Most liturgists know the scrutiny gospels of cycle A can be used on the third, fourth, and fifth Sundays of Lent in non-A years. They can also be utilized for a weekday Mass. Did you know that?
Sit in the purple chair and render judgment. Are these gospels important enough for the Lenten journey that you would utilize this option for a daily Mass? Is it worth an encounter with the Samaritan woman, the man born blind and Lazarus, even for a fraction of the faith community? Is there any benefit to doing this for an intentional community, especially a monastery or convent? Or are they just too much of a bother?
16 March 2010 at 7:33 pm
It’s an interesting echo of the Tridentine missal pattern of Sunday readings during feria that follow.
17 March 2010 at 1:24 pm
In addition to my parish, I’m a part of a small inter-faith house church. We take turns planning and running worship, and I’ve been “in charge” during Lent this year. (Keep in mind- most of our small community are not familiar with Lent, having come from non-liturgical traditions.)
For the last two Lents with this group we did meditative prayer services with a Lenten focus- things like the Stations of the Cross and the Seven Last Words.
This year, for these last three Sundays, we’ve been simply spending a great deal of time at each gathering with the scrutiny reading for the week.
These readings have been a wonderful part of my Lenten journey this year, and I think my Protestant house-church friends have come to understand more of what Lent is all about from these Gospels than from all the transposed ritualism I’ve done in the past.
17 March 2010 at 3:27 pm
This is one of those cases where I would actually not mind seeing the Cycle A readings be used in each of the three years on their respective Sundays. (The fact that there are specific Eucharistic prefaces connected to the cycle A readings reinforce that approach, IMHO.)
Some of the readings used in cycles B and C are also used on weekdays (for example, the gospel of the Prodigal Son is read annually on the second Saturday of Lent and repeated in Year C on the fourth Sunday of Lent). In cases like this, I’d favor the cycle A reading because I’m not big on repeating the same readings twice in the same season, especially so close together. (For example, I can live with the first chapter of Matthew’s gospel read during on December 17/18 because, while it occurs only a week later, its’ encore appearance ushers in a new liturgical season.)