Tuesday, November 09, 2004

St. Willibrord, Archbishop of Utrecht

That is the guy whose feast we celebrate today according to the kalendar that my denomination uses. The various continuing churches use slightly different kalendars. They differ mostly with regard to these minor saints. This saint, as most of the other ones we commemorate this month (e.g. Hilda of Whitby; John of the Cross; Catherine of Alexandria; etc.) are not found in the 1928 BCP. There are no propers, no prayers, no nothing. So I do not know why they are put on our kalendar. I have never been able to figure that out. I guess a priest could celebrate mass for them, and that the missal has some propers, but what is the layman supposed to do?

I mentioned something along these lines to the parish priest once and he says," They have propers in Lesser Feasts and Fasts.", which is a supplemental book that is authorized for use. The trouble is, however, that the edition that is authorized has been out of print for decades. When you mention that to these parsons they tell you to go and scour the used book stores to find one. Well, call me strange, but that just sounds silly to me - even if you could actually find one.

So, I will not commemorate this archbishop today in my daily prayers as I have no prayers to pray, and no readings to read. He should either be added to the BCP, or included in a supplemental bok that is still in print and could sold/given away at local parishes. Or he should be stricken from our kalendar altogether.