Priest Changed Christmas Mass Reading

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Hey all, I have a bit of a question.

My family and I went to the 10:30AM Mass yesterday, and we were following along in the missals with all the readings for ‘Mass during the day’ until we got to the Gospel.

For that Mass, the reading was supposed to be the first chapter of the Gospel of John, probably my favorite passage in all of the Bible (“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… and the Word came to dwell among us…etc.”). However, the priest instead announced that he was changing the Gospel reading for our Mass to the reading from the Mass at Dawn, from Luke, because “not many people understand that first chapter of John, and we all want to hear the story from Luke which we are all familiar with.”

So the priest went on to read the familiar portion of the nativity, and then preached a short ‘feel-good’ homily about how Christmas isn’t all about presents, how he loves the ‘true’ Christmas image of a child with his eyes wide, gazing at the lights of a Christmas tree, and how the real meaning of Christmas is that on that night ‘heaven and earth kissed’.

Needless to say… I was disappointed. I really believe that my pastor here really missed an opportunity to explain to all those who were there (especially those who aren’t every week) the mystery and meaning of God’s becoming man in Christ–not just a story of a baby born in Bethlehem. I’m especially mystified that he didn’t attempt to preach on the Gospel of John because my parish is called “Incarnate Word”–what more fitting Gospel reading could there have been than this?

I find it disappointing that priests today feel that their role is more in catering to the masses than even coming close to explaining the basic theology of our faith. I don’t think that his feel good message was anything ‘unique’ that anyone there had never heard… but perhaps some of those C&E Catholics might return if they are intrigued by his new look at the Nativity.

Anyways, I’m considering e-mailing the pastor about this. Any thoughts? Is what he did (changing the Gospel reading) considered a ‘liturgical abuse’?
 
My pastor did the same thing, yet I didn’t see it as a liturgical abuse, as such. I was disappointed, too, for the opening chapter of John’s gospel is chock-full of wonderful and full insights into Jesus. Yet, I just figured that the pastor wanted the shepherds to be featured because it fit into the theme of his homily, which I believe he also did earlier in the day (the mass was at 10 am, and there was a prior 8:30 one).
 
I don’t know for sure, but my gut feel is that this isn’t allowed. However, like you, I would have been disappointed. Those “feel good” homilies, that have become so common lately, drive me nuts. I want to learn about my faith.
 
We had the same thing happen. We had the Mass at Dawn readings instead of the Vigil readings(Gospel of Matthew).
 
I don’t have the confirmation for this, but our priest who is usually pretty orthodox said that you are permitted to use any of the Christmas readings for any of the Christmas Masses. So if you want to use the Christmas Vigil readings at Midnight Mass or Christmas Day, etc. you can.

Like I said I don’t have the confirmation for this but he is usually pretty accurate.
 
However, I believe the rule is all or nothing. You can use all of the readings for one Mass at another or you can use the all of the readings for that Mass. You can’t mix-and-match, however. If the first and second readings are for Mass during the day, then the Gospel must also be for Mass during the day.
 
MusicMan said:
However, I believe the rule is all or nothing. You can use all of the readings for one Mass at another or you can use the all of the readings for that Mass. You can’t mix-and-match, however. If the first and second readings are for Mass during the day, then the Gospel must also be for Mass during the day.
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Our priest didn’t mix and match. He did all the “Dawn” readings.
 
You can indeed use any complete set for any time. Vigil, Midnight, Dawn, Day…doesn’t matter. You can’t mix and match like a Chinese resturant lectionary menu.

The bigger problem is the abuse of times. Midnight means 12:00, when the two hands of the clock are together, not 10, not 11, not 9…those would be Vigil.

Dawn means dawn. Not "my parish’s first Mass happens to be 9:30, so let’s use Dawn for it). The Dawn Mass is usually quite rare.

Anything AFTER dawn is the Day Mass.
 
AlexV said:
The bigger problem is the abuse of times. Midnight means 12:00, when the two hands of the clock are together, not 10, not 11, not 9…those would be Vigil.
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In my parish, our “Midnight Mass” started at 11:30 PM. At the Cathedral, in our diocese, our Bishop started the “Midnight Mass” at 10 PM.
 
The rubrics in the Lectionary have for Christmas Day:

“In Masses celebrated on Christmas Day, the readings given below are used, with the option of choosing more appropriate readings from any one of the three Masses according to the pastoral needs of each celebration.”
(Lectionary Volume 1 Study Edition, Collins Liturgical Australia, 1983, ISBN 0 00 599764-X, page 104.)
 
The traditional rubrics for the times are splendid.

First Vespers at the usual hour (say 6 pm).

Matins, unusually solemn, at the usual hour for the First Nocturn (9 pm).

After the lengthy Matins of 9 lessons, the Midnight Mass.

Immediately after Mass, Lauds…because on this day, dawn will be consecrated not by the Divine Office, but by the Mass, a living association of the sun and the Son at the hour of both their risings.

Right before dawn, Prime, and then the Dawn Mass as the sun rises.

Terce at its usual hour (9 am), followed by the Day Mass.

Then the rest of the hours as usual.
 
Our homily was still exceptional…and Midnight Mass at our church starts at midnight.
 
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