Customs of the Post Pentecost Season

1. Trinity Sunday

Though the mystery of the Holy Trinity is the greatest dogma of the Christian faith and the Feast
of the Holy Trinity one of the beloved annual feasts of Christianity, there are not many customs
or rituals quintessentially associated with this day. It has always been the custom, however, to
keep this day with great reverence and solemnity. Festivals after Mass featuring thunderous
preachers and thunderous bands aroused their listeners to joyful heights, while Holy Trinity
Confraternities (which were once very influential) would sponsor special events and devotions
on this their name day.

Superstition also ascribed great powers to the weather on Holy Trinity Sunday,
regardless of what it was: "Trinity rain" was considered as healthy as "Trinity
sunshine."

2. Feast of St. John the Baptist (June 24)

John the Baptist has the honor of being the only other person besides the Blessed Virgin and our
Lord whose birthday the Church celebrates with a special feast. No doubt this has something to
do with the unique role that John plays in the economy of salvation. As the "Precursor of the
Lord" and the greatest of the prophets (Lk. 7.28), John was given the commission of preparing
the way for the Son of God. In the Confiteor he is ranked higher than Saints Peter and Paul, and
is subordinate only to the Blessed Virgin and St. Michael the Archangel. (Tradition holds that
like the prophet Jeremiah, John was consecrated in the womb to be free from all mortal sin.) But
there is also something special about his birthday itself: John's conception in the womb of his
aged mother Elizabeth was miraculous, as was the Angel Gabriel's prophecy about his mission
and name (Lk. 1.5-26, 41-80). Even the birthday's location in the year is profoundly significant:
because of the summer solstice, the days begin to grow shorter and shorter after his birthday. The
days after Christ's birthday, on the other hand, begin to lengthen. Hence John's statement about
Jesus, "He must increase and I must decrease" (Jn. 3.30), is echoed in the cycle of the cosmos.
No wonder that in speaking of John, the Archangel Gabriel declares, "many shall rejoice in his
birthday" (Lk. 1.14).

St. John Bonfires

Tying into this theme of increasing and decreasing light is the St. John (sin-jen)
bonfire traditionally lit on the night before the Feast. The mood surrounding this
solemn vigil is merry, since the day was regarded as a sort of summer Christmas. The Roman
ritual even includes a special benedictio rogi, or blessing of the bonfire, for the birthday of the
Baptist:

Lord God, Father almighty, unfailing Light who is the Source of all light: sanctify this
new fire, and grant that after the darkness of this life we may be able to come with pure
minds to Thee who art Light unfailing. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
 Domine Deus, Pater omnipotens, lumen indeficiens, qui es conditor omnium luminum:
novum hunc ignem sanctifica, et praesta: ut ad te, qui es lumen indeficiens, puris
mentibus post hujus saeculi caliginem pervenire valeamus. Per Christum Dominum
nostrum. Amen.

The bonfire, incidentally, is an excellent symbol for John, the untamed prophet who lived outside
the city both literally and figuratively. It also makes an interesting contrast with the Paschal
candal. On Easter vigil, a similarly "wild" fire representing Christ is made outside and is used to
light the Paschal candle, which is then carried into the church. Significantly, in the Exultet the
deacon praises this candle as the product of a beehive, symbol of a virtuous and harmonious city.
The idea seems to be that Christ is also an outsider, though he succeeds through his death and
resurrection in bringing the light of truth into the very citadel of darkness. On the other hand,
John, who never lived to see Christ's triumph, can only bear witness to the light from the outside.

A Great Leap in the Study of Music

We should also mention the breviary hymn for the Feast of St. John
the Baptist: Ut queant laxis. Tradition ascribes the hymn to Paul the
Deacon, who purportedly wrote it before having to sing the difficult
Exultet on Holy Saturday night. (Paul was suffering from a hoarse throat and, remembering how
Zechariah, the father of St. John, was cured from a case of muteness, thought it best to direct his
prayers to the Baptist). What makes Ut queant laxis most famous, however, is that it is the source
of our musical scale, do, re, mi. An attentive medieval monk noticed that the melody of the hymn
ascended precisely one note of the diatonic scale of C at each verse. Taking the first stanza, he
decided to name the notes after the first syllable of each verse:

UT queant laxis REsonare fibris

MIra gestorum
FAmuli tuorum,
SOLve polluti LAbii reatum, SancTe Ioannes.

With the exception of Ut, which was later changed to Do for ease of pronunciation, these
syllables became the first six notes of our scale: Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La. And this stanza also
ended up providing the name of the seventh note, Ti, which was later taken from the last syllable
of the penultimate word and the first syllable of the last word of the stanza: "T" from Sancte and
"I" from Ioannes. The names for the notes to our basic Western musical octave therefore come
from the hymn for today's feast.

3. Feast of Corpus Christi

At the age of sixteen, a humble Belgian girl began having visions of a bright
moon marred by a small black spot. After years of seeing this perplexing
portent, Jesus Christ appeared to her and revealed its meaning. The moon, He
told her, represented the Church calendar, and the black spot the absence of a
feast in honor of the Blessed Sacrament. That nun was St. Juliana, Prioress
of Mont Cornillon (1258), and the Feast she was commissioned by our Lord to promote was the
feast of Corpus Christi.
Even before its universal promotion in 1314, Corpus Christi was one of the grandest feasts of
the Roman rite. At the request of Pope Urban IV (d. 1264), the Mass propers and divine office
for this day were composed or arranged by St. Thomas Aquinas, whose teaching on the Real
Presence was so profound that the figure of Jesus Christ once descended from a crucifix and
declared to him, "Thou hast written well of me, Thomas." The mastery with which Aquinas
weaves together the scriptural, poetic, and theological texts of this feast amply corroborates this
conclusion.

Processions & Pageants

Though Maundy Thursday is in a sense the primary

feast of the Blessed Sacrament, Corpus Christi allows
the faithful to specially reflect on and give thanks for
the Eucharist. Hence there arose a number of
observances centered on Eucharistic adoration. The
most conspicuous of these is the splendid Corpus
Christi procession. This public profession of the
Catholic teaching on the Real Presence of Christ in
the Blessed Sacrament was solemnly encouraged by
the Council of Trent: there is even an indulgence
attached to all who participate in it. By the 1600s, the procession on Corpus Christi had become
the most famous of the year. Long parades of faithful walk with the Blessed Sacrament (carried
in a monstrance by the priest) while church bells peal and bands play. In Latin countries, the
streets are blanketed with boughs and flowers, often elaborately woven together. Sometimes a
variation on the custom of Stations is employed where the procession stops at several points for
benediction and adoration.

By its very nature, the Corpus Christi procession encouraged pageantry. In addition to the
grandeur mentioned above, vivid symbolic reenactments of various teachings became a part of
the procession. During the height of baroque piety, people impersonating demons would run
along aside the Blessed Sacrament, pantomining their fright and fear of the Real Presence.
Others would dress as ancients gods and goddesses to symbolize how even the pagan past must
rise and pay homage to Christ. Still others would carry all sorts of representations of sacred
history: Moses and the serpent, David and Goliath, the Easter lamb, the Blessed Virgin, etc. But
the most popular of all these was the custom of having children dress as angels. Appearing in
white (with or without wings), these boys and girls would precede the Blessed Sacrament as
symbols of the nine choirs of heavenly hosts who ever adore the Panis Angelicum, the Bread of
Angels.

At Holy Trinity German Church, the Corpus Christi procession was the most important of the
year. One witness to the procession of 1851 wrote:

The girls, clad in white, with lilies in their hands, groups of symbolic figures, with
banner and flags, the boys with staffs and rods, all the associations of the parish
with their signs and symbols and burning candles, finally the flower-strewing
little children preceding the clergy -- all these made a fantastic impression (from
Holy Trinity German Catholic Church of Boston: A Way of Life, Robert J.
Sauer (Dallas, TX: Taylor Publishing, 1994), p. 49)
Plays

Medieval piety is famous, among other things, for its mystery plays, theatrical
pieces held after Mass on great feast days that dramatized the lesson or mystery
of the day. These effective didactic tools were enormously popular, but perhaps
none so much as those held on Corpus Christi. Shakespeare gives an oblique allusion to them
when he has Prince Hamlet speak of the Termagant, a violent, overbearing woman in long robes
who appeared often in these productions (Hamlet III.ii). Favorite medieval saints, such as George
and Margaret, would often be the protagonists, though the details and plot varied from place to
place. Perhaps the most famous of these plays are the Autos Sacramentales (Plays of the
Sacrament) by Fr. Pedro Calderon de la Barca (1681).

Day of Wreaths

In some places of Europe Corpus Christi is known as the Day of wreaths. Exquisite wreaths of
flowers are used in the pageants, either perched on banners, houses, and arches that stretch over
the street, or worn by the participants of the procession. The monstrance containing the Blessed
Sacrament could also be adorned with a bouquet of flowers. After the solemnities these beautiful
decorations would be taken home as keepsakes and posted over gardens and fields for blessing
and protection.

Hymns

Special mention must be made of the exquisite hymns written by St. Thomas Aquinas
for this feast and their subsequent popularity. Aquinas wrote four: Verbum Supernum
Prodiens (for Lauds), Pange Lingua Gloriosi (Vespers), Sacris Solemniis (Matins),
and Lauda Sion Salvatoris (Mass sequence). Parts of these, in turn, were used as
separate hymns. The famous Tantum ergo Sacramentum used at Benediction is taken from
Pange Lingua and O salutaris hostia is taken from Verbum Supernum, while Panis Angelicus is
taken from Sacris Solemniis. These hymns have become cherished treasures of Catholic devotion
and worship and should be sung with gusto on this great feast.

4. The Feast of the Assumption (August 15th)

Processions

Most likely the oldest and certainly the highest annual feast day of Mary, the Feast of the
Assumption is held in both east and west as a day of great solemnity. Processions would wind
their way either through cities and towns in order to publicly honor Mary or through fields in
order to pray for God's blessing upon the harvest. Marian hymns would be sung and statues of
the Blessed Virgin carried. In some places there would even be a dramatic representation of
the mystery of the assumption. The statue of Mary would be carried through town to an elaborate
arch of flowers symbolizing the gate of Heaven. From here another statue, a statue of Christ,
would greet "her" and conduct her to the church as a symbol of her entrance into eternal glory.
The procession would then conclude with Benediction.
 Blessing of Herbs and Fruits

The Church "baptized" an old pre-Christian belief in the great healing power of herbs
picked in August by instituting a ritual for the blessing of herbs and fruits on the
Feast of the Assumption. Since that time, Christians from both East and West have
blessed herbs and fruit on the Feast of the Assumption in the belief that these sacramentals
provide protection against harm and danger. But this custom also hearkens back to the Hebrew
observance of the harvest, and more importantly, it teaches us something about our Lady's role in
the economy of salvation. Eve foolishly used herbs (fig leaves) to hide and aggravate her sin,
thereby bringing about a disorder of body and soul (Gen. 3.7). By contrast, Mary, the new Eve
whose soul and body are untouched by sin or the decay of death (as we celebrate on this day),
foreshadows a healing of our corporeal frailties, a healing represented by herbs. Likewise, fruits
are an appropriate symbol for the new Eve because she never ate of the forbidden fruit but
brought forth only the fruit of good works and, most importantly, the Fruit of her womb, Jesus
Christ. The blessed fruit thus betokens the fruit of a holy and generous life which we are called
to enjoy from our Lord through the patronage of His mother.

In any case the solemn blessing of herbs and fruits on this day became so popular that in central
Europe August 15 was simply called Our Lady's Herb Day. Usually these blessings would take
place before Mass and would involve whatever was brought by the congregation to the church.
Afterwards the herbs would be kept for medicinal use while the fruit would be served at dinner .
The following is one of the special blessings from the Roman ritual that is used for herbs and
fruits on Assumption Day :

O God, who by Moses Thy servant didst command the children of Israel to carry their
sheaves of new fruits to the priests for a blessing, to take the finest fruits of the orchards,
and to make merry before Thee, the Lord their God: Kindly hear our supplications, and
pour forth the abundance of Thy blessing upon us and upon these sheaves of new grain,
new herbs, and assortment of fruits, which we gratefully present to Thee and which we
bless on this feast in Thy name. And grant that men, cattle, sheep, and beasts of burden
may find in them a remedy against sickness, pestilence, sores, injuries, spells, the poison
of snakes, and the bites of other venomous and nonvenomous creatures. And may they
bring protection against diabolical illusions, machinations, and deceptions wherever they
are kept or carried, or with whatever arrangement is made of them: that with sheaves of
good works and through the merits of the Blessed Virgin Mary whose Feast of the
Assumption we celebrate, we may deserve to be lifted up to heaven. Through our Lord
Jesus Christ, Thy son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God unto endless ages. Amen.

The blessing of herbs and fruits has also led to the lovely custom of giving
and receiving baskets of fruit on the Feast of the Assumption, a custom
which was especially popular in Sicily.

Blessing of Nature

Just as Mary's assumption into heaven signifies her purity of

body and soul, so too does it remind us of her freedom from
the curses of the Fall, such as having to live by the sweat of
one's brow on a land that yields only thorns and thistles (Gen.
3.18,19). It is perhaps for this reason that the Feast or the
 Octave of the Assumption was a favorite time for blessing the
scene of man's labors,
especially those
related to the
production of
food. In western
Europe, for
example, fields
would often be
blessed by the
parish priest,
while in America
and Latin Blessing of the Fleet, a Rhode Island Port, ca. 1950s
countries
Assumption Day
is traditionally the
occasion for
blessing the
fishing fleets of
coastal towns.
Also tying into
this theme of
nature is the
German and
Austrian
time Mary is invoked for assistance or thanked for the autumn
harvest of grains. This period lasts from Assumption Day until
September 15, the Feast of the Seven custom of Our Lady's
Thirty Days (Frauendreissiger), during which Sorrow of the
Blessed Virgin. Legend states that nature is particularly
benign during this time: snakes do not bite, wild animals do
not attack, and food picked within the thirty days is especially
wholesome. Finally, parts of England and Ireland observe
Our Lady's Health Bathing, where bathing in rivers, lakes,
the ocean, or any natural body of water is considered
particularly good for one's health.

5. Michaelmas (September 29th)

The anniversary of the dedication of St. Michael the Archangel's basilica outside
of Rome by Pope Boniface II in 530 A.D. affords the Church the opportunity to
honor one of its most significant saints. Tradition holds that Michael is the
heavenly spirit who cast Satan and his minions into Hell after their revolt from
God. As the "Governor of Heaven" (Praepositus Paradisi), he is ranked only below the Mother
of God in the Confiteor. The Roman church also identifies him as the angel whom St. John saw
in heaven standing near the altar of God and offering the prayers of the saints like an odor of
sweetness (see the offertory blessing of incense at a High Mass). He is also singled out in the
Requiem Mass as the banner-bearer who leads the departed to purgatory and heaven (see
offertory prayers). Finally, Michael's victory over the devil's army renders him not only the
patron saint of souls, but of Christian soldiers. All of this leads to the conclusion that Michael is
one of our most potent allies and helps us see why the Roman rite has traditionally venerated him
with such affection and respect.

Consequently, Michaelmas (pronounced "mikk-el-mes") was one of the great public holidays
and religious feasts of early and medieval Europe. Saint Michael's parades, Michael's fairs,
Michael's Plays, etc. would in many places constitute the climax of autumn harvest celebrations.
Michaelmas also coincided with the "quarter days" in Northern Europe, one of the four times in
the year when free men would sit in court, make laws, and pay rents. It was also a good day for
enjoying wine.

6. The Feast of Christ the King (last Sunday of October)

Pope Pius XI instituted this feast in 1929 as a solemn affirmation of our Lord's
kingship over every human society. Pius saw the proliferation of secularism,
particularly in government, as one of the greatest heresies of our time, a heresy that
leads not only to an atrophy of faith but to a decay of civilization. Pius' intention in
combatting this pernicious error is aptly summed up in the stanzas of the Vespers
hymn for today, Te saeculorum Principem:

May heads of nations fear Thy name

And spread Thy honor through their lands,
Our nation's laws, our arts proclaim
The beauty of Thy just commands.

Let kings the crown and sceptre hold

As pledge of Thy supremacy;
And Thou all lands, all tribes enfold
In one fair realm of charity.

The Feast of Christ the King is therefore an important holyday that bears poignantly on our
contemporary political world (it is also. A significant part of this eschatological time of year.)
The chief practice Pius XI wished to be observed on this day was making an Act of Dedication
of the Human Race to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a prayer which can be found in old editions
of the Raccolta and in the current Enchiridion of indulgences (the Church continues to grant a
plenary indulgence, under the usual conditions, for the devout recitation of this prayer on the
Feast).

However, because the feast is less than a hundred years old, no other distinctive customs or
rituals have yet accrued to its observance. This leaves a vacuum into which we can offer only the
most unauthoritative suggestions. In our opinion, for example, wreath customs similar to those
from the Feast of Corpus Christi would be a good way of observing the day, as a wreath
betokens the supreme symbol of kingship, the crown. Likewise, a lamb dinner would hearken to
the vision given in today's Introit (there is even a blessing for the lamb from the Roman ritual
that could be used). In any case, the Feast should be used as an occasion for solemnly affirming
Christ as the King of our heart and of our country.
7. All Saints' Day & All Souls' Days (November 1st & 2nd)

Praying for the Dead

In the Roman liturgical books, the celebration of All Saints' Day ends in the afternoon. When it
is time for evening Vespers, the office for the Dead is recited in preparation for All Souls' Day.
Those who do not use the breviary have followed the same pattern as well. Beginning at sunset
on All Saints' Day, families gather in one room, extinguish all lights except the blessed candle
that had been saved since Candlemas Day, and pray for the souls of their departed loved ones.
In Brittany a group of men would actually go from farm to farm at night, shouting: "Christians
awake; pray to God for the souls of the dead, and say the Pater and Ave for them." The
household would reply "Amen" and rise in prayer.

Visiting the Dead

The laudable custom of visiting the dead may begin as early as the afternoon of All
Saints' Day and may continue as late as the following week, but the most popular time
is during All Souls' Day itself. Families travel, often at great distance and in their best
apparel, to visit the graves of friends and relatives, lighting candles, bringing flowers,
and kneeling there in prayer. Processions can be conducted where the priest leads the
congregation in litanies for the dead and blesses the graves with holy water. Often times these
graves are decorated and groomed the week before, so that when the day of commemoration
comes, everything is suitably prepared.

Other Customs

The Day of the Dead is also a traditional time for penance and charity. Giving food to the poor,
for example, is a popular corporal work of mercy on All Souls' Day.

The "Octave" of the Dead

The Church has never instituted an octave for All Souls' Day (though prior to 1955 it had one for
All Saints' Day). Nevertheless, popular piety has extended all of the afore-mentioned customs
over an eight day period. The Church has encouraged this in at least one way: it grants a plenary
indulgence, under the usual conditions, to anyone who visits cemeteries from November 1 to 8.