I have puzzled for years over this liturgical note on page 575 of the current English Breviary volume, right after Evening Prayer II for Epiphany:
Where the solemnity of Epiphany is celebrated on the Sunday between January 2 and January 8, on the days following the Epiphany, the proper parts are taken from below, unless January 7 or 8 occurs on Sunday in which case Ordinary Time begins on the following day, the feast of the Baptism of the Lord being omitted.
That would mean that this coming Monday is not the Baptism of the Lord. A sad thought! The strange thing is, the Roman Missal explicitly says that this coming Monday is the Baptism of the Lord, which feast is never omitted. Hmmm. Why do the Breviary and the Roman Missal conflict?
This year, it finally occurred to me to check the editio typica of the Breviary. Here’s a wooden translation of the Latin:
In regions where the solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord is celebrated on a Sunday that occurs anywhere from January 2 through January 8, on the following days the proper parts are taken again from below, 494, unless the Sunday occurs on January 7 or 8, in which case the Office of the feast of the Baptism of the Lord is celebrated on the following day as indicated 537-550, with the psalms for the middle hour being taken from Day II of Week I with the antiphons of the feast; the shorter reading, verse and prayer are likewise taken from the feast; but for Compline the psalms are for Day II. The Day III following ordinary time begins, vol. III.
No conflict. How on earth our English “translation” came up with that gaff, I’ll never know. But it was the late sixties / early seventies, so one must make allowances.
UPDATE: A friend suggested I look at what year the Latin was published. In fact, the English translation was prepared in 1975 while the Latin edition I have was published in 1985. Very probably the Latin text of this rubric changed and the English was never updated.
Time to get crackin’ on that updated translation!
