TWO YEAR PATRISTIC LECTIONARY

The Holy See produced two Lectionaries of Scripture readings for use with the Liturgy of the Hours, a one year cycle and a two year cycle. The one year cycle of Scripture with an accompanying Patristic reading for each day was published in the editio typica of the Liturgia Horarum and translated into the various vernaculars, including the three volume English Divine Office, for use at the Office of Readings. Some find the one year cycle of Scripture and the choice of patristic readings unhelpful after many years repetition; it is certainly not suitable for monastic communities. The two-year cycle of Scripture readings was published in Notitiae, the Journal of the Congregation for Divine Worship with the intention of publishing it as a supplement to the Liturgia Horarum. Work was also done on a two year cycle of patristic texts (Dom Henry Ashworth of Quarr was involved). Changes at the Congregation resulted in the suspension of the work but religious in various language groups produced their own versions of the two year cycle which have been approved by the competent authorities. In Italian, French and German there are published volumes of this two year cycle of Scripture and patristic readings for the Divine Office (Liturgy of the Hours) which are used by the secular clergy and laity as well as by religious communities. In the English-speaking world there was an attempt to produce a two-year patristic lectionary led by Henry Ashworth which became the series of books A Word in Season. The later volumes in this series departed from the concept of a patristic lectionary and took the majority of readings from later periods of Church history. This was felt to be inadequate by many in the monastic world and the Abbot of Pluscarden asked me to create a two-year cycle of patristic readings that were mainly from the Church Fathers. It was not felt right to use the cycle developed by Henry Ashworth and used in the Italian volume because many patristic readings were insufficiently connected to their Scripture readings and because there was a lectio continua of certain patristic books that was impractical because it would be interrupted by the readings of the Sanctoral. The aim is: To have each patristic reading either related to the Scripture reading or to the season of the Churchs year. To have a reading for every day of the Temporal cycle (i.e. including days such as Christmas, Ascension, Sacred Heart). To have the vast majority of the patristic readings from the patristic period, although following medieval precedent writers such as Origen have been included. This gives it ecumenical value. To use readings from the one year cycle in the Divine Office and the two year cycle of Word in Season whenever possible. To have the whole cycle of readings in digital form on Word files so that it can easily be distributed throughout the world. To have a complete two-year Scripture cycle, as approved by the Holy See, for use with the patristic readings. This is in the RSV, which is in the public domain. To ensure that it is distributed free as a service to the Church and to avoid copyright problems.

As a commentary by the fathers of the Church on almost the whole of Scripture it would be a great resource for homilies and catechetics. The lectionary is in use in monasteries in Scotland, England, the USA, Ghana and South Africa and the Abbot of Pluscarden, Dom Hugh Gilbert, has given his permission for me to allow it to be published on the website of the Durham University Centre for Catholic studies. The two-year lectionary consists of 772 units (each unit consists of one reading from Scripture and one from the Fathers): a) Advent Christmas 96 units. b) Lent 92 units. c) Easter 104 units d) Ordinary Time Year 1 240 units e) Ordinary Time Year 2 240 units. This is 772 Scripture readings and 772 patristic readings = 1544 readings in total, each formatted to fit a page of A4 in 13 point. From a survey of the contents done when 519 of the 772 patristic readings had been chosen and edited: 100 authors are represented. Of the 519 readings, 414 (80%) are patristic, of which 187 are from Eastern authors (36% of the total, 45% of the patristic readings in the pre-Conciliar Roman Breviary only 4% of readings were from Eastern writers). 69 (13%) are mediaeval. 36 (7%) are modern, i.e. texts from after 1500 AD, including documents of the Magisterium. These are the most common authors, as a percentage of the total readings so far: 17% St Augustine (15% in the current Roman Liturgia Horarum) 7% Origen (2% in the current Roman Liturgia Horarum) 6% St Cyril of Alexandria (2% in the current Roman Liturgia Horarum) 5% St Ambrose, St John Cassian, St John Chrysostom 4% St Leo the Great

Stephen Mark Holmes New College (School of Divinity) University of Edinburgh