Our liturgy has been reformed for over thirty years but not everyone still understands the cycle of readings for Sunday and Weekday Masses so some of you might find the following helpful.

The liturgical year begins on the first Sunday of Advent and finishes on the Saturday following the feast of Christ the King.

THE LITURGICAL YEAR

Advent runs for 4 weeks and part of the 5th week until Christmas Day. It has two parts:

a)       until 16 December preparing for Second Coming of Jesus.

b)       17th-24th December preparing for our celebration of Jesus’ birth.

Christmastide

25th December until the Sunday after Epiphany (the Baptism of our Lord).

Then Ordinary Time (34 weeks) commences.

Lent and Eastertide interrupt Ordinary Time.

Lent is six full weeks and the second half of the week commencing with Ash Wednesday. During the Sundays of Lent the first reading from the OT is not linked with the Gospel as it is during the remainder of the year. Instead the OT Sunday readings each Lent are a summary of the OT.

Eastertide is seven weeks concluding with Pentecost. During Easter both readings are from the NT. The first reading is always from the Acts of the Apostles.

Ordinary Time resumes on the Monday after Pentecost and continues until the Saturday after Christ the King when we begin again.

CYCLE OF READINGS IN ORDINARY TIME

Sunday Cycle The Gospels follow a three year cycle, one of the Synoptics is read each year.

Gospel                         Year A             Matthew         (2002)

                                    Year B             Mark                (2003)

                                    Year C             Luke                (2004)

The First Reading links thematically with Gospel.

The Psalm is our response to God’s Word to us in the First Reading.

The Second Reading is chosen independently. It is almost continuous reading (semi-continuous) of an entire book of the New Testament. When we have read that book, we begin reading another book of the NT, and thus it continues.

Weekday Cycle There is not a three-year cycle during weekday Masses, but a yearly cycle. Each of the three Synoptics is read for part of the year.

Gospel                         Mark                Weeks 1-9

                                    Matthew         Weeks 10-21

                                    Luke                Weeks 22-34

The first reading during the weekday Masses covers most of the Bible in a two-year cycle and is not linked thematically with the Gospel as it is on Sundays..

Reading                        Year 1 (2003)

                                    Year 2 (2004)

You might well ask ‘What happened to John’s Gospel?’ Parts of John are read outside of Ordinary Time, during Lent, Eastertide and other feasts.