Lectionary Confluence
On Thursday, I unexpectedly found myself at two daily Masses, the first in the Extraordinary Form1, and the second in the Ordinary Form2. The differences were stark – made even more so by the fact that the Ordinary Form Mass was a School Mass and thus the readings were done by schoolchildren, and the homily was preached to them.
The Extraordinary Form Mass was a Low Mass and therefore prayed alternatively in Latin and in silence, other than the homily. As I said, stark differences.
But what surprised me about the two Masses was a fundamental similarity that normally doesn’t exist between them.
They had the same readings.
Specifically, the first reading was Jeremiah 17:5-10 and the Gospel was Luke 16:19-31: the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man.
What makes this so odd, is that both Forms of the Roman Rite use two completely different Lectionaries. Indeed, except during Lent the Extraordinary Form uses the readings from the previous Sunday3, which they cycle through during the course of a year. In the Ordinary Form, there are different readings for every day, compounded by a two-year cycle of daily readings and an unconnected three-year cycle of Sunday readings.
It’s further complicated by calendar differences, as I’ve often wondered at here.
So what are the odds of both Forms having the exact same readings on the same day? I honestly had no idea.
So I did a little research.
As it turns out, that’s not as easy as it sounds. Even in this day of Internet information overload, the best source for comparisons is a book, Index Lectionum, which however I don’t own.
One can find resources online comparing the Sunday and holy day readings, but none for the ferias of Lent. Of course, my Google-fu is weak, so it is possible that somebody has posted this comparative information and I just can’t find it.
My curiosity is genuinely piqued now. Did all of the Lectionary readings for the Ferias in Lent make the jump from the Extraordinary Form to the Ordinary? Or was it just the purest chance that I happened to attend both Masses on the one day where their Lectionaries coincide?
I may have to get the book to find out!
- Celebrated by Rev. Michael Stinson, F.S.S.P. at Saint Joseph Church.
- Celebrated by Rev. Nicholas Wichert at Holy Rosary Church.
- Unless a Votive Mass is being said. Votive Masses, which within certain parameters may be celebrated at the discretion of the priest, have their own specific readings.