Another area where ministers have “freedom of choice,” as the GILM says, is in the option of longer or shorter versions of texts:
80. A pastoral criterion must also guide the choice between the longer and shorter forms of the same text. The main consideration must be the capacity of the hearers to listen profitably either to the longer or to the shorter reading; or to listen to a more complete text that will be explained through the homily.
Hopefully the guiding principles are indeed pastoral, and not finishing the Mass in N. minutes.
