This morning–against my usual custom–I was led to use Rite I. In reading through it, I was slightly annoyed that the removed the traditional directions for canticles and put the Te Deum at the end of the list as if it was to be used second or something. Historically, the Te Deum is used after the first reading, the Benedictus after the second. But not in Lent–the Benedicite gets used instead of the Te Deum. But I never stopped to think why… It came to me today, though, reading through it. The Te Deum is a joyful call for the orders of beings to praise God–and so is the Benedicite. The second is more appropriate for Lent I suppose because it’s OT, doesn’t have the A, etc. but the theo-logic of it is the same–all the orders of creation praising God. I thought that was pretty cool…
Nice. I love little epiphanies like that.