Forty Hours' Devotion, called Quarant' Ore or written in one word Quarantore, is a Roman Catholic exercise of devotion in which continuous prayer is made for forty hours before the Blessed Sacrament exposed. It commonly occurs in a succession of churches, with one finishing prayers at the same time as the next takes it up.
A celebration of such a devotion is begun by a Solemn Mass or "Mass of Exposition", and ended by a "Mass of Deposition". Each of these masses includes the Blessed Sacrament being processed and the litanies of the saints being chanted.
The exact period of forty hours' exposition is not in practice very strictly adhered to; for the Mass of Deposition is generally sung at about the same hour of the morning, two days after the Mass of Exposition. On the intervening day a solemn Mass pro pace is offered -- if possible, at a different altar from the high altar upon which the Blessed Sacrament is exposed. It is assumed that the exposition and prayer should be kept up by night as well as by day, but permission is given to dispense with this requirement when enough watchers cannot be obtained. In such a case the interruption of the devotion by night does not forfeit the indulgences conceded by the Holy See to those who take part in it.
Read more about Forty Hours' Devotion: History of The Devotion, Rubrical Requirements, Source
Famous quotes containing the words forty and/or devotion:
“The clothes on your back did not wear out and your feet did not swell these forty years.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Deuteronomy 8:4.
“There is always the danger that we may just do the work for the sake of the work. This is where the respect and the love and the devotion come in—that we do it to God, to Christ, and that’s why we try to do it as beautifully as possible.”
—Mother Teresa (b. 1910)