![]() According to the older calculation, November has five weeks when the fourth of the month is a Sunday according to the newer calculation, November may have three or four weeks, but never five. This change also accounts for one of the peculiarities of the 1960 Breviary, the fact that November has four weeks, which are called the First, Third, Fourth and Fifth. According to this system, the first Sunday of September is the 6th this year the third will be therefore be the 20th, and the Ember Days will be the 23rd, 25th and 26th. In the 1960 revision, however, the first Sunday of the months from August to November is always that which occurs first within the calendar month. The system is also calculated so that the Ember days will always begin on the Wednesday after the Exaltation of the Cross. The Ember Days of autumn are the Wednesday, Friday and Saturday of the third week of September, during which the book of Tobias is read according to the traditional system of calculation, this year they will occur on the 16th, 18th and 19th. This year, for example, the first Sunday “of September” is actually August 30th, the closest Sunday to the first day of September, and the third Sunday of September is September 13th. (September is actually divided into two sets of readings, Job having a different set of responsories from the other three books.) The “first Sunday” of each of these months is traditionally that which occurs closest to the first calendar day of the month, even if that day occurs within the end of the previous month. In August, the books of Wisdom are read in September, Job, Tobias, Judith and Esther in October the books of the Macchabees in November, Ezechiel, Daniel, and the twelve minor Prophets. The first Sunday of each of these months is the day on which the Church begins to read a new set of scriptural books at Matins, with their accompanying antiphons and responsories these readings are part of a system which goes back to the sixth century. This change is often noticed in September, because it causes a shift in the occurrence of the Ember Days. One of the changes made to the Breviary in the revision of 1960 regards the arrangement of the months from August to November.
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