Omitting the first two readings during Lent

[Seatuck]

My daughter went to Mass with a friend and her family last night. She said they didn’t read the OT and NT readings and had a group reading for the Gospel. Her friend said they always do it this way during Lent. I know that the Passion Narrative may be done with several people but what about these other long readings. Last weekend at our church we had a visiting priest tell us to sit down during the Loooonng reading so that we could concentrate on it. I understand that some infirm must sit down but at least half the church is young and healthy. We can take it , really.
What resource can I show besides no one can take away or add to the Mass reference?

 

[Phemie]

GIRM

1. 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.

 

[NetNuncio]

More liturgical innovations that are not acceptable.

On Sundays and Feastdays and where it is otherwise prescribed, both the First and Second readings must be proclaimed. On ferial days, there is only one reading plus a responsory and gospel.

No where is it prescribed that readings can be omitted (except on the Easter Vigil) and certainly no where is it prescribed that a gospel can be read by more than one person (that person must be a clergyman, preferably a deacon), except for the reading of The Lord’s Passion (which would be preferably read by three deacons).

Alert the pastor of this abuse. If he does nothing or is the source of the abuse, alert the bishop and the Office of Liturgy at the diocese.

Adam

 

[John_Lilburne]

From the 2002 General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM) approved for the USA, which can be accessed from romanrite.com/girm.html :
“60. The reading of the Gospel is the high point of the Liturgy of the Word. The Liturgy itself teaches that great reverence is to be shown to it by setting it off from the other readings with special marks of honor: whether the minister appointed to proclaim it prepares himself by a blessing or prayer; or the faithful, standing as they listen to it being read, through their acclamations acknowledge and confess Christ present and speaking to them; or the very marks of reverence are given to the Book of the Gospels.”

The 1973 Directory for Masses with Children has:
“42. With regard to the number of readings on Sundays and feast days, the decrees of the conferences of bishops are to be observed. If three or even two readings appointed on Sundays and weekdays can be understood by children only with difficulty, it is permissible to read two or only one of them, but the gospel reading should never be omitted.” This is in the section “Masses with Children in Which Only a Few Adults Participate”. But with a bishop’s permission it can also apply to “Mass with Adults in Which Children also Participate” (n. 19).

From the 2002 GIRM: “32. Special celebrations of Mass should observe the guidelines established for them: … for Masses with children, cf. Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship, Directory for Masses with Children, 1 November 1973: AAS 66 (1974), pp. 30-46;”

I don’t know if the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has made any decrees that effect this.

 

[benedictgal]

My daughter went to Mass with a friend and her family last night. She said they didn’t read the OT and NT readings and had a group reading for the Gospel. Her friend said they always do it this way during Lent. I know that the Passion Narrative may be done with several people but what about these other long readings. Last weekend at our church we had a visiting priest tell us to sit down during the Loooonng reading so that we could concentrate on it. I understand that some infirm must sit down but at least half the church is young and healthy. We can take it , really.
What resource can I show besides no one can take away or add to the Mass reference?

In addition to what my dear sister in the faith, Phemie, quoted, this is is what Redemptionis Sacramentum has to say:

[61.] In selecting the biblical readings for proclamation in the celebration of Mass, the norms found in the liturgical books are to be followed,136 so that indeed “a richer table of the Word of God will be prepared for the faithful, and the biblical treasures opened up for them”.137

[62.] It is also illicit to omit or to substitute the prescribed biblical readings on one’s own initiative, and especially “to substitute other, non-biblical texts for the readings and responsorial Psalm, which contain the word of God”.138

[63.] Within the celebration of the Sacred Liturgy, the reading of the Gospel, which is “the high point of the Liturgy of the Word”,139 is reserved by the Church’s tradition to an ordained minister.140 Thus it is not permitted for a layperson, even a religious, to proclaim the Gospel reading in the celebration of Holy Mass, nor in other cases in which the norms do not explicitly permit it.141

Regarding the posture of the faithful, the GIRM states that:

1. The reading of the Gospel is the high point of the Liturgy of the Word. The Liturgy itself teaches that great reverence is to be shown to it by setting it off from the other readings with special marks of honor: whether the minister appointed to proclaim it prepares himself by a blessing or prayer; or the faithful, standing as they listen to it being read, through their acclamations acknowledge and confess Christ present and speaking to them; or the very marks of reverence are given to the Book of the Gospels.

I hope this helps.