NEW Lectionary

From 1st December 2024

Essential UPDATE for St. Bede's Parish & Readers

The motif on the new Lectionary and missals is a stylised Greek cross with five inset rondels. In the centre is Jesus as Christos Pantocrator, or Christ, ruler of All. This ancient depiction of Our Lord is modelled on the 6th century Christos Pantocrator icon from St. Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai. The Pantocrator is often depicted holding the Book of life, thus His association with Sacred Scripture. Each arm of the cross has a rondel with the symbol of one of the four Evangelists. St. Matthew’s angel, St. Mark’s lion, St.Luke’s ox and St. John’s eagle. The letters between the arms of the cross,IC XC NI KA are a traditional abbreviation for a Greek phrase meaning”Jesus Christ conquers”. Jesus Christ is the word of God, so, taken as a whole, this motif eloquently speaks of the power and majesty of the words the Lectionary contains.

A Lectionary is the liturgical books reformed which contains the biblical readings used at Mass and other occasions such as baptisms, marriages and funerals. The Lectionary for Mass currently used in the Roman Rite was reformed after the Second Vatican council and promulgated by Pope Paul VI in 1969. The underlying structure of the Lectionary is based on the history of salvation, the all -encompassing story of God’s loving relationship with the human race. St. Augustine expressed that the New Testament lies hidden in the Old and the Old Testament is fully revealed in the New. The Lectionary strives to link the Old and the New Testaments- a principle called-harmonisation-to show us the “today” of salvation.

When the risen Lord opened the Scriptures to His disciples [Luke 24:13-35] He was giving a gift to the Church for all time. The Liturgy of the Word during Mass is an incarnation of this and through the readings given in the Lectionary we are each invited to play our part in the life of the Church- the Body of Christ. Saint Gregory the Great said that “Scripture grows with the one who reads it”. Thus as we hear the Word of God proclaimed at Mass, the Lord Himself speaks to us and in listening and responding to Him we are changed and transformed by His grace and mercy.

On 1st December 2024 - the 1st Sunday of Advent - a new English version of the Lectionary for Mass comes into force in England, Wales and Scotland. It will be based on the English Standard Version: Catholic Edition [ESV-CE] and the Abbey Psalms and Canticles [APC]. The same order of readings will be used - just in a new English version. Since 2001, encouraged by Rome, across the Catholic world there has been a second “wave’ of translations of the liturgical books reformed after Vatican II. There has been a desire for greater fidelity to the origin texts and a growing preference for ‘formal-equivalent’ over ‘dynamic-equivalent’ translations.

Translations that sounded fresh in the 1970s can now seem somewhat jaded and flat and many new English versions of the scriptures have proliferated, taking advantage of updated biblical scholarship. Various new feasts and memorials have been added to the liturgical calendar since the 1981 Lectionary based on the Jerusalem Bible and Grail Psalter.

The Sunday Lectionary contains three readings for each Mass and follows a three year year cycle. It has become common to speak of the Years of Matthew [year A], Mark [Year B] and Luke [YearC]. The gospel of John features during Lent and Easter.

The weekday Lectionary is spread over two years and contains readings for every single day. This allows more of the word of God to be heard by the faithful.

The English Standard Version [2001] belongs to the venerable family of bible translations stemming from the King James Version [1611]. It is a revision of the Revised Standard Version [1971] most recently updated in 2016 and is intended to be both accurate and beautiful. It takes care to incorporate the latest scholarship regarding the original Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek Texts of the Bible.