First and Second Vespers are the two celebrations of Evening Prayer belonging to a Sunday or solemnity: First Vespers opens the celebration on the preceding evening, and Second Vespers concludes its evening on the day itself.
Evening Prayer at the opening and close of a celebration
Sundays and solemnities begin liturgically on the preceding evening and therefore possess First Vespers. Their day concludes with Second Vespers. The two Hours have different psalmody, readings, antiphons, intercessions, and proper texts as the book provides; Second Vespers is not simply a repetition for those who missed the first celebration.[1]
Feasts and memorials ordinarily do not have First Vespers in the general Roman arrangement unless a proper provision grants it. Calling every devotional eve first vespers inflates the rank and obscures the calendar. Vigils, anticipated Masses, and evening devotions are related temporal practices but do not create an Office absent from the approved book.[2]
First Vespers
First Vespers marks the liturgical beginning of the Sunday or solemnity. Its hymns, psalms, reading, Magnificat antiphon, and intercessions present the coming mystery from the threshold of the day. In communal celebration it can be especially solemn, but ceremonies and music remain governed by the Hours and local law rather than by analogy with Mass.
Second Vespers
Second Vespers belongs to the evening of the civil day and completes the celebration's sanctification of time. It can emphasize fulfillment and thanksgiving. When another solemnity or Sunday begins that evening, concurrence rules determine whether Second Vespers of the current day or First Vespers of the following day is celebrated.
Concurrence and precedence
Concurrence occurs when the Second Vespers of one celebration meets the First Vespers of another. The Universal Norms ordinarily give Evening Prayer to the celebration with higher precedence; where both are of equal rank, the current day generally has priority. Special rubrics and later decrees can modify the result.
Calendar software must compute concurrence after it has resolved occurrence and transfer. Merely comparing rank labels can fail where Sundays of privileged seasons, celebrations of the Lord, local patrons, or transferred solemnities occupy special places in the table. The displayed Hour should cite its actual source rather than guess from the next civil date.[3]
Obligation and participation
Clerics and others bound to the Liturgy of the Hours observe the Hours according to universal and proper law; religious constitutions can impose further communal obligations. Lay celebration is strongly encouraged but is not made universally obligatory by a solemnity's possession of two Vespers. Participation in First Vespers also does not fulfill the Mass obligation.
Public descriptions should link Vespers to Evening Prayer and identify whether first or second. Historical rites and monastic uses can arrange vigils and evening offices differently; they should be described on their own terms. Within the current general Roman Rite, exact naming preserves both the theology of sanctified time and the concrete precedence that orders communal prayer.
References
- 1.General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours — The approved general instruction governing the sanctification of the day, Morning and Evening Prayer, First and Second Vespers, precedence, psalmody, readings, and intercessions
- 2.USCCB, Liturgical Year and Calendar — A bishops' conference presentation of the Universal Norms, temporal and sanctoral cycles, General Roman Calendar, proper calendars, current ranks, and calendar application
- 3.Mysterii Paschalis and the Universal Norms — Paul VI's apostolic letter promulgating the reformed General Roman Calendar and the universal norms governing liturgical days, ranks, precedence, calendars, and celebrations