The Reading Cycles for Mass

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Tis_Bearself

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I’ve been going to daily Mass regularly for a few years now, and apart from Advent (which focuses on leading up to Jesus’ birth), Lent or at least the latter part (which focuses on leading up to Jesus’ Passion), and major feast days (which focus on the person or the event commemorated on the day), I’m not getting much sense of how the readings cycles were set up. They often seem random to me. Sometimes the OT reading seems to relate to a theme in the Gospel and sometimes it does not, and somebody said in a homily I heard a while ago that the OT and NT readings generally weren’t thematically linked, it was just whatever happens to be assigned to that day.

Can somebody explain to me just how the Church came up with the current reading cycles A, B and C? And how that might differ from the way the reading cycles were set up for the previous form of the Mass? Feel free to point me to online sources on this.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
Can somebody explain to me just how the Church came up with the current reading cycles A, B and C? And how that might differ from the way the reading cycles were set up for the previous form of the Mass? Feel free to point me to online sources on this.
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I don’t know how they came up with the cycles. I believe that previously there was only a one-year cycle of readings. Someone smarter than me please correct if that’s not right.

The daily Mass readings in Ordinary Time take you through various OT and NT books in order of verses. Same with the Gospel. There may or may not be a direct connection between the two readings.

For example, today’s first reading is 1 TM 3:1-13; tomorrow is 3:14-16; and Thursday is 4:12-16. The Gospels are LK 7:11-17; 7:31-35; and 7:36-50.

Note that not every verse of Scripture is read in this. Some are skipped…not sure why.
 
For what it’s worth, there’s a 3-year cycle for Sundays and a 2-year cycle for weekdays.
 
That’s baffling right there. Why can’t weekdays also have a 3 year cycle? There are huge chunks of Scripture not read at any Mass that could be utilized.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
And how that might differ from the way the reading cycles were set up for the previous form of the Mass? Feel free to point me to online sources on this.
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The big difference is that there were very few readings from the Old Testament. There were only the First Reading and the Gospel (no Second Reading), and the First Reading was usually from the Epistles, only occasionally from the Old Testament.

https://catholic-resources.org/Lectionary/Roman_Missal.htm
 
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I think it was a very positive change in the Mass to incorporate more of the OT. I have no idea how someone would understand the Gospels if they didn’t have at least a basic working knowledge of the OT.
 
Overview of weekday first readings says “Semi-continuous readings are taken from various books of the Old and New Testaments” and provides a chart.

The chart is divided by week of the liturgical year, so I think it is one book a week for the most part, ie there is some commonality throughout a week.
 
This is the site I was going to recommend, too. Lots of handy charts and explanations.

For example, look at the chart for Ordinary Time, Year I

https://catholic-resources.org/Lectionary/2002USL-Weekdays-OT-I.htm

You can see that they basically start at one place in the Old Testament or epistles and another place in the Gospels, and then things just sort of move mostly in order from there.

I don’t believe it’s totally random. But I think that illustrates why the connection between readings is stronger on some days than for others.
 
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Tis_Bearself said:
Can somebody explain to me just how the Church came up with the current reading cycles A, B and C?
Click to expand...
Isn’t one cycle for Luke, one for Matthew, and one for Mark? Seems like there is a lot of message overlap especially with different English translations but what do I know.
 
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A is Matthew, B is Mark, C is Luke. These 3 are known as synoptic gospels because they see Christ with the same/syn eyes/optics. Every year, that same pattern recurs, but with differences. Baptism of the Lord in Jan, Transfiguration around August, Apocalyptic discourse in Nov, etc. Readings from the Hebrew scriptures are chosen to relate to the gospel readings. Psalms should be responses to the OT reading as well. Epistles are read sequentially; if they connect with the other readings, it is providential, not intentional.

Seasons (Advent, Christmas, Lent & Easter) are selected separately. Readings are more focused, but some attention to the gospel of the year. John’s gospel is read during these seasons, and along with Mark in Ordinary time.
 
For weekday readings, we’re basically just following the story each day for the first reading and the gospel. So, in other words, each day’s reading normally follows on from the previous day’s during Ordinary time. So, a few months back we were following the Exodus story for the first reading before moving on to another section of the scriptures. The idea is basically to cover a range of books of the bible.

For Sunday’s, the first reading and the Gospel are linked, with the Gospel more or less following on from the previous week during Ordinary time - albeit with some interruptions and skipping.
 
The General Introduction to the Lectionary is at https://www.liturgyoffice.org.uk/Resources/Rites/Lectionary.pdf

Particularly relevant is the part beginning on page 13:

"PART TWO
Structure of the Order of Readings for Mass

Chapter IV
General Plan of the Readings for Mass"

Also Chapter V “Description of the Order of Readings” which begins on page 20 with:

“92. It seems useful to provide here a brief description of the Order of Readings, at least for the principal celebrations and the different seasons of the liturgical year. With these in mind, readings were selected on the basis of the rules already stated.This description is meant to assist priests to understand the structure of the Order of Readings so that their use of it will become more perceptive and the Order of Readings a source of good for Christ’s faithful.”

[Excerpts from the English translation of the introduction to the Lectionary for Mass © 1969, 1981, International Commission on English in the Liturgy Corporation. All rights reserved.]
 
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