Liam offers another armchair liturgist bit for us today:
Studying my new daily missal for the coming week, I see that it provides that, when the Baptism of the Lord is celebrated on Monday, as it is this year in the USA, then the readings for the Monday of the First Week of Ordinary Time may be added to the readings of the Tuesday of the First Week of Ordinary Time, so that the continuity of the passages is retained. This is true for the Gospel in cycles I and II. It is also true for the first reading in cycle II (which is what we are in this year); for cycle I, the merit of this approach for the first reading is less clear.
So, who will be advising celebrants and lectors of this option? What’s your preference?
Another choice for liturgists: how would you handle an instance like this where the Lectionary doesn’t give you the merged option? Are your lectors skilled enough to start on “Monday’s page,” then flip to the next day? Same for the priest–flip back and then finish up with Tuesday?
A small editing observation: on the USCCB page linked above, a typo on the choices of Gospel readings.
5 January 2012 at 10:54 pm
I would absolutely support this approach. But I would say use the responsorial psalm and Alleluia verse from Tuesday.
It might also make sense to create a document that has the two readings combined on one page (one page for the first reading, one page for the Gospel) and place these sheets in the correct spot in the Lectionary – at the page where Tuesday’s responsorial psalm is. In this way, the lector does minimal page flipping and things flow almost seamlessly. This is especially critical for those lectors who read both the first responsorial psalm during the week (which would be most of them).