Laity assisting with Gospel reading?

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PassthePeace1

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Last Sunday, the laity assisted with the gospel reading…one was the narrator, one women read the words of the women at the well, and the priest read the words of Jesus. And several times the reading was interupted by the congregation singing…“Give us living water”.

I was under the impression that only a priest could read the gospel, is the correct?

Peace be with you…Pam
 
A bishop, priest, or deacon may read the Gospel before the homily. Other public recitations by lay people would have to be outside the Mass, or in the case of the reading of the Passion on Palm Sunday, at the beginning of Mass. Our parish, which is quite orthodox, does a reading such as you described on Palm Sunday, but not before the homily, as in your example. I don’t believe that is allowed. Someone on the board with more expertise will no doubt help us out with that one. 😉
 
In the latest GIRM…I believe that the Passion is still allowed to be broken into several parts, with the part of Jesus reserved to the Priest.

Either the GIRM or Redemptoris has said that it is not proper to break up any other Gospel readings for public proclamation during mass.
 
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PassthePeace1:
Last Sunday, the laity assisted with the gospel reading…one was the narrator, one women read the words of the women at the well, and the priest read the words of Jesus. And several times the reading was interupted by the congregation singing…“Give us living water”.

I was under the impression that only a priest could read the gospel, is the correct?

Peace be with you…Pam
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I don’t believe that the dialogue version of the Gospel is allowed, especially using lay people.
 
Each year during 3 Sundays prior to Easter my church does the following. Is this allowed?:
  • We are told to sit during the Gospel
  • About 5 people assist the priest or deacon in reading the Gospel (they take turns, each reading a few passages)
  • After each person has read a few passages (so in all about 5-6 times throughout the Gospel reading), the cantor leads the congregation in a short refrain. For example, “Jesus I thirst for you”, or “Jesus is the living water”, etc.
  • A lay person says “The Gospel of the Lord” instead of the priest or deacon
  • the priest omits the creed (because the Gospel takes quite awhile to do this way; no other renewal of baptismal vows is done).
 
Dialogue readings are allowed by the Sacramentary on two occassions: Palm Sunday and Good Friday.

Nonetheless, I have yet to see the rubrics followed as written.
 
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Elzee:
Each year during 3 Sundays prior to Easter my church does the following. Is this allowed?:
Code: 
* We are told to sit during the Gospel
* About 5 people assist the priest or deacon in reading the Gospel (they take turns, each reading a few passages)
* After each person has read a few passages (so in all about 5-6 times throughout the Gospel reading), the cantor leads the congregation in a short refrain. For example, "Jesus I thirst for you", or "Jesus is the living water", etc.
* A lay person says "The Gospel of the Lord" instead of the priest or deacon
* the priest omits the creed (because the Gospel takes quite awhile to do this way; no other renewal of baptismal vows is done).
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These are violations of GIRM 109 and GIRM 68.

109: If there are several persons present who are able to exercise the same ministry, nothing forbids their distributing among themselves and performing different parts of the same ministry or duty. For example, one deacon may be assigned to take the sung parts, another to serve at the altar; if there are several readings, it is well to distribute them among a number of lectors. The same applies for the other ministries. But it is not at all appropriate that several persons divide a single element of the celebration among themselves, e.g., that the same reading be proclaimed by two lectors, one after the other, except as far as the Passion of the Lord is concerned.

68: The Creed is to be sung or said by the priest together with the people on Sundays and Solemnities.
 
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Elzee:
Each year during 3 Sundays prior to Easter my church does the following. Is this allowed?:
  • We are told to sit during the Gospel
  • About 5 people assist the priest or deacon in reading the Gospel (they take turns, each reading a few passages)
  • After each person has read a few passages (so in all about 5-6 times throughout the Gospel reading), the cantor leads the congregation in a short refrain. For example, “Jesus I thirst for you”, or “Jesus is the living water”, etc.
  • A lay person says “The Gospel of the Lord” instead of the priest or deacon
  • the priest omits the creed (because the Gospel takes quite awhile to do this way; no other renewal of baptismal vows is done).
Click to expand...
These are violations of GIRM 109 and GIRM 68.

109: If there are several persons present who are able to exercise the same ministry, nothing forbids their distributing among themselves and performing different parts of the same ministry or duty. For example, one deacon may be assigned to take the sung parts, another to serve at the altar; if there are several readings, it is well to distribute them among a number of lectors. The same applies for the other ministries. But it is not at all appropriate that several persons divide a single element of the celebration among themselves, e.g., that the same reading be proclaimed by two lectors, one after the other, except as far as the Passion of the Lord is concerned.

68: The Creed is to be sung or said by the priest together with the people on Sundays and Solemnities.
 
What about the refrain sung by the congregation at different points in the Gospel?
 
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Elzee:
Each year during 3 Sundays prior to Easter my church does the following. Is this allowed?:
  • We are told to sit during the Gospel
  • About 5 people assist the priest or deacon in reading the Gospel (they take turns, each reading a few passages)
  • After each person has read a few passages (so in all about 5-6 times throughout the Gospel reading), the cantor leads the congregation in a short refrain. For example, “Jesus I thirst for you”, or “Jesus is the living water”, etc.
  • A lay person says “The Gospel of the Lord” instead of the priest or deacon
  • the priest omits the creed (because the Gospel takes quite awhile to do this way; no other renewal of baptismal vows is done).
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The third one you listed is the one that best describes what happened last Sunday at my parish. I sent an email to my priest, about what happened, but have yet to hear back from him on the matter.

Peace be with you…Pam
 
May I ask what you said in your email? I’m trying to decide if this is worth asking about. I have several things I could ask about in our church…
 
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Elzee:
May I ask what you said in your email? I’m trying to decide if this is worth asking about. I have several things I could ask about in our church…
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Sure, no problem…I really have a long list of question and concerns I would like to address with him…but thought I would just mention a couple at a time…I have spoken to him before about the music in our parish…we use the Gather Hymn…:crying: which is awful!
Father Jim,

Good afternoon! I have a couple of questions about last Sunday’s 11a Mass, actually I have alot of questions, but these two are what are troubling me the most right now…first, when I arrived at Mass, the hymns listed on the board were changed. One of the hymns that was removed, was one that I was looking forward to singing, it was replaced by a Haas song…am I attending the wrong Mass? I would love to attend one, that had more of a traditional air to it…I am sick to death of Haas and Haugen! Their songs dominate our hymns sang, I find this ironic…with 2000 years of Sacred Music, that we limit ourselves to these two writers.

Second, the Gospel reading was read as a dialogue and several laity assisted you; with the congregation singing responses…it is my understanding that only a bishop, priest or deacon can read the Gospel…am I wrong in this understanding?

Thank you for your time…Peace be with you…Pam
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This is one of those common, “nifty” abuses that occur when a priest or liturgist decides to take a good thing too far. Since we hear the Passion this way on Palm Sunday and Good Friday, TPTB think it would be a nifty idea to hear the Gospel that way all during Lent, kind of as a nifty “theme.” Before you know it, it was such a nifty idea that it gets expanded to the Advent Season (it’s the other penitential season, you know), and then all that niftiness gets expanded to every Sunday. :rolleyes:

I am waiting for the day that celebrating the Mass according to the rubrics is considered “nifty” and the priests and liturgists try THAT for a change.
 
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PassthePeace1:
Last Sunday, the laity assisted with the gospel reading…one was the narrator, one women read the words of the women at the well, and the priest read the words of Jesus. And several times the reading was interupted by the congregation singing…“Give us living water”.

I was under the impression that only a priest could read the gospel, is the correct?

Peace be with you…Pam
Click to expand...
Was this at OLL?
Cuz my sister said she saw this at OLL
 
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Brain:
Was this at OLL?
Cuz my sister said she saw this at OLL
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No, at St. Mary’s. My husband is a lector…so I checked the schedule and noticed that they are calling them " Gospel Proclamation for the Scrutinies"…then off to the side, the have in (Blue Book)…and so there are two more schedule for the next two Sundays. :ehh:
 
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