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Lectionary. The Lectionary (book of
lessons) is the collection of Scripture readings for the Mass.
Together with the altar missal (also called the Sacramentary) it
forms the Missale Romanum (Roman Missal), the Church's
official term for the liturgical books used at Mass.
Lectionary for the United States. The Lectionary that
was in use in the United States
for three decades until 2002 took its texts
from the New American Bible, the translation approved by the bishops in 1970 to replace
the Confraternity Edition of the Douai-Rheims Bible. In the 1980s it was
decided to revise this translation, both to restore some traditional phrasing and to
include inclusive language. Toward that end a Revised New Testament was completed in 1986
and Revised Psalms in 1991. In 1992 the United States Conference of
Catholic Bishops (then called the National Conference of Catholic Bishops)
approved and sent to Rome a new Sunday Lectionary using the Revised
NAB New Testament and Psalms.
In
1994 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith informed the Congregation for Divine
Worship that the new
Lectionary could not be confirmed for use in the liturgy because
of inclusive language references to God, the
Persons of the Trinity and man, where this term has an
anthropological and theological significance. Working with the
American Bishops these Roman Congregations produced a Revised NAB
Lectionary without the problematic terms. The use of the Sunday and Feast Day
edition of this new lectionary began in 1998. The weekday
volumes came out in 2002. As of Pentecost 2002, the only approved Lectionary
for the United States is this revised NAB Lectionary.
The Inclusive Language Issue. During
the process of revising the lectionary some in the Church wanted
to use feminine terms for God
("vertical" inclusive language). The US Bishops
rejected this, but did agree to the use of "horizontal" inclusive
language, that is, to replace masculine nouns and pronouns
referring to human individuals generically (man,
brother, he, him), or, to the human
race collectively (man, mankind), with more
inclusive terms. The Holy See, however, rejected most
inclusive language, especially where the references had
philosophical and theological significance. Examples of such
texts are Psalm 1, where
"happy the man who follows not the counsel of the
wicked" was translated "happy the one," or Psalm 22,
where "I am worm and no man" was rendered "I am a worm
and no mortal." Such uses of man have deep
anthropological significance with respect to Adam (man) and
messianic significance referring prophetically to Christ (the
New
Adam and Son of Man).
What Rome has permitted is some mild inclusive
language in cases where a mixed group of individuals (as opposed to
an all male group like the apostles) is meant. Language is
convention, and where in the past it was convention to say brethren
or brothers in speaking to a mixed group the convention
today would be ladies and gentlemen, brothers and
sisters or some other inclusive set of words.
There is much in the new Lectionary for
which to be thankful. Familiar expressions such as "full of
grace" have returned and on the whole the translation
appears to be an improvement over the previous one. However,
at the present time there is no Bible which exactly
corresponds with the Lectionary since it is a line by line
revision of the Mass readings from the revised edition of
the New American Bible submitted by the Bishops to Rome.
EWTN’s Mass. Until 2002 there
were three Scripture texts that were approved for use in the
Mass in the United States: the NAB, the Jerusalem Bible and the Revised
Standard - Catholic Edition. The Mass broadcast by EWTN used the
Jerusalem Bible from its inception in 1991 until 2002. The
Daily Roman Missal, a lay
missal produced by Scepter Publishing, contained this JB
text, as well as Latin and English on facing pages, greatly
helping our viewers follow the Mass. Since 2002 this
previously published edition, of course, no longer contains
the proper lectionary texts. However, The Daily Roman
Missal. New Revised Edition does, and is published by
Scepter, Our Sunday Visitor and the Midwest Theological
Forum. It can be obtained through
EWTN's Religious Catalogue.
- For another article on Scripture versions in general see:
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