Third (liturgy)

The descent of the Holy Spirit, depicted in the book of hours by Étienne Chevalier

The third (from the Latin tertia hora = third hour) is next to the sext and the non one of the small hours in the prayer of the hours of the Catholic Church . It is prayed at the third hour of the ancient schedule and in many monastic monasteries it immediately precedes the celebration of the conventual mass. Above all in the hymn of this Hore, the Church especially commemorates the sending of the Holy Spirit , who came down on the apostles and disciples of the risen Christ on Pentecost at the third hour ( Acts 2:15  EU ).

The custom to sing the third before the Mass with the community, has to cathedral churches before the Pontifikalämtern at high festivals or the Chrism Mass in the Holy Week received. Before the liturgical reform in the 1970s, the third was also sung before the papal mass, while the pope donned the liturgical vestments.

structure

The third consists of

• the introductory verse with doxology
• the hymn ( Nunc sancte nobis spiritus or a similar one)
• of psalmody
• the short reading (chapter) with the versicle
• the oration
• the final verse

Web links

• Book of hours online - third. German Liturgical Institute , accessed on November 3, 2016 . 
• Video: Terz in Mainz Cathedral (Pentecost 2015 before the Pontifical Mass)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Book of hours for the Catholic dioceses of the German-speaking area , 1978 edition
2. ↑ The final verse can be omitted if the hearing is prayed alone.