Who can read the Gospel?

[Czarman]

In the GIRM it states that the Gospel is to be read by the ordained (bishop, priest, deacon). There is an exception for the reading of the Passion on Palm Sunday and Good Friday. From what document is this taken?

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

Czarman:

In the GIRM it states that the Gospel is to be read by the ordained (bishop, priest, deacon). There is an exception for the reading of the Passion on Palm Sunday and Good Friday. From what document is this taken?

I looked in the Lectionary and the Instruction in the front of the Lectionary and cannot find any indication that the Gospel could be read in dialogue format at any time, especially by lay people.

 

[Verbum]

Hi Czar,

This is found in the Lectionary itself where the parts to be recited by the various participants are indicated by letters. This is along standing tradtion in the Church.

Verbum

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

Verbum:

Hi Czar,

This is found in the Lectionary itself where the parts to be recited by the various participants are indicated by letters. This is along standing tradtion in the Church.

Verbum

I rechecked two different Lectionary books and do not find the letters you indicate. I take this to mean that they were added possibly in the last ten years?

 

[Just_Joe]

This topic is on my mind too. This past Sunday, at our church, the Gospel was “presented” to the congregation by the priest and two lay people. At intervals throughout, the reading would stop and music would start. While the music played, the congregation was expected to sing a refrain related to the Gospel. This is the second week in a row that this has been done. How serious of an issue is this? I plan on writing our pastor to tell him how this bothers me.

 

[LarryM]

As Verbum pointed out, multiple parts are indicated in the lectionary. Multiple readers are also indicated in the current GIRM

From the 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.

Also, one of the resources supplied to parishes by Liturgy Department of the Archdiocese of Chicago is a book with the Passion reading that lectors use during the three part reading of the passion. At 4 or 5 points in the reading, there are instructions to pause for a short period of silence or for the singing of a short refrain or a Psalm. Similar materials with multipart readings and an option for silence or a refrain, are distributed by the Archdiocese for the 3 Sundays before Palm Sunday as well.

 

[JustSomeGuy]

LarryM:

As Verbum pointed out, multiple parts are indicated in the lectionary. Multiple readers are also indicated in the current GIRM

Also, one of the resources supplied to parishes by Liturgy Department of the Archdiocese of Chicago is a book with the Passion reading that lectors use during the three part reading of the passion. At 4 or 5 points in the reading, there are instructions to pause for a short period of silence or for the singing of a short refrain or a Psalm. Similar materials with multipart readings and an option for silence or a refrain, are distributed by the Archdiocese for the 3 Sundays before Palm Sunday as well.

just because the archdiocese of chicago distributes material, doesn’t mean it’s legal. they pulled that cra* at my parish too.

to answer the first posters question, the norms in the GIRM don’t necessarily come from anywhere else. the rules are implemented by means of that instruction. if they are a restatement of law or are supported by other documents, they may have footnotes citing those documents. but they don’t have too. the General Instruction is authoritative. that only the ordained may proclaim the Gospel comes from the fact that it is a duty assigned by them in canon law and in the tradition of the Church, as the GIRM states. it is never a duty (nor has it ever been a duty) of the lay faithful. as GIRM states, everyone must do the duties assigned to them by status. because of abuse, this norm has been restated in other documents, and the obligation to do duties assigned has been restated and clarified, both most resently in Redemptionis Sacramentum. the duty to proclaim the Gospel includes the homily. no one has the right to assign one person’s duty to another.

as for things like larry wrote about, those are abuses. those are propogated by over-zealous, and dare i say, ignorant people, who liberally interpret the norms of the GIRM, without any regard to its limits. i’ve written this elsewhere, and will say the same here. i would like to see proof that these texts are approved by the conference of bishops. an individual bishops do not the competence to alter the text of the mass in anyway. this includes the lectionary.

1. The adaptations to the Ordo Lectionum Missae as contained in the Lectionary for Mass for use in the dioceses of the United States of America should be carefully observed.

if these ‘adaptations’ were allowed, they’d be in the lectionary. if they are approved by the USCCB, they’d have to be ratified by the Holy See.

the Passion, printed in parts as referred to in the GIRM, is printed in the missalette from ocp that we have at our parish. this missalette bears the concordat of the archbishop of portland, oregon and the imprimatur of the USCCB. the bishops’ website shows it without the divisions. i assume from this that both are allowed.

however, it is explicitly clear from GIRM 109 that the texts that larry is describing are forbidden. “several persons” (‘persons’ here means ‘any minister of any kind’) can’t “divide a single element of the celebration” “at all” “except” (not ‘except, for example’ which would mean there are others) “the Passion”. the only exception to this rule is the Passion.

is the proclamation of the Gospel a single element of the celebration? this is plain as day.

how could the people who wrote the GIRM have more explicit? maybe by adding our names into it? what more should they have done?

i can make this claim with any fear of error: either the texts which allow the lectors to participate in the Gospel are bogus and do not have the proper approvals, or the Holy See has contradicted itself. that statement has got to be true. if it is not, then there’s got to be some pretty hard to swallow logic behind it, which i know in advance i won’t understand or agree with.