Ordo Queries

[John Ainslie]

Does this mean that Alma Redemptoris gives way to Ave Regina on the Monday after The Baptism of Our Lord? Or does this happen from February 2nd?

By tradition, after February 2nd. The General Instruction of the Divine Office (no 92) says that, at the end of Compline "one of the antiphons of the Blessed Virgin Mary is said. In Eastertide this is always Regina Caeli..." but it doesn't otherwise specify which is said (hopefully sung) when.

Now, consider the Sacred Triduum. Is any part of it in Lent? Is any part of it in Eastertide? How much of Easter Sunday is Triduum and how much is in Eastertide. Is it in both?

The Sacred Triduum lasts from Evening Mass/Prayer on Maundy Thursday to the end of Evening Prayer II of Easter Sunday. The latter is very specific: "The end of the Easter Triduum" - and oddly this directive is printed before Compline of Easter Sunday, so that is when Eastertide begins.

If you have, exceptionally, a Mass of the Last Supper earlier in the day on Maundy Thursday, this would count as part of the Triduum. But the Chrism Mass, even if it is celebrated on Maundy Thursday, is still within Lent.

[FrGareth]

Does this mean that Alma Redemptoris gives way to Ave Regina on the Monday after The Baptism of Our Lord? Or does this happen from February 2nd?

By tradition, after February 2nd. The General Instruction of the Divine Office (no 92) says that, at the end of Compline "one of the antiphons of the Blessed Virgin Mary is said. In Eastertide this is always Regina Caeli..." but it doesn't otherwise specify which is said (hopefully sung) when.

This is an interesting case where what the spirit of the current liturgy might not chime with tradition. My own personal practice is to use the Salve Regina in Ordinary Time, because it seems to me that the spirit of the liturgy would be to synchronize the choice of Marian antiphon with the current seasons in the current calendar... but there again I also tend to use Regina Caeli on every Sunday Compline outside Lent. And I have been known to use the O Sanctissima during Lent or on Fridays!