Saturday, June 15, 2019

Why Did the Octave of Pentecost Go?



I just came across this quote by Loius Bouyer on the incomprehensible and regrettable suppression of the Octave of Pentecost.

"I would rather say nothing, or close to nothing, on the new calendar, the work of a maniac trio, suppressing without any serious reason Septuagesima and the Pentecost Octave, and flinging three-quarters of the saints to no matter where, according to their own ideas."

"Je préfère ne rien dire ou si peu que rien du nouveau calendrier, oeuvre d’un trio de maniaques, supprimant sans aucun motif sérieux la Septuagésime e l’octave de Pentecote, et balançant les trois quarts des saints n’importe où, en fonction d’idées à eux". (Mémoires, Paris 2014, 199-200.)
P.S. Pentecost Saturday is an Ember Day, a traditional day of penance. Do prayers and penance for the sanctification of the clergy! "[The Ember Days] are days of fasting for the special sanctification of the four seasons and for obtaining God's blessing on the clergy, for whose ordination the Ember Saturdays are specially set apart." TAN Saints Calendar