The Second Vatican Council asked that the treasures of the Bible be opened up more lavishly so that a richer fare might be provided for the faithful at the table of God's word. The result was the Order of Readings for Mass, published in 1969 and revised in a second edition in 1981, which replaced the single annual cycle of the previous Missal with a far wider selection. The Lectionary used in the dioceses of the United States renders those readings in the New American Bible translation approved for liturgical use. Sundays follow a three-year cycle. In Year A the Gospel of Matthew is read semi-continuously through Ordinary Time, in Year B the Gospel of Mark, and in Year C the Gospel of Luke; because Mark is the shortest, the sixth chapter of John, the discourse on the Bread of Life, is read in the summer of Year B. John is also read extensively in Lent and throughout the Easter Season in every year. The year is named for the calendar year in which it ends, and Year C falls in years whose number is divisible by three. Each Sunday has three readings: a first reading, usually from the Old Testament and chosen to harmonize with the Gospel, a responsorial psalm, and a second reading taken semi-continuously from the letters. During the Easter Season the first reading is taken from the Acts of the Apostles instead of the Old Testament. Weekdays in Ordinary Time follow a two-year cycle for the first reading and psalm — Year I in odd-numbered years and Year II in even-numbered years — while the Gospel is read on a single annual cycle, so that the same Gospel passage is heard on a given weekday in both years. In the seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter the weekday readings are proper to the season and are the same every year, chosen for the particular character of those days. Solemnities and feasts have their own proper readings, and the Commons supply readings for memorials that lack them, which is why a memorial is ordinarily celebrated with the weekday readings and only the prayers of the saint. The Lectionary also provides readings for the sacraments, for funerals, for ritual and votive Masses, and for Masses for various needs. Its arrangement is itself a form of catechesis: over three years a congregation that comes to Sunday Mass hears the essentials of the whole of Scripture, and the homily, which the Council calls part of the liturgy itself, is meant to open those texts for the assembly.

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mass_structure