Readings and responsories for Passiontide

This week marks the start of Passiontide, and with it we shift from the Old Testament Patriarch histories to Jeremiah and Lamentations (which was often considered a part of Jeremiah rather than a separate book in early compilations).

Jeremiah

This Sunday's first Nocturn readings traditionally mark the start of the reading of Jeremiah.

The primary reason for Jeremiah's traditional position in the lead up to Easter lies in its promise of a new covenant to come, in chapter 31:31-34:

Behold the days shall come, saith the Lord, and I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Juda: Not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt: the covenant which they made void, and I had dominion over them, saith the Lord. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, after those days, saith the Lord: I will give my law in their bowels, and I will write it in their heart: and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying: Know the Lord: for all shall know me from the least of them even to the greatest, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

Jeremiah and Lamentations make particularly appropriate reading for our current times, so if you are self-siolating and have a bit of time on your hands, perhaps a good challenge to round off Lent with!

The responsories

Most - though not all - of the responsories for this period have texts taken from the psalms.

There are three sets of psalm based responsories - for Epiphanytide, Passiontide and Eastertide - and some have conjectured that they may represent the oldest layer of responsories. 

There isn't much by way of hard external or internal evidence for this proposition: while its true that psalm based Graduals seem to be the oldest in the Mass, that principle doesn't necessarily automatically translate across to the Office, where responsories play a very different function. 

All the same, it is notable that they appear in three of the oldest seasons (albeit not for the oldest feasts, viz Easter itself, Pentecost and Epiphany and Christmas).

And this particular set are very clearly appropriate to the season, foreshadowing the coming Passover feast, events of Holy Week, and Christ's prayers at this time.

The patristic readings

 As during Lent, the Scriptural readings have been displaced, from the tenth century onwards, in first Passion week, by Patristic sermons on the Gospel of the Mass of the day on weekdays.