October 27 Ferial Day (What is a Ferial Day?)

 

 

 INTROIT Esth. 13:9, 10-11
All things depend on Your will, O Lord, and there is no one who can resist Your will. For You have made all things, heaven and earth, and all things that are under the canopy of heaven. You are the Lord of all.
Ps. 118:1. Blessed are they who are undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord.
V. Glory be . . .

COLLECT
Keep Your family under Your continual care, O Lord. Shelter it with Your protection from all adversity, that it may be zealous in doing good for the honor of Your name. Through our Lord . . .

EPISTLE Eph. 6:10-17
Brethren, be strengthened in the Lord and in the might of his power. Put you on the armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil.
For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places.
Therefore, take unto you the armour of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day and to stand in all things perfect. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth and having on the breastplate of justice: And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. In all things taking the shield of faith, wherewith you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one. And take unto you the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit (which is the word of God).

GRADUAL Ps. 89:1-2
O Lord, You have been our refuge through all generation.
V. Before the mountains were made, or the earth was formed, from eternity to eternity You are God.

Alleluia, alleluia! V. Ps. 113:1.
When Israel went out from Egypt, the house of Jacob fled from a barbarous people. Alleluia!

GOSPEL Matt. 18:23-35
At that time, Jesus spoke to his disciples this parable: "The kingdom of heaven likened to a king, who would take an account of his servants. And when he had begun to take the account, one as brought to him, that owed him ten thousand talents. And as he had not wherewith to pay it, his lord commanded that he should be sold, and his wife and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made. But that servant falling down, besought him, saying: 'Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.' And the lord of that servant being moved with pity, let him go and forgave him the debt.
"But when that servant was gone out, he found one of his fellow-servants that owed him an hundred pence: and laying hold of him, he throttled him, saying: 'Pay what thou owest.' And his fellow-servant falling down, besought him, saying: 'Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.' And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he paid the debt.
"Now his fellow servants seeing what was done, were very much grieved, and they came, and told their lord all that was done. Then his lord called him: and said to him: 'Thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all the debt, because thou besoughtest me: Shouldst not thou then have had compassion also on thy fellow servant, even as I had compassion on thee?' And his lord being angry, delivered him to the torturers until he paid all the debt. So also shall my heavenly Father do to you, if you forgive not every one his brother from your hearts."

OFFERTORY ANTIPHON Job 1:2
There was a man in the land of Hus, whose name was Job, simple and upright, and fearing God. Satan asked that he might tempt him, and power was given Satan from the Lord over Job's possessions and his flesh; and Satan destroyed all his substance and his children, and afflicted his body with a grievous ulcer.

SECRET
O Lord, graciously accept this offering which You in Your boundless mercy instituted to atone for our sins and to restore salvation to us. Through our Lord . . .

COMMUNION ANTIPHON Ps. 118:81, 84, 86
My soul looks to Your salvation, and in Your word have I hoped. When will You come in judgment for those who persecute me? The wicked have persecuted me; help me, O Lord my God.

POSTCOMMUNION
We have been seeking the food of immortality and implore Thee, O Lord, that with its savour still on our tongues, we may with pure hearts continue to pursue it. Through our Lord . . .

 Question:
What is a Ferial Day?


This information is from the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1917.

A feria (Latin for "free day") was a day on which the people, especially the slaves, were not obliged to work, and on which there were no court sessions. In ancient Rome the feriae publicae, legal holidays, were either stativae (recurring regularly, e.g. the Saturnalia), conceptivae (i.e. movable), or imperativae (i.e. appointed for special occasions).

When Christianity spread, on the feriae (feasts) instituted for worship by the Church, the faithful were obliged to attend Mass; such assemblies gradually led, for reasons both of necessity and convenience, to mercantile enterprise and market gatherings which the Germans call Messen, and the English fairs. They were fixed on saints' days (e.g. St Bartholomew's Fair in London, St Germanus's fair, St Wenn's fair, etc.).

In the Roman Rite liturgy, the term feria is used to denote days of the week other than Sunday and Saturday. Various reasons are given for this terminology. The sixth lesson for December 31 in the pre-1962 Roman Breviary says that Pope Sylvester I ordered the continuance of the already existing custom "that the clergy, daily abstaining from earthly cares, would be free to serve God alone". Others believe that the Church simply Christianized a Jewish practice. The Jews frequently counted the days from their Sabbath, and so we find in the Gospels such expressions as una Sabbati and prima Sabbati, the first from the Sabbath. The early Christians reckoned the days after Easter in this fashion, but, since all the days of Easter week were holy days, they called Easter Monday, not the first day after Easter, but the second feria or feast day; and since every Sunday is the dies Dominica, a lesser Easter day, the custom prevailed to call each Monday a feria secunda, and so on for the rest of the week. The only modern language that fully preserves this Latin ecclesiastical style of naming weekdays is Portuguese, which uses the terms segunda-feira, etc. Greek uses very similar terms, but without the Latin-derived feira.

A day on which no saint is celebrated is called a feria (and the celebration is referred to as ferial, the adjectival form of feria). In the present form of the Roman Rite, certain ferias, especially those of Lent, exclude celebration of memorials occurring on the same day, though the prayer of the memorial may be used in place of that of the feria, except on Ash Wednesday and in Holy Week, which exclude even solemnities and feasts.

The Code of Rubrics of Pope John XXIII (1960) divided ferias into four classes:[1]

Class I: Ash Wednesday and the whole of Holy Week.
Class II: Advent from 17 December to 23 December and Ember Days.
Class III: Lent and Passiontide from the day after Ash Wednesday to the day before the Second Sunday in Passiontide, excluding Ember Days.
Class IV: all other ferias.

In pre-1960 forms of the Roman Rite, ferias were divided into major and minor. The major ferias, which required at least a commemoration even on the highest feast days, were the ferias of Advent and Lent, the Ember days, and the Monday of Rogation week; all others were called minor.