Why Are There Two Sets of Sunday Readings for the Mass

Book of approved scripture readings in Abrahamic religions

A lectionary (Latin: lectionarium) is a book or list that contains a collection of scripture readings appointed for Christian or Judaic worship on a given solar day or occasion. There are sub-types such every bit a "gospel lectionary" or evangeliary, and an epistolary with the readings from the New Testament Epistles.

History [edit]

The Talmud claims that the practice of reading appointed Scriptures on given days or occasions dates back to the time of Moses and began with the annual religious festivals of Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles (Talmud, Megilah 32a). The Mishnah portion of the Talmud, probably finished in the early 3rd century Advertizement/CE (Anno Domini or Common Era) contains a list of Torah readings for various occasions (Talmud, Megilah 32a) and assumes that these special readings interrupt a regular schedule of Torah readings (Talmud, Megilah 29a, 30b). In addition to these Torah readings, the after Gemara portion of the Talmud also contains assigned annual readings from the prophets (Talmud, Megilah 31a).

By the Medieval era the Jewish community had a standardized schedule of scripture readings from both the Torah and the prophets to exist read in the synagogue. A sequential selection was read from the Torah, followed by the "haftarah" – a pick from the prophetic books or historical narratives (e.g. "Judges," "Kings," etc.) closely linked to the selection from the Torah. Jesus may have read a providentially "random" reading when he read from Isaiah 61:1-ii, as recorded in Luke 4:16–21, when he inaugurated his public ministry. The early Christians adopted the Jewish custom of reading extracts from the Erstwhile Testament on the Sabbath. They shortly added extracts from the writings of the Apostles and Evangelists.^[1]

Both Hebrew and Christian lectionaries developed over the centuries. Typically, a lectionary will go through the scriptures in a logical pattern, and too include selections which were chosen by the religious customs for their appropriateness to particular occasions. The 1-year Jewish lectionary reads the entirety of the Torah inside the space of a twelvemonth and may have begun in the Babylonian Jewish customs; the three-yr Jewish lectionary seems to trace its origin to the Jewish customs in and effectually the Holy Country.^[2] The being of both i-year and three-yr cycles occurs in both Christianity and Judaism.

Inside Christianity, the use of pre-assigned, scheduled readings from the scriptures can exist traced dorsum to the early on church, and seems to have developed out of the practices of the second temple period. The earliest documentary record of a special book of readings is a reference by Gennadius of Massilia to a work produced by Musaeus of Marseilles at the request of Bishop Venerius of Marseilles, who died in 452, though there are 3rd-century references to liturgical readers equally a special role in the clergy.^{[3] [iv]} Not all of the Christian Church used the same lectionary, and throughout history, many varying lectionaries accept been used in different parts of the Christian world. Until the 2nd Vatican Council, nigh Western Christians (Catholics, Old Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans, and those Methodists who employed the lectionary of Wesley) used a lectionary that repeated on a one-twelvemonth ground. This almanac lectionary provided readings for Sundays and, in those Churches that celebrated the festivals of saints, feast-twenty-four hours readings. The Eastern Orthodox Church and many of the Oriental Churches continue to utilise an almanac lectionary. Within Lutheranism there remains an active minority of pastors and congregations who use the former 1-twelvemonth lectionary, often referred to as the Historic Lectionary. The Reformed churches divided the Heidelberg Catechism into 52 weekly sections, and many churches preach or teach from a respective source scripture weekly.

Lectionaries from before the invention of the printing press contribute to understanding the textual history of the Bible. See besides Listing of New Testament lectionaries.

Western lectionaries [edit]

At Mass in the Latin Rite before the Second Vatican Council [edit]

Earlier the liturgical reforms of Vatican 2, the Latin rite used a one-year lectionary consisting of a limited pick of sacred readings from the Scriptures. The reason to these express selections is to maintain consistency, as is a true feature in the Roman Rite. There is i reading to exist proclaimed before the Gospel, either taken from the Quondam Testament (referred to as Lesson) or from the letters of Saint Paul, Saint John, or Saint Peter (referred to every bit Epistle).

The Lesson (or Epistle) is contained in a volume called the Epistolarium, a liturgical book containing the epistles that were to exist said or sung past a subdeacon at a solemn High Mass. The Gospels are independent in a volume called Evangeliarium, or more recently called as "Book of the Gospels", that were to exist said or sung past a deacon at a solemn Loftier Mass.

Withal, the Ambrosian Rite and the Mozarabic Rite has two Readings to be proclaimed, called Prophetia and Epistola.

Catholic Mass Lectionary and the Revised Mutual Lectionary [edit]

Later the Second Vatican Council of 1962–1965, state of the vatican city, even earlier producing an actual lectionary (in Latin), promulgated the Ordo Lectionum Missae (Order of the Readings for Mass), giving indications of the revised construction and the references to the passages chosen for inclusion in the new official lectionary of the Roman Rite of Mass. It introduced an arrangement past which the readings on Sundays and on some principal feasts recur in a three-year bike, with iv passages from Scripture (including 1 from the Psalms) existence used in each commemoration, while on weekdays only three passages (again including ane from the Psalms) are used, with the first reading and the psalm recurring in a two-year bike, while the Gospel reading recurs subsequently a single twelvemonth. This revised Mass Lectionary, covering much more than of the Bible than the readings in the Tridentine Roman Missal, which recurred after a single year, has been translated into the many languages in which the Roman Rite Mass is now celebrated, incorporating existing or specially prepared translations of the Bible and with readings for national celebrations added either every bit an appendix or, in some cases, incorporated into the primary part of the lectionary.

The Roman Catholic Mass Lectionary is the footing for many Protestant lectionaries, most notably the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) and its derivatives, as organized past the Consultation on Common Texts (CCT) arrangement located in Nashville, Tennessee. Like the Mass lectionary, they generally organize the readings for worship services on Sundays in a three-year cycle, with four elements on each Sunday, and three elements during daily Mass:

• First reading (Prima lectio) from the Old Testament or, in Eastertide from certain books of the New Testament;
• Responsorial psalm (Psalmus responsorium) (ideally, to be sung, every bit independent in the Simple Gradual) or Gradual (equally independent in the Roman Gradual);
• Second reading (Secunda lectio) from one of the New Testament Letters (simply on Sundays and Solemnities); and a
• Gospel reading (Evangelium).

Three-year cycle [edit]

A German Roman Catholic lectionary for yr C on an ambo later Mass

The lectionaries (both Catholic and RCL versions) are organized into iii-year cycles of readings. The years are designated A, B, or C. Each yearly bike begins on the start Dominicus of Appearance (the Sunday between Nov 27 and December 3 inclusive). Year B follows year A, year C follows year B, then back once again to A.

• Year A: Gospel of Matthew (Advent 2019 through 2020)
• Year B: Gospel of Mark (Appearance 2020 through 2021)
• Twelvemonth C: Gospel of Luke (Advent 2021 through 2022 - current twelvemonth)

The Gospel of John is read throughout Easter, and is used for other liturgical seasons including Advent, Christmas, and Lent where advisable.

Daily lectionaries [edit]

The Roman Cosmic lectionary includes a two-year cycle for the weekday mass readings (called Cycle I and Cycle Ii). Odd-numbered years are Bike I; fifty-fifty-numbered ones are Cycle Two. The weekday lectionary includes a reading from the One-time Attestation, Acts, Revelation, or the Epistles; a responsorial Psalm; and a reading from i of the Gospels. These readings are generally shorter than those appointed for use on Sundays. The pericopes for the beginning reading along with the psalms are bundled in a two-twelvemonth cycle. The Gospels are arranged so that portions of all four are read every year. This weekday lectionary has likewise been adjusted by some denominations with congregations that celebrate daily Eucharistic services. It has been published in the Episcopal Church building's Lesser Feasts and Fasts and in the Anglican Church of Canada's Book of Alternative Services (amid others).

This eucharistic lectionary should not exist confused with the various Daily Office lectionaries in utilise in various denominations. The Consultation on Common Texts has produced a three-twelvemonth Daily Lectionary which is thematically tied into the Revised Common Lectionary, only the RCL does not provide a daily Eucharistic lectionary every bit such. Various Anglican and Lutheran Churches take their ain daily lectionaries. Many of the Anglican daily lectionaries are adapted from the ane provided in the 1979 Book of Mutual Prayer.

Other lectionary information [edit]

In some churches, the lectionary is carried in the entrance procession past a lector. In the Cosmic Church, the Volume of the Gospels is carried in by a deacon (when at that place is no deacon, a lector might process in with the Book of the Gospels). When the Book of the Gospels is used, the start two readings are read from the lectionary, while the Volume of the Gospels is used for the final reading.

The lectionary is not to be confused with a missal, gradual or sacramentary. While the lectionary contains scripture readings, the missal or sacramentary contains the appropriate prayers for the service, and the gradual contains chants for employ on any item mean solar day. In detail, the gradual contains a responsory which may exist used in place of the responsorial psalm.

Eastern lectionaries [edit]

In the Eastern Churches (Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Eastern Catholic, the Assyrian Church of the East, Aboriginal Church of the East, and those bodies non in communion with whatsoever of them just nevertheless practicing eastern liturgical customs) tend to retain the utilize of a one-year lectionary in their liturgy. Different churches follow different liturgical calendars (to an extent). Almost Eastern lectionaries provide for an epistle and a Gospel to be read on each twenty-four hour period. The oldest known complete Christian Lectionary is in the Caucasian Albanian language.

An example of Byzantine lectionary — Codex Harleianus (l ¹⁵⁰), AD 995, text of John 1:18.

Byzantine lectionary [edit]

Those churches (Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic) which follow the Rite of Constantinople, provide an epistle and Gospel reading for most days of the year, to exist read at the Divine Liturgy; however, during Keen Lent there is no celebration of the liturgy on weekdays (Monday through Friday), so no epistle and Gospel are appointed for those days. Every bit a historical note, the Greek lectionaries are a chief source for the Byzantine text-type used in the scholarly field of textual criticism.

Epistle and Gospel [edit]

The Gospel readings are plant in what Orthodoxy usually calls a Gospel Book (Evangélion), although in strict English language terms the Greek ones are in the form of an Evangeliary, and an Epistle Book (Apostól). There are differences in the precise organization of these books between the various national churches. In the Byzantine practice, the readings are in the form of pericopes (selections from scripture containing only the portion actually chanted during the service), and are arranged co-ordinate to the order in which they occur in the church year, kickoff with the Sunday of Pascha (Easter), and standing throughout the unabridged twelvemonth, concluding with Holy Week. Then follows a section of readings for the commemorations of saints and readings for special occasions (baptism, funeral, etc.). In the Slavic practice, the biblical books are reproduced in their entirety and arranged in the canonical society in which they appear in the Bible.

The annual wheel of the Gospels is composed of 4 serial:

1. The Gospel of St. John

   read from Pascha until Pentecost Sunday

2. The Gospel of St. Matthew

   divided over seventeen weeks kickoff with the Monday of the Holy Spirit (the day after Pentecost). From the 12th week, it is read on Saturdays and Sundays while the Gospel of St. Mark is read on the remaining weekdays

3. The Gospel of St. Luke

   divided over nineteen weeks beginning on the Monday subsequently the Sunday after the Height of the Holy Cross. From the thirteenth week, it is just read on Saturdays and Sundays, while St. Mark's Gospel is read on the remaining weekdays

4. The Gospel of St. Marker

   read during the Lenten period on Saturdays and Sundays — with the exception of the Sunday of Orthodoxy.

The interruption of the reading of the Gospel of Matthew afterwards the Height of the Holy Cross is known as the "Lukan Jump" The leap occurs only in the Gospel readings, there is no corresponding jump in the epistles. From this signal on the epistle and Gospel readings do not exactly correspond, the epistles continuing to be determined according to the moveable Paschal cycle and the Gospels being influenced past the fixed cycle.

The Lukan Jump is related to the chronological proximity of the Elevation of the Cantankerous to the Conception of the Forerunner (St. John the Baptist), celebrated on September 23. In late Artifact, this feast marked the beginning of the ecclesiastical New year. Thus, get-go the reading of the Lukan Gospel toward the middle of September tin can be understood. The reasoning is theological and is based on a vision of Salvation History: the Conception of the Forerunner constitutes the first pace of the New Economic system, as mentioned in the stikhera of the matins of this feast. The Evangelist Luke is the just ane to mention this Formulation (Luke 1:5–24).

In Russian federation, the apply of the Lukan Jump vanished; nonetheless, in contempo decades, the Russian Church has begun the process of returning to the use of the Lukan Jump.

Similarly to the Gospel Bike, Epistle readings follow this plan although some exceptions vary:

1. Volume of Acts of Apostles

   read from Pascha until Pentecost Lord's day

2. Letter to the Romans, one Corinthians and 2 Corinthians

   From Pentecost to Elevation of the Holy Cross

3. Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, two Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Hebrews

   From Elevation of the Holy Cross to the Circumcision of Christ, 1st of January

4. James, Hebrews, ane Peter and 2 Peter

   read from the Circumcision of Christ to the Clean Mon, get-go weekday of Corking Lent.

Old Testament readings [edit]

Other services take scriptural readings too. There is a Gospel lesson at Matins on Sundays and banquet days. These are found in the Evangelion. There are as well readings from the Old Attestation, called "parables" (paroemia), which are read at vespers on feast days. These parables are found in the Menaion, Triodion or Pentecostarion. During Great Lent, parables are read every day at vespers and at the 6th Hr. These parables are establish in the Triodion.

Syriac and Malankara churches: Catholic, Orthodox [edit]

Small portion of a Coptic lectionary

In the Jacobite Syriac Churches, the lectionary begins with the liturgical calendar year on Qudosh `Idto (the Sanctification of the Church), which falls on the 8th Sunday before Christmas. Both the Old and the New Testament books are read except the books of Revelation, Song of Solomon, and I and II Maccabees. Scripture readings are assigned for Sundays and feast days, for each day of Lent and Holy Week, for raising people to diverse offices of the Church, for the blessing of Holy Oil and diverse services such as baptisms and funerals.

By and large, three Old Testament lections, a option from the prophets, and iii readings from the New Testament are prescribed for each Sunday and Feast day. The New Testament readings include a reading from Acts, some other from the Catholic Epistles or the Pauline Epistles, and a 3rd reading from one of the Gospels. During Christmas and Easter a fourth lesson is added for the evening service. The readings achieve a climax with the approach of the calendar week of the Crucifixion. Through Lent lessons are recited twice a day except Saturdays. During the Passion Calendar week readings are assigned for each of the major canonical hours.

If there is a weekday Liturgy historic on a non-banquet day, the custom is to read the Pauline epistle but, followed by the Gospel.

Encounter too [edit]

• Book of Alternative Services
• Dominical letter
• Ekphonetic notation
• Gospel Volume
• Lection
• Lector
• List of New Testament lectionaries
• Liturgical year
• Manzil
• Mass (liturgy)
• Pericope
• Revised Mutual Lectionary
• The Text This Week
• Weekly Torah portion
• The Syro-Aramaic Reading of the Koran

References [edit]

1. ^ "Lectionary". Encyclopædia Britannica Online . Retrieved 2007-07-06 .
2. ^ Elbogen, Ismar. Jewish Liturgy: A Comprehensive History. Original publication 1913. Trans Raymond P. Scheindlin for Jewish Publication Guild edition 1993.
3. ^ "Lectionary". Britannica. Retrieved 12 Feb 2022.
4. ^ Palazzo,Eric, A History of Liturgical Books from the Get-go to the Thirteenth Century, p. 91, 1998, Liturgical Printing, ISBN 081466167X, 9780814661673, google books

Further reading [edit]

• Evans, Helen C. (2004). Byzantium: faith and power (1261-1557) . New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN1588391132.
• Evans, Helen C.; Wixom, William D. (1997). The glory of Byzantium: art and civilisation of the Middle Byzantine era, A.D. 843-1261 . New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN9780810965072.

External links [edit]

Wait upwards lectionary in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Thesaurus Antiquorum Lectionariorum Ecclesiae Synagogaeque A database on ancient and medieval Jewish and Christian lectionaries allowing to automatically compare 25000 readings of ca. 35 lectionaries of many aboriginal denominations (Jewish Ashkenazy, Sephardic, Yemenite, Byzantine, Italian, Talmuds, Mishnah, Tosefta, Rav Saadia Gaon, some Midrashim, triannual from the Geniza, Armenian rite of Jerusalem, Gallican, Mozarabic, Roman, Byzantine, Coptic, West- and Due east Syriac, Maronite). Automatic synopsis and automatic calendar reconstruction tools.
• Greek Orthodox Online Chapel lectionary Lectionary of the Greek Orthodox Church according to the typicon of the Ecumenical Patriarchate
• Books and Resources Books and resources to learn more than about the Eucharistic lectionary.
• The Revised Common Lectionary
• The Roman Catholic Lectionary - based on the New American Bible, as approved by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (likewise used in the Philippines)
• Full general Introduction to the Lectionary (Roman Catholic)
• The Joint Liturgical Group (UK) – which adult The Iv Yr Lectionary (One Gospel per Year)
• Narrative Lectionary with history, contexts, and links to readings
• The "Lukan Bound" Orthodox Research Found
• Orthodox Christian Lectionary Explained (Russian Orthodox)
• Lectionary of the Syriac Orthodox Church
• Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Lectionary". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Visitor.
• Roman Catholic Lectionary for Mass Resources for the study of the current Roman Cosmic lectionary.
• "The Four Gospels" a lectionary in Syriac from 1687

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lectionary

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