And because thou vast accepted with God, it was needs that temptation should try thee.
Second Lesson.
The Lesson is taken the Epistle of the Blessed Apostle James (v. 16)
Pray one another, that ye may be healed, the fervent prayer.
Of a righteous man availeth much. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain upon the earth, and it rained not by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him, let him know that he which converteth a sinner from the error of his way shall save his soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.
Third Lesson.
The Lesson is taken from the Epistle of the Blessed Apostle Paul to the Hebrews (v. 5.)
Christ glorified not Himself to be made an High Priest, but He That said unto Him:” Thou art My Son, today have I begotten Thee." (Ps. ii. 7.) As He saith also in another place: “Thou art a Priest forever, after the order of Melchisedek (ps. cix. 4.) Who, in the days His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears, unto Him that was able to save Him from death, was heard. in that He feared. And though He was the Son of God, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered; and being made perfect, He is become the Author of Eternal Salvation unto all them that obey Him—called of God an High Priest after the order of Melchisedek.
Fourth Lesson.
The Lesson is taken from the Treatise upon the Lord's Prayer written by the Holy Martyr Cyprian,' Bishop Of Carthage. (On the Lord’s Prayer)
The Lord hath indeed taught us to pray, not by words but also by deeds. He Himself prayed oftentimes, and right earnestly, and showed us by the witness His Own example, what we are behoven to do; as it is written: “And He withdrew Himself into the wilderness, and prayed." (Luke v. 16.) And again: "And it came to pass in those days that Jesus went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. " (Luke vi. 12) If He prayed Who was without sin, how much are sinners beholden to pray. And if He remained sleepless all night in unceasing prayer, how much more ought we to watch by night in common prayer? The Lord prayed and besought, but not for Himself— what had the Innocent One to ask Himself?
But it was for us sinners that He prayed, as Himself when He saith unto Peter: Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat; but I have prayed thee, that thy faith fail not." (Luke xxii. 31, 32.) And a little while after, He prayed to the Father for all, saying: Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word, that they all may one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in thee; that they also may be one in Us.” (John xvii. 20, 21.)
Fifth Lesson.
The Lesson is taken from the Commentary upon the Epistle to the Hebrews, Written by St Anselm, Archbishop Of Canterbury (v.)
He offered up prayers like a true High Priest. That He prayed we read oftentimes in the Gospel, especially in that according to Luke, who draweth Him in His Priestly character. But even as all things which He did in the Flesh, His prayers and supplications were for men. Through all His life He prayed to the Father touching the Resurrection of His Own Flesh, and our salvation, and at the last moment before He suffered, He offered up supplications, that is, prayers most beseeching and most vehement, with the utmost passion and tenderness of His Heart, when, “being in an agony He prayed more earnestly, and His Sweat was as it were great drops of Blood falling down to the ground." (Luke xxii. 44.) These prayers and supplications He offered up unto the Father, Who met Him half-way by hearing Him. He offered them up unto Him That was able to save Him from death, that is, to raise Him up again — unto Him He knew that He was able to Save Him, that is, to make Him so that He could die no more and suffer no more, by delivering Him from death, so that His Soul was not left in hell, did His Flesh see Corruption in the grave. (Ps. xv. 10.)
Sixth Lesson.
And these prayers and supplications He offered up with strong crying, that is, with the keenest and liveliest yearning of godly desire, as when, being in an agony, He prayed more earnestly, and even with tears, for in that lengthened prayer we must believe that He shed Tears as well as those drops of Blood which trickled down His Body in the place of sweat. And He was heard, for in rising again, He received that for which He had asked. He was heard, that is, He in especial was heard in a sense of thoroughness in which no other hath ever been heard, since, after the throes of the struggle were over, the Father exalted Him above everything created. Moreover, He was heard on account of reverent submission, which meaneth either that He was heard because as
the Son of God reverent submission was due to His wishes, or else that He was heard because of His reverent submission to the Will of God, in that He feared and honored the Father above all. Or again. may understand that He was heard, because His reverent submission merited that He be heard. The out-pouring of His Blood may in itself be called a strong cry, wherein He was heard on account of His reverent submission to such suffering. His reverent submission in that case lay in this, that having never done any evil, He was willing to suffer, simply out of love.
Seventh Lesson.
The Lesson is taken from the Holy Gospel according to Luke (xxii. 39.)
At that time: Jesus came out, and went, as He was wont, to the Mount of Olives; and His disciples also followed Him. And so on.
Homily by St Ambrose Bishop of Milan
(Bk x. Comm. on Luke xxii.)
“Remove this Cup Me "—the Man shrank death, the God remained unshaken in the counsel His Own Will. We must needs die to this world that we may rise again to
that in accordance with God’s sentence, the law the curse may work itself out by our return to the dust of the earth from whence we are taken.
“Not My will, but Thine be done." In these words our Lord signifieth by “My will " His human will, and by the Father's will, His Own Divine Will. The wills of men are temporal, the Will God is eternal. There is not Will of the Father and another Will of the Son. There is but one Will, where there is but one God. Learn, nevertheless, from the example of Christ, to be resigned to God’s Will, and not to choose that which best pleaseth thyself, but that which thou knowest will best please God.
Eighth Lesson.
Then, let us consider the special meaning Of His different expressions. “My Soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." (Matth. xxvi. 38.) So also elsewhere He saith:
“Now is My Soul troubled." (John xii. 27.) It was not He Who had taken the Manhood unto God Who was troubled, but the Manhood Which He had so taken. The soul of man is able to be moved by divers feelings, but not so God. “The Spirit indeed is willing. but the Flesh is weak."(Matth. xxvi. 41.) That which was exceeding sorrowful was not Himself but His Soul. The Eternal Wisdom was not sorrowful, the Divine Being was not sorrowful, but the human Soul of Jesus was sorrowful. He had taken into the Godhead a Soul but a Soul of the same nature as mine. I am not deceived into thinking that it was one thing, when it seemed another. Sorrowful He seemed to be, and sorrowful He was—not at the thought Of His Own sufferings, but of our sins.
Ninth Lesson
Then He saith: “I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad.” (Matth. xxvi. 31.) He was sorrowful because He was leaving us orphans. But how resolutely He was giving Himself up to die is sufficiently clear by what followed, when He went to meet those that sought Him, when He calmed the agitated, when He nerved the timid, when He received the traitor himself with the condescension of a kiss. Neither is it other than the truth to say that He was sorrowful for their sakes who were hunting Him down, since He knew what a punishment they were to undergo for that unutterable crime. And because of all these things He said: "Let this cup pass from Me!” It was not that the Divine Son Of the Divine Being was afraid to die, but He would not that even wicked men should perish on His account.
The Mass
Introit
My heart is troubled within me;
the fear of death stands over me;
fear and trembling are come upon me (Ps 54:5-6).
V. O God, save me;
see how the waters close about me,
threatening my very life (Ps 68:2).
V. Glory.
Collect
Lord Jesus Christ,
whose word and example in the garden taught us to pray,
and thereby to overcome the perils of temptation,
grant us grace ever to be intent upon prayer,
and so to earn its abundant reward.
Epistle (Hebrews 5:5-10)
Brethren, Christ did not raise himself to the dignity of the high priesthood; it was God that raised him to it, when he said, you are my Son, I have begotten you this day, and so, elsewhere, You are a priest forever, in the line of Melchisedek. Christ, during his earthly life, offered prayer and entreaty to God who could save him from death, not without a piercing cry, not without tears; yet with such piety as won him a hearing. Son of God though he was, he learned obedience in the school of suffering, and now, his full achievement reached, he wins eternal salvation for all those who render obedience to him. A high priest in the line of Melchisedek, so God has called him.
Gradual
My heart is full of trouble, my life sinks ever closer to the grave.
V. I count as one of those who go down into the abyss,
a man past all help (Ps 87:4-5)
Tract
Listen to me, Lord, of thy gracious mercy,
look down upon me in the abundance of thy pity.
V. Do not turn thy face away from thy servant in this time of trouble,
give a speedy answer to my prayer (Ps 68:17-18).
V. Do not leave me now, when trouble is close at hand,
when I have none to help me (Ps 21:12).
Gospel (Luke 22:39-44)
At this time, Jesus went out, as his custom was, to mount Olivet, his disciples following him. When he reached the place, he said to them, Pray that you may not enter into temptation. Then he parted from them, going a stone’s throw off, and knelt down to pray; Father, he said, if it pleases you, take away this chalice from before me; only as your will is, not as mine is. And he had sight of an angel from heaven, encouraging him. And now he was in an agony, and prayed still more earnestly; his sweat fell to the ground like thick drops of blood.
Offertory
O God, save me;
see how the waters close about me,
threatening my very life (Ps 68:2).
Secret
Lord, by the merits of this holy sacrifice,
we beseech thee, cause us, who are schooled by thy divine instruction,
to spend ourselves so effectively in prayer,
that thy Son, Jesus Christ,
may find us at the hour of death,
watchful and free from sin.
Who with thee.
Communion (Matthew 26:41)
Watch and pray, that you may not enter into temptation:
the spirit is willing enough,
but the flesh is weak.
Postcommunion Refreshed with heavenly food, we humbly beseech thee, Almighty Father, that by virtue of the prayer of thy only-begotten Son, we who are set amidst such dangers to body and soul may be held worthy to come safely to the kingdom of heaven Through the same.
I'll be posting about Forgotten Feasts every Friday until Easter. If you like what I write here, be sure to check out my novel, Cain Son of Adam: A Gothic Tragedy, available in paperback and eBook formats on Amazon, and free to read on Kindle Unlimited.