Sunday, January 8, 2012

Baptism of the Lord, or no?

My print breviaries, both the 1976 Catholic Book Publishing edition, and the 2007 Mundelein  Psalter, state that when the Epiphany is observed on January 8th, that the feast of the Baptism of the Lord is omitted, and one goes back to Ordinary Time on Monday, Jan. 9th.

On the other hand, my parish calendar clearly says "Baptism of the Lord" for tomorrow, and the two online breiviaries that I checked both have the office of the Baptism in the queue for tomorrow.

I forgot to check tomorrow's mass in the missalette when I was at mass today, so I don't know what that says about Monday morning's mass.

Personally, I like the Christmas season to last as long as possible, so it will be the Baptism office for me. But I'm curious about this conflict. Did the United  States bishops decide in very recent years to carry the Baptism over to Monday as a revision of the liturgical calendar?  I don't remember what happened that last time we had this situation.

If any of you have an explanation for the discrepancy between print breviaries and everything else, let us know.

What I do know is this: sad as it is to see the Christmas season draw to a close, it's always something of a relief to get back to ordinary time after one of the most confusing weeks, liturgy-wise, in the entire year.

PS We'll be on Tuesday, week I on Tuesday.
PPS Update! Just checked the USCCB calendar, and it too has the Baptism for Monday. So it's official.