Medieval manuscript (Durham Cathedral collection)
Portsmouth and the EBC. As we continue our series on the temporal aspects of liturgy, how it expresses our experience of time, it may be helpful to take a step back to survey the larger picture. Such an overview of the time of liturgy is found in the liturgical calendar, notably in what is called an “ordo.” Portsmouth Abbey relies in large part on the ordo of the English Benedictine Congregation (EBC), published annually. This year’s is formally entitled “Ordo for the Liturgy of the Hours & the Eucharist in the Monasteries of the English Benedictine Congregation for the Year of Our Lord 2023.” It is published “By order of the Right Reverend Dom Christopher Jamison OSB, Abbot President.” This volume includes “General Notes” which explain a variety of liturgical rules and practices, a necrology of the previous two years, instructions on suffrages for the dead, indulgences, and contact information. But the centerpiece of the ordo is its liturgical calendar, running from January through December, providing the daily requirements for Mass and the Divine Office. Portsmouth Abbey, like other houses of the congregation, may supplement or select various options on the days of optional memorials. The distinctive moments in the Portsmouth ordo are posted monthly in the church by Brother Joseph, with supplemental information available on the sacristy bulletin board, the “go to” source for the monastic community in keeping track of liturgy, together with the EBC ordo which remains open for consultation in the sacristy chapel.
EBC ordo excerpt from March 15-22, 2023
Paulist Press Edition. The most widely utilized ordo in the United States is published by Paulist Press. It, too, must be consulted for important feasts within the Diocese of Providence. Father Peter Rocca, C.S.C., who has produced this ordo for nearly forty years, spoke last year with “Adoremus” about this ordo and its significance. His love of the liturgy was fostered during his time at the Holy Cross Fathers’ high school seminary on the campus of the University of Notre Dame. Following graduate work in liturgical studies, he returned to Moreau Seminary at Notre Dame serving since 1980 as the Director of Liturgy and Music, as Director of Province Liturgies. Fr. Rocca describes an ordo as, “a guide to the order (from the Latin, ordo) of prayer in the Liturgy of the Hours and the celebration of the Eucharist. An ordo, at the very least, will give you the following information: the day as it is observed in the liturgical calendar (Feria, Memorial [Obligatory or Optional], Feast, Solemnity, the Sunday celebration); the readings of the day’s Mass; the daily Office for the Liturgy of the Hours; and any pertinent rubrics (e.g., during the Season of Lent, the alleluia is omitted).” Such a “barebones ordo” is found in the Latin Ordo Missæ Celebrandæ et Divini Officii Persolvendi, published by Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Fr. Rocca supplements these “barebones” with pastoral guidance: “each day contains a daily precis of the readings for Mass to encourage the homily as part of the liturgical action and to assist in its preparation, and the responsorial psalm is included to further assist in the preparation of the Liturgy of the Word.” He also adds suggested presidential prayers that can be used at Mass, as well as scriptural suggestions on Ferias and Optional Memorials in Ordinary Time “as to which prayers from the Roman Missal might best provide a connection with the readings of the day, especially the Gospel selection.” Several editions of this ordos are produced for the various dioceses of the United States to incorporate local feasts. The Diocese of Providence shares its Paulist ordo with the archdiocese of Hartford, and the dioceses of Bridgeport and Norwich, all in the neighboring state of Connecticut. The Paulist Press website numbers 40 distinct ordos that it publishes for different geographic regions or religious groupings, such as Carmelites, Capuchins, Holy Cross USA, Conventuals, and more. It also includes a daily necrology for every bishop, priest, and deacon of a particular diocese who died on a particular day.
How to "Decode" the Ordo. An article from a parish website provides an article to help the reader “decode” the ordo and all of its codes and abbreviations (triparishes.org):