Sunday Liturgy changed for Feast of St. Francis using Gospel reading from The Episcopal Church

[naylordaisy]

Hello,
I am have a question which is really perplexing me.
Today, Oct 04th is the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi and our parish church’s patron saint is St. Francis. I was checking to see if the mass readings and gospel readings can be changed on feast days of saints when the feast day falls on a Sunday. I found answers which were not very clear to me.
However, in our mass readings today, they were all changed from the readings that the USCCB has set for Oct 04 2015 (Gospel, MK 10 2:16) and concerned the topic of family and husband and wife being unable to divorce. . But instead of the USCCB Sunday liturgy for today, we had a gospel reading that has been assigned by The Episcopal Church for the feast of St. Francis (MT 11:25-30) and which is completely different to that of the USCCB. The Episcopal Church also lists the same USCCB readings for Sunday Oct 04th but it our pastor did not use them. Is this liturgically OK to replace the USCCB readings with Feast Day readings? Does the USSCB have special readings set for saints such as St. Francis of Assisi? If not, is it acceptable for a pastor to use readings taken from those assigned by the Episcopal Church?
Any comments to help me understand would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you

 

[SMHW]

Hello,
I am have a question which is really perplexing me.
Today, Oct 04th is the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi and our parish church’s patron saint is St. Francis. I was checking to see if the mass readings and gospel readings can be changed on feast days of saints when the feast day falls on a Sunday. I found answers which were not very clear to me.

If your parish has St. Francis as a patron then this Sunday probably being celebrated as a local solemnity (which trumps a Sunday in Ordinary time) so you would use the readings for the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi.

I have no idea if the Episcopal Church uses the same readings for the feast of St. Francis as does the Catholic Church but it wouldn’t surprise me if that is the case.

 

[ComplineSanFran]

I have no idea if the Episcopal Church uses the same readings for the feast of St. Francis as does the Catholic Church but it wouldn’t surprise me if that is the case.

Both the US Catholic Church and The Episcopal Church (as well as many other branches) use the Revised Common Lectionary. It’s nice to know that we are all reading the same Epistle and Gospel lessons. For a feast day/patronal day, I know that Episcopal Church allows parishes to change the lectionary selection.

 

[Gertabelle]

Hello,
I am have a question which is really perplexing me.
Today, Oct 04th is the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi and our parish church’s patron saint is St. Francis. I was checking to see if the mass readings and gospel readings can be changed on feast days of saints when the feast day falls on a Sunday. I found answers which were not very clear to me.
However, in our mass readings today, they were all changed from the readings that the USCCB has set for Oct 04 2015 (Gospel, MK 10 2:16) and concerned the topic of family and husband and wife being unable to divorce. . But instead of the USCCB Sunday liturgy for today, we had a gospel reading that has been assigned by The Episcopal Church for the feast of St. Francis (MT 11:25-30) and which is completely different to that of the USCCB. The Episcopal Church also lists the same USCCB readings for Sunday Oct 04th but it our pastor did not use them. Is this liturgically OK to replace the USCCB readings with Feast Day readings? Does the USSCB have special readings set for saints such as St. Francis of Assisi? If not, is it acceptable for a pastor to use readings taken from those assigned by the Episcopal Church?
Any comments to help me understand would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you

Yes this is acceptable.

Yes, there are specific readings for Saints’ feast days, usually from the commons (common or pastors, common of virgins, common of martyrs, etc.). Franciscans may have proper readings for the feast of St Francis, Benedictines for the feast of St Benedict, and so on.

But I’m curious why you asked us instead of just asking your pastor

God bless you.

Gertie

 

[naylordaisy]

Thank you everyone for your responses. They are very helpful.

I did not ask my pastor at the the time because I did not notice that the readings had been changed while at mass nor in fact throughout the day.
It was only when I came home and I accidentally found it when I received a bulletin from one of the digital social groups that Pope Francis spoke about today’s mass readings readings in his homily (husband and wife and the issue of divorce). It was around 3am in the morning at home that I could see the readings had been changed.

Last year, I checked from records that the mass readings were not changed and followed the USCCB readings assignment (Saturday Oct 04 2014). But this year they were changed.

So I was very curious to know how this can happen.
Thank you

 

[7_Sorrows]

Our church is also named after St. Francis and our readings were also changed. I know the first reading was from Genesis and the second reading was from Galatians. Unfortunately, I don’t remember the Gospel reading. It has been a long day.

 

[FrDavid96]

Thank you everyone for your responses. They are very helpful.

I did not ask my pastor at the the time because I did not notice that the readings had been changed while at mass nor in fact throughout the day.
It was only when I came home and I accidentally found it when I received a bulletin from one of the digital social groups that Pope Francis spoke about today’s mass readings readings in his homily (husband and wife and the issue of divorce). It was around 3am in the morning at home that I could see the readings had been changed.

I checked the Lectionary. That’s the Gospel reading for St. Francis (Matthew 25).

A parish under the title of St. Francis can indeed celebrate the saint’s feast day yesterday (which fell on Sunday this year); that includes using the readings for his feast day.

Pope Francis celebrated the Sunday of Ordinary Time because he followed the universal calendar. If he happened to be in a church named after St. Francis, he also had the option of using the Mass readings for the saint.

Last year, I checked from records that the mass readings were not changed and followed the USCCB readings assignment (Saturday Oct 04 2014). But this year they were changed.

So I was very curious to know how this can happen.
Thank you

Last year, he feast was not a Sunday, so naturally the readings were not changed last year (although even then, they might have been, but that’s a different topic).

 

[FrDavid96]

Our church is also named after St. Francis and our readings were also changed. I know the first reading was from Genesis and the second reading was from Galatians. Unfortunately, I don’t remember the Gospel reading. It has been a long day.

There are a lot of options.

 

[exnihilo]

Both the US Catholic Church and The Episcopal Church (as well as many other branches) use the Revised Common Lectionary. It’s nice to know that we are all reading the same Epistle and Gospel lessons. For a feast day/patronal day, I know that Episcopal Church allows parishes to change the lectionary selection.

I’m not an expert but I believe this is not exactly correct. I think there is first the Catholic lectionary. From this was derived the Revised Common Lectionary. So the RCL is based on the Catholic lectionary. The RCL is not exactly the same but mostly follows the Catholic lectionary. I don’t think it includes any of the Deuterocanonical books. I also believe the Episcopal lectionary is slightly different from both the Catholic and RCL lectionary. I don’t know if this applies to any other church in the Anglican communion.

 

[drforjc]

The translation, hopefully, at least, was from the current lectionary approved by the bishops’ conference and with recognitio from Rome.

 

[Digitonomy]

I also believe the Episcopal lectionary is slightly different from both the Catholic and RCL lectionary.

At least according to its website, the Episcopal Church has adopted the RCL as its lectionary:

The Revised Common Lectionary, published in 1992 and officially adopted by The Episcopal Church in 2006, takes into account constructive criticism of the [earlier 1983] Common Lectionary based on the evaluation of its trial use, and like the current prayer-book lectionary, is a three-year cycle of Sunday Eucharistic readings in which Matthew, Mark, and Luke are read in successive years with some material from John read in each year.