APPENDIX I
On the Epiphany of the Lord, after the singing of the Gospel, a Deacon or cantor, in keeping with an ancient practice of Holy Church, announces from the ambo the moveable feasts of the current year according to this formula:
Know, dear brothers and sisters,
that, as we have rejoiced at the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ,
so by God's mercy we announce to you also
the joy of his Resurrection, who is our Saviour:
the fourteenth day of February will fall Ash Wednesday, and the beginning of the fast of the
most sacred Season of Lent.
On the thirty-first day of March you will celebrate with joy Easter Day, the Holy Passover of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
On the twelfth day of May will be the Ascension of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
On the nineteenth day of May the feast of Pentecost;
on the second day of June the feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.
On the first day of December the first Sunday of the Advent of our Lord, Jesus Christ,
to whom is honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Appendix II
Virgin Mother Mary, with trust we approach you. We, your preachers, fly to you who believed in the words sent from heaven and pondered them in your heart. We stand close around you, who are always present to the gathering of apostles.
In you the Word was made flesh, that same Word which we receive, contemplate, praise together and preach. Therefore, under your guidance we today devote ourselves anew to the ministry of the Word. Furthermore, we declare to you that, hearing with you the Word within ourselves and anointed by the Spirit, whose sacred vessel you pre-eminently are, we are consecrated in the name of Jesus Christ to the evangelization of the world.
With the eyes of your heart enlightened, you understood the mystery of the Word. Through you we, too, are able to perceive the presence of that same Word in the history of our time, so that we may finally contemplate him face to face.
Through you the Father sent his Son into the world that he might save it. Through you we will be powerful in the sight of your people, becoming witnesses of that truth which frees and of that love which unites.
To this place we have brought our needs and here we ponder them. Do you, Mother, give us strength and preserve the harmony of our family, so that what was begun by our profession may be brought to completion by our love for one another, for the salvation of the world and to the praise and glory of God.
Appendix III
24 December : Proclamation of the Lord's Birth
If celebrated at Morning Prayer, the Proclamation comes after the Final Prayer, the blessing being omitted.
The cantor goes to the pulpit and immediately begins with the announcement of the following day.
The community remain standing in choir.
[Eight days before the Kalends of January, N. day of the lunar month.]
Innumerable ages having passed since the creation of the world,
when in the beginning God created heaven and earth and formed mankind after his own image;
many centuries after the flood, when the Most High placed his rainbow in the heavens as a sign of peace and of the covenant;
twenty-one centuries after the going forth of Abraham, our father in faith, from Ur of the Chaldees;
thirteen centuries from the exodus of the people of Israel out of Egypt, led by Moses;
about one thousand years from the anointing of David as King;
in the sixty-fifth week according to the prophecy of Daniel;
in the one hundred and ninety-fourth Olympiad;
in the year seven hundred and fifty-two from the founding of the city of Rome;
in the forty-second year of the rule of Caesar Octavian Augustus;
when the whole world was at peace:
Jesus Christ, eternal God and Son of the eternal Father, being pleased to hallow the world by His most gracious coming,
having been conceived of the Holy Spirit, and nine months having passed since His conception,
having become Man,
was born at Bethlehem in Judah of the Virgin Mary.
Here all kneel. At a sign from the prior, all rise and the reader continues:
The Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh.
The cantor may continue with the Martyrology for the day:
[At Rome, the commemoration of Saint Anastasia, a martyr of Sirmium in Hungary.
Also at Rome, in the cemetery of Apronianus on the Latin Way, the martyr, Saint Eugenia.
Also at Rome on the Latin Way, the martyrs, Saints Basil and Jovinian.
At Cracow in Poland, Saint Adalbert Adam Chmielowski, a religious, an outstanding artist, who devoted himself to the poor, striving to assist them in all ways, and who founded Congregations of Brothers and Sisters of the Third Order of Saint Francis for the service of the poor.
V. Precious in the eyes of the Lord
R. Is the death of his faithful.]
| Short Reading | Heb 1: 8-12 |
Of the angels he says: "He makes his angels winds and his ministers a fiery flame"; but of the Son: "Your throne, O God, stands forever and ever; and a righteous sceptre is the sceptre of your kingdom. You loved justice and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions"; and: "At the beginning, O Lord, you established the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; and they will all grow old like a garment. You will roll them up like a cloak, and like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end." The word of the Lord. R. Thanks be to God.
[Rom 1: 1-3, 5-6 may be used as an alternative.]
Then the prior or hebdomadarian says the following prayer, without "Let us pray" :
May Holy Mary and all the saints intercede for us before the Lord,
that we may be worthy to be helped and saved by Him who lives and reigns for ever and ever.
R. Amen.
[Alternative prayers will be found in the Roman Martyrology (2004)]
May the Lord bless us, and keep us from all evil, and bring us to everlasting life.
And may the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
R. Amen.
V. Go in the peace of Christ. R. Thanks be to God.