Comparison table of EF and OF readings for the liturgical year 2014-15

I have compiled a table that compares the readings in the EF and OF for the upcoming liturgical year (2014-15). Please click here to download it!

The comparative table of the EF and OF readings in the previous post is limited in a number of ways. The three year Sunday cycle of the OF lectionary, the differences in the OF and EF calendars, and the fact that Easter is movable, all make it difficult to compare the two sets of readings. However, by chronologically going through a whole liturgical year, we can start to get a feel for how the two lectionaries compare when put side-by-side.

Again, this table has its limitations, notably that it only works for one year. The sheer number of options in the OF lectionary does not help with compiling a table, either! But I hope that some of you find it useful nonetheless.

Oh, and for those who are interested, the French experimental lectionary table is almost done. My wife and I are going away this week for our wedding anniversary, so I hope to be able to upload that table in a couple of weeks.

Comparison table of OF and EF lectionary readings

Further to Fr Z's request for resources to compare the OF and EF readings, I have quickly knocked up the following table, which can be downloaded from here.

The font is unfortunately quite small, but that's mainly down to the sheer size of the OF Sunday lectionary!

Updates and fixes

Hello to those of you coming here from Fr Z!

I have fixed some of the links to the tables and other resources that have been broken over the last year or so. Please let me know in the comments if you are experiencing difficulties in accessing any of them.

The French experimental lectionary table is coming along nicely, and will hopefully be ready next month!

French experimental lectionary table coming soon!

I mentioned in my last post that I was on the lookout for a copy of the French experimental lectionary. Well, I managed to track down volumes 2 and 3 for a good price on AbeBooks!

I was hoping that it would have been all three volumes, but unfortunately the seller appears to have confused volume 1 with the Canadian experimental lectionary. Oh well - the Lectionnaire pour les jours de semaine (Ottawa: Service des Editions liturgiques de la Conférence Catholique Canadienne, 1967) is an interesting piece of history to have on my shelf! Canada, like England & Wales, used the German scheme of readings, and according to the Lectionnaire, permission for them to use that experimental scheme was given by the Consilium on 21st January, 1966. Compared with the English & Welsh lectionary, the Canadian lectionary has slightly different instructions for its use, which I will copy and upload soon.

Anyway, I now have volumes 2 and 3 of the French Lectures pour les Messes de semaine (ad experimentum) (Centre National de Pastorale Liturgique, 1966). Volume 2 contains the readings for weeks 1-20 after Pentecost; Volume 3 contains the readings for the rest of the time after Pentecost, as well as Advent, Christmastide, Epiphany, time after Epiphany, and Septuagesima through Quinquagesima.

Volume 1, as far as I can ascertain, contains the readings for Eastertide. Now, to make a table of the scheme in its entirety, I would ordinarily need this seemingly very hard to track down volume (at the time of writing, there weren't any secondhand copies listed on any of the sites I usually check). However, at the back of Volume 3 is an index of the readings for all three volumes. This means that, with a little extra work, the forthcoming table of the French experimental scheme will be complete! Hooray!

So, that's what's coming up. Most of the tools will then be available to help with basic comparative studies of the experimental lectionaries with each other, and also with the reformed lectionary. Watch this space!

Table of readings from the Experimental Lectionary (1965-69)

Sorry it's been a while since the last post - life has a habit of taking over...!

However, I managed to obtain a copy of Lectionary for the Masses of the Week (London: Burns & Oates, 1966, 2 vols.), an interesting piece of liturgical history that in some respects gives a preview of what was to come in the post-conciliar reform of the lectionary. It is, according to Bugnini, only one of (at least) three different experimental schemes in use from 1965 (The Reform of the Liturgy 1948-1975 [Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1990], p. 480 n. 5). The bishops of England & Wales, along with those of Scotland and Ireland, appear to have adopted the German scheme.

The table of readings from this experimental lectionary can be found here.

I hope in the next few months to track down a copy of the French experimental scheme and tabulate it for the purposes of comparative study, but that could be a little tricky since it appears that bits of it were published in five or six different pamphlets. For now, though, freely use, share and enjoy this new table!

Scripture index for the 1962 MR, and some more useful links

The scripture index for the 1962 Missale Romanum is finished! (Hooray!) :-)

Please click here to view and download the PDF file (just under 1 Mb in size). Let me know if there are any glaring errors - there are bound to be at least a couple in 50 or so pages of indexes!

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And some more sidebar updates:

• Dr. Peter A. Kwasniewski, The Loss of Riches in the Sanctoral Cycle (article at catholictradition.blogspot.co.uk; originally in Latin Mass: A Journal of Catholic Culture and Tradition, pp. 30-35, Fall 2007)

A great article about the differences between the sanctoral cycles in the EF and OF. Some interesting (and, in my view, sensible) criticisms of the OF Lectionary, and some interesting suggestions for a development of the EF Lectionary in both the spirit of "mutual enrichment" and the call of Sacrosanctum Concilium 51. 

• Rev. Fr. Brian W. Harrison, The Biblical Dimension of Paul VI's Liturgical Vision (Living Tradition 154; PDF, 355 Kb)

An interesting short study about Paul VI's record of consistent promotion of scripture in the life of the Church, specifically through the Mass and Divine Office. (Thanks to Dr. Kwasniewski for e-mailing me this link.)

• Dom Jules Baudot, O.S.B., The Lectionary: Its Sources and History (London: Catholic Truth Society, 1910) (e-book formats from archive.org)

I have had a cursory look at this book, and certainly as a history book it looks very useful. It goes into considerable detail about the contents of ancient lectionaries and related liturgical books, which is very helpful for research, and is also a great introduction to the lectionary's source materials if you don't know that much about them. 

(In general, archive.org is a good place to search for older, out-of-print books, and I found this very interesting book a couple of weeks back. Subsequently, I was lucky enough to find a hard-copy of this book on Amazon for £2.81 - e-books are great, but, for me at least, they can't replace paper and ink. It's just not the same reading a book on a screen! Also, this does now mean that Dom Baudot's book is on my list of books to review for this blog.)

• Countercultural Father's blogposts dealing with the Lectionary (ccfather.blogspot.co.uk)

A fellow British blogger does some sterling comparisons between and analysis of the OF and EF lectionaries. Not having access to Archbishop Bugnini's book The Reform of the Liturgy 1948-1975, those posts I found of particular interest. And it's a great blog generally!

• Prof. Lauren Pristas, Theological Principles that Guided the Redaction of the Roman Missal (1970) (The Thomist 67 [2003]: 157-95)
  -------, The Orations of the Vatican II Missal: Policies for Revision (Communio 30 [Winter 2003]: 621-53)

I am cheating a little here: these exceptionally interesting articles deal with the Roman Missal rather than the Lectionary. But in the current absence of similar information regarding the Lectionary, I think it's instructive to find out what the principles and criteria for the Consilium's revision of the Missal were; I think similar considerations will have been at the forefront of the revision of the Lectionary. 

(And I hope to get hold of Prof. Pristas's new book soon (Collects of the Roman Missal) - it looks like it could be the most interesting book I read this year...!)

Quick update (and another welcome!)

Firstly, welcome to those who have come here from Rorate Caeli! I hope that you find this site both useful and interesting!

Secondly, the quick update: I have almost finished compiling the scriptural index for the chants and readings in the 1962 Missal. Later this week I will upload that, along with links to some more resources, papers and blogs. So, stay tuned!