RESOLUTION VIII.
Reading edition
Penitential Office for Ash-Wednesday.
This is the English Commination Office, with the introductory portion omitted. It would add to the merit of the formulary, especially when used as a separate office, were it to be prefaced by the versicle and response, similarly employed in the Hereford Breviary:
V. Let us confess unto the Lord, for he is gracious.
R. And his mercy endureth forever.
In view of the great length of the Morning Service on Ash-Wednesday, and the close similarity between the closing portion of the Litany and the intermediate portion of this Office, the following emendation of the first Rubric is suggested, a change which would carry with it the omission of the Rubric after psalm li. a little further on.
On the First Day of Lent, at Morning Prayer, the Office ensuing shall be read immediately after the words, Have mercy upon us, in the Litany, and in place of what there followeth.
In the third Rubric it might be well to add to "shall be said" the words, "or sung."
The blessing at the end of the office should stand, as in the English Book, in the precatory form; otherwise we might have the anomaly of a benediction pronounced before the end of the service.