23 January 2011

A Triad of Divine Services

This week will find the St. Paul's family celebrating the joys of:

St. Timothy (Monday, January 24) - 6 p.m. Divine Service
Conversion of St. Paul (Tuesday, January 25) - 6 p.m. Divine Service
St. Titus (Wednesday, January 26) - 6 p.m. Divine Service

If you can join us for these festival days, please do!

"Masses are celebrated among us every Lord's Day and on the other festivals.  The Sacrament is offered to those who wish to use it after they have been examined and absolved.  And the usual public ceremonies are observed, the series of lessons, of prayers, vestments and other such things."  Ap. XXIV:1

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did Timothy and Titus have separate feast days prior to Vatican II? Or is the separate feast days a Lutheran innovation?

William Weedon said...

Rome observed Timothy on Jan. 24 and Titus, historically, on Feb. 6. Loehe's Sanctoral Calendar has the same:

http://www.lexorandi.org/sanctoral.html

Rome at Vatican II, put the Sts. together on the day following St. Paul's Conversion. So the Lutheran calendar is actually a tad more conservative than the current Roman one in that it leaves St. Timothy where he was, but it does move St. Titus (I suppose to keep him grouped together with St. Paul).

Bishop Robert Lyons said...

Pastor Weedon,

I have noted that the LCMS celebrates Silas, but treats it more akin to a commemoration than a feast (i.e., no Eucharistic proper in the Prayers of the Day book, anyway). At the same time, I have seen both ELCA and ECUSA move towards merging Silas into Timothy and Titus. I am curious as to why the LCMS didn't bump Titus up a notch. Scarcity of biblical discussion of his life and work?

As an aside... given Timothy's generally accepted status as a Martyr and Titus' as a confessor, merging the two feasts always seemed to miss out on something to me... of course, with Silas also historically being accounted a martyr... it seems that it would make more sense to merge Timothy and Silas if one was going to merge... but oh well.

Rob+