Gutting the Gospels: The Sacrilegious Stripping of the Novus Ordo Lectionary

LumenGentleman Apologetics ^ | Jacob Michael

[Land of the Irish]

Ping to an interesting analysis.

[ultima ratio]

Thanks for posting this. Interesting how the Church of today mimics the Pharisees of yesterday. They too rejected their own tradition.

[sinkspur]

What a silly argument.

The Tridentine Mass covers the same Scriptures, every year. The Novus Ordo covers six times the Scripture that the Tridentine does, over a three year cycle.

Quibbling over what is "left out" indicts the Tridentine six times over!

[AAABEST]

I think you're missing the point. We're used to that however.

[sinkspur]

I think you're missing the point.

The author of this piece misses the point.

The Novus Ordo covers six times the quantity of Scripture that the Tridentine Mass covers.

Nit picking over what is left out and why obscures the fact that the Tridentine Mass just doesn't expose Catholics to much Scripture, at all.

[dsc]

As usual, our resident atheist liberal troll misses the point.

Everyone else, I'm sure, saw that the salient point is found in an examination of *which* scriptures were omitted, not in a brainless computation of volume.

[broadsword]

What kind of nonsense is that, sinkspur? Really. Try to actually make a point.

[sinkspur]

Everyone else, I'm sure, saw that the salient point is found in an examination of *which* scriptures were omitted

You guys are hilarious!

Focusing on "which" scriptures are omitted indicts the Tridentine Mass, first and foremost, since the Novus Ordo delivers six times the number of Scripture readings that the Tridentine does.

[Desdemona]

You know what's funny, I did notice some of this a while back. It was more along the lines that we seem to get the same gospel readings, albeit in different forms, time after time. We all know the Prodigal Son by heart and a few others. On one level you know there is more there, and when reading through church documents, there's a lot of references we never hear in church.

Well, the passages are noted in the missals and missalettes, and they do indicate that there are verses missing. I guess we should get the bibles out.

[ninenot]

Bookmark

[Robert Drobot]

More evidence of the false prophets.

[siunevada]

Okay, I'm really confused.

The NO Gospel readings for this very week are from the 3rd chapter of John. The whole 3rd chapter. Every word. (According to the USCCB website and my parish bulletin.)

This article appears to say those readings are not in the lectionary.

What's up with that?

[Piers-the-Ploughman]

#1 Sunday evening prayer 2 Psalm 110 verses 1-5, 7 are said but v.6 " He shall judge among the ruins: he shall crush heads in the land of the many.." (this from Douay and of course Liturgy of Hours uses a new Psalter forget its name) Funny that this verse about the Lord crushing the heads of heathen was omitted.

#2 Monday week 2 Sirach 36: 1-5, 10-13 (these verse listing is given but they do not correspond to Douay text)
what is omitted however is "Raise up indignation and pour out wrath. Take away the adversary and crush the enemy. Hasten the time and remember the end, that they may declare thy wonderful works. Let him that escapeth be consumed by the rage of the fire: and let them perish that oppress thy people. Crush the head of the princes of the enemy that say: There is no other beside us."

Then the Liturgy of the Hours picks up again with "Gather together all the tribes of Jacob..."

maybe that last verse was inspiration for that modern standard gathering hymn "gather us in"

Yet in fairness, one sees Psalm 149 in its entirety and the last verses are a blaze of righteousness "let the praise of God be on their lips and a two edged sword in their hand to deal out vengeance to the nations and punishment on all the peoples; to bind their kings in chains and nobles in fetters of iron..."

Coincidence? what did these texts look like in the old Liturgy of the Hours? I don't know.

[Land of the Irish]

What has not been discussed in great detail, and which I will cover in this manuscript, are the many changes that were made to the Lectionary of Readings (the weekly epistle and Gospel readings).

The Lectionary would, for example, take the faithful through St. Matthew chapter 3, verses 1-6 on one Sunday, skip verses 7-11, and continue on the next Sunday with verses 12-20.

[Hermann the Cherusker]

A lot of the Gospel readings "left out" in the Tridentine are repetitive synoptic readings. Is it really necessary to hear the same parable from all three authors if the goal is to cover the lfie and teaching of Jesus in a concise and regular manner?

The VII mandated a restoration of the third reading from the Old Testament, which, had it been done with sensitivity to the old lectionary, could only have been a Good Thing. Unfortunately, like many Good Things in VII, it was both overdone (the whole lectionary revamped) and also ignored (important parts of scripture omitted or optionalized, existing Old Testament readings in Lent removed, etc.)

There is actually a fine example of this expansion that could have been used as an example or basis for a Catholic addition - the expanded lectionary from the Lutherans in use in the 1950's. The Lutherans and the Anglicans both used the traditional Catholic lectionary in their services prior to 1976 ever since their revolt from the Church. At some point before 1958, the Lutherans added an Old Testament reading to each Sunday of this lectionary. Bugnini and Antonelli *could* have done the same, but did not.

[Hermann the Cherusker]

It would be interesting to compare the new lectionary to the old in terms of what verses are and are not heard. As I recall from an index in an old Missal, the old lectionary was fairly comprehensive.

[Hermann the Cherusker]

They are probably looking at Sunday readings. Only 20% of practicing Catholics go to daily mass.

[siunevada]

The Lectionary would, for example, take the faithful through St. Matthew chapter 3, verses 1-6 on one Sunday, skip verses 7-11, and continue on the next Sunday with verses 12-20. This example is fabricated (for) the purposes of illustration

Yeeesh! A real example would be nice.

Okay, now I see that the author is talking about the weekly readings only.

[Salvation]

OK, I must admit my ignorance here.

The Novus Order Mass had a rotation of three cycles for the scriptures read each Sunday. We call them A, B, and C (for lack of better terms).

What is the rotation of scriptures read at a Tridentine Mass?

I do find it alarming, however, if some of our basic beliefs and scriptures about Christ are (for lack of better words) being watered down and/or omitted.

"The truth shall set us free."