I’ve read that if we follow the Mass readings for the 3 year liturgical calendar, we would read/listen to the entire (or almost the entire) Bible.
Does anyone have any more information about this? Specifically:
Do we read the entire bible, old and new testament?. Or what books are read in their entirety, which ones partially, which ones skipped? (For example, I don’t remember hearing readings from Proverbs)
Do we read the entire bible if we follow the Sunday Mass readings only or Daily Mass Readings?
3yr if on Sunday, 1 yr is daily mass everyday. Some books are left out, such as the genologies. I’ll let someone else get back to you on all those details, though
The Sunday mass readings are covered in three years, Cycle A, B & C. The daily mass readings are covered in a two year cycle. To really hear the majority of scripture at mass you would need to attend daily mass for two years and Sunday mass for three. During that three year period of daily and Sunday mass attendence you would hear about 80-90% (this is my guesstimate based upon the readings covered) of the Bible. The previous poster is correct that some (but not all) geneologies are ommitted. There are some other passages that just do not make it into the lectionary.
St. Jerome said that “Ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ” I believe that this is just one of the reasons mother church places such prominance upon the Liturgy of the Word. The Liturgy of the Word is the first half of the mass. We receive God’s Word in Scripture followed by receiving the “Word Made Flesh” in the Liturgy of the Eucharist followed by our being sent forth into the world to be the hands, heart and feet of Jesus, to be what we have received.
That is why we are to attend mass faithfully and study scripture outside of mass as well. Hope my musings help you without muddying the waters…PAX
Based on the number of verses read, by my calculations, the 3-year Sunday readings cover about 5%-10% of the Old Testament and about 42% of the New Testament.
That is why you need to add in the daily masses and their two year cycle to get a majority of scripture by mass attendence alone.
There are only 52 Sundays each year, plus the Holy Days of Obligation that may or may not fall on a SUnday in any given year. There are an additional 300 plus days with one reading from the Hebrew Texts or New Testament Letters, Acts, Revelation and one readings from the Gospels. At all masses we have the reponsorial, usually from the Psalms.
Sunday Masses times 3 years plus Daily Masses times 2 years covers scripture fairly fully. It is not 100% but it is substantial!
The Order of Readings for Sundays and festive days extends over three liturgical years. Each liturgical year begins with the first week of Advent and is designated by the letter A, B, or C. The cycle is arranged as though the first Year A was the calendar year 1 A.D. (beginning with the prior calendar year’s Advent). Thus, 2004 (which began with the first week of Advent in 2003) is a Year C.* The years are also known by the Gospel reading selections for Ordinary Time – Matthew in Year A, Mark in Year B, Luke in Year C. The gospel of John is read during the Easter season in all three years. Similarly, the Order of Readings for weekdays extends over two liturgical years. Year I corresponds to odd numbered years; Year II to even.
*Note: An easy way to determine which year of the cycle we are in is to determine which years are divisible by three. Those years are Year C. An easy way to do this is to add the digits of the year together and see if the they are divisible by three. If so, it is a ‘C’ cycle year. Example: 2004. 2+0+0+4=6. 6 / 3=2. Therefore, 2004 was a ‘C’ cycle year.
Not every passage is read in the Sunday lectionary.
Here’s an index I found online that crossreferences every passage of Scritpure to one or more lectionaries, to include the Roman Catholic Lectionary (Sunday readings only). You’ll note some passages and some books are not included in the current lectionary for Sunday readings.
What you need to understand is that the Catholic Mass is celebrated every day, not just on Sunday, which provides more Scripture readings. The daily readings can be found here: usccb.org/nab/index.htm
In the above reference, Roman = Roman Catholic Church Lectionary.
RCL = Revised Common Lectionary, which is a multi-denominational lectionary.
Revised Common Lectionary was produced by The Consultation on Common Texts (CCT). At the time the RCL was compliled, the CCT was composed of representatives from the following denominations (taken from Consultation on Common Texts. The Revised Common Lectionary. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1992) :
The readings for Sunday Mass are repeated every three years. The reading for Weekday Mass are repeated every two years. The following table, based on my own calculations (and therefore likely not entirely error-free), will give you an idea of about what percentage of the Bible, Testament, or each individual book of the Bible, you might hear read at Mass over the course of any three-year period, based on the number of verses read. (Note: All optional Mass readings were included. Also, a verse was counted even if only part of verse is used.)
Poor Obadiah. He doesn’t get a single reading. Maybe my Old Testament lecturer back at college was right when he said that we could forget Obadiah. And he was a Presbyterian minister so probably wasn’t up on missal readings.
Thanks for posting the statistics. Think I’ll stick to supplementing the missal readings with a Bible otherwise, even if I don’t ever miss a day, there will be over two thirds of the Bible that I never read.
Thank you so much for your wonderful posts! That is a lot of hard work there. I will print it for my reference.
I help teach RCIA and we always say that we Catholics listen to most of the Bible during Mass, but now I know that this is only accurate for the New Testament. Your research does highlight the importance of emphasizing Bible study independent from the Mass (especially Old Testament), as per your calculations only 18% of the Old Testament is covered by Mass readings.
Thanks again,
PS. Another idea I had was just to start highlighting my bible everyday with the Mass readings, at the end of 3 years I would know what was not covered!
Yes, thanks Todd, that is alot of work. I never actually counted the verses, what an extreme amount of work! One of my favorite passages is the ‘talking ***’ a wonderful passage that never makes it into the Sunday Mass schedule! But good story, good humor, and yes, a message. St. Jerome said that ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ. A major reason that scripture reading is on my “must do regularly” [read religiously ] list.
NT Gospels 22.4%
NT Epistles 11%
OT 0.83%
(note that psalms aren’t included, but the extra readings on the Easter Vigil and Pentecost are. Verses used as antiphons are also excluded)
I’m using the Coming Home Network reading chart to cover the entire Bible in a year, but sometimes I wish I were reading the same passages as the rest of the Church every day.
I wonder if anyone has ever tried to create a reading chart that “fills in the gaps” in the lectionary so that we can read the daily and Sunday readings and also cover the entire Bible in one to three years, no stone unturned.
I’m sure it would take a special person with an organized brain, computer savvy and a lot of time on his or her hands (I strike out on all three counts). It would certainly meet a big need.
If only 30 percent of the Bible is read at mass, then I would say that there are still important bits in that remaining 70 percent. Psalm 137:9 (baby dashing) is also the inspired word of God, although not easy to swallow. And ALL scripture is profitable, as St. Paul assures us.
DISCLAIMER: Catholic Answers has turned over the archive to Catholic-Questions.org and no longer owns, manages, or moderates the forums. For additional apologetics resources please visit www.catholic.com.
a wonderful passage that never makes it into the Sunday Mass schedule! But good story, good humor, and yes, a message. St. Jerome said that ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ. A major reason that scripture reading is on my “must do regularly” [read religiously 
] list.