Office (liturgy)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The high mass of the diocese pilgrimage in the Boniface year on the Erfurt cathedral steps.

Office , also holy office , is the popular name in the Catholic Church for a form of holy mass and denotes the main mass of a parish on Sundays and public holidays, which is distinguished by sung elements ( Missa cantata ) from the silent , "read" mass ( Missa lecta ) difference. "Office" is the translation of Latin (summum) officium "(highest / s) service", "office", corresponding to ancient Greek λειτουργία leiturgía "public service", from λαός / λειτός laós, leitós "people", "crowd" and ἔργον érgon “work”, “service” ( liturgy ).

The Missa cantata was a simplified form of high mass ( Missa sollemnis ) and could be celebrated by a single priest without Levites . The use of incense was possible but not compulsory. The priest sang the acclamations , sometimes also the ordinarium of Holy Mass, in Latin alternating with a chorale chola or the choir or the congregation in Gregorian chant . One then spoke of a chorale office or a people's chorale office . Since the 17th century, the German-language folk song at the Eucharistic celebration in the form of the “German High Mass” as a counter-movement to the “ orchestral masses ” had gained in importance. In the 20th century, this gave rise to the type of the praying mass .

The liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council made the parish mass ( Missa cum populo ) the basic form of Holy Mass. This largely eliminates the difference between Missa cantata and Missa lecta . But it still plays a role in the extraordinary form of the Roman rite . Folk was the term "office" to refer to a certain degree solemnity of the Mass preserved, even in combinations such pontifical mass , requiem , death Office or Convention Office . In Bavaria and similarly in Austria, a distinction is still made between “fair” and “office” in the order of the fair grants . For an “office” with the participation of a cantor, a higher fair scholarship is expected.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Martin Persch: German Hochamt . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 3 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1995, Sp. 135 f .
  2. ↑ Balthasar Fischer : Hochamt . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 5 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1996, Sp. 174 .
  3. ^ Hans Heimerl, Helmut Pree: Handbook of property law of the Catholic Church with special consideration of the legal situation in Bavaria and Austria. Verlag Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg 1993, 2/305, p. 186 and 5/1088, p. 592.