Reading the Entire Bible in 3 Years at Mass?

[RosaLydia]

I've read that if we follow the Mass readings for the 3 year liturgical calendar, we would read/listen to the entire (or almost the entire) Bible.

Does anyone have any more information about this? Specifically:

Do we read the entire bible, old and new testament?. Or what books are read in their entirety, which ones partially, which ones skipped? (For example, I don't remember hearing readings from Proverbs)

Do we read the entire bible if we follow the Sunday Mass readings only or Daily Mass Readings?

Thank you so much for your help,

[sententia]

3yr if on Sunday, 1 yr is daily mass everyday. Some books are left out, such as the genologies. I'll let someone else get back to you on all those details, though

[YADA]

The Sunday mass readings are covered in three years, Cycle A, B & C. The daily mass readings are covered in a two year cycle. To really hear the majority of scripture at mass you would need to attend daily mass for two years and Sunday mass for three. During that three year period of daily and Sunday mass attendence you would hear about 80-90% (this is my guesstimate based upon the readings covered) of the Bible. The previous poster is correct that some (but not all) geneologies are ommitted. There are some other passages that just do not make it into the lectionary.

St. Jerome said that "Ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ" I believe that this is just one of the reasons mother church places such prominance upon the Liturgy of the Word. The Liturgy of the Word is the first half of the mass. We receive God's Word in Scripture followed by receiving the "Word Made Flesh" in the Liturgy of the Eucharist followed by our being sent forth into the world to be the hands, heart and feet of Jesus, to be what we have received.

That is why we are to attend mass faithfully and study scripture outside of mass as well. Hope my musings help you without muddying the waters....PAX

[Todd Easton]

Based on the number of verses read, by my calculations, the 3-year Sunday readings cover about 5%-10% of the Old Testament and about 42% of the New Testament.

[YADA]

That is why you need to add in the daily masses and their two year cycle to get a majority of scripture by mass attendence alone.

There are only 52 Sundays each year, plus the Holy Days of Obligation that may or may not fall on a SUnday in any given year. There are an additional 300 plus days with one reading from the Hebrew Texts or New Testament Letters, Acts, Revelation and one readings from the Gospels. At all masses we have the reponsorial, usually from the Psalms.

Sunday Masses times 3 years plus Daily Masses times 2 years covers scripture fairly fully. It is not 100% but it is substantial!

Pax

[Todd Easton]

Originally Posted by Todd Easton

Based on the number of verses read, by my calculations, the 3-year Sunday readings cover about 5%-10% of the Old Testament and about 42% of the New Testament.

I was able to come up with a more precise estimate of the Old Testament covered in the 3-year Sunday readings based on the number of verses read: 5%.

The Old Testament contains about 27,524 verses of which about 1362 are read in the 3-year Sunday readings.

The New Testament contains about 7954 verses of which about 3372 are read in the 3-year Sunday readings.

[Ferdinand Mary]

The Order of Readings for Sundays and festive days extends over three liturgical years. Each liturgical year begins with the first week of Advent and is designated by the letter A, B, or C. The cycle is arranged as though the first Year A was the calendar year 1 A.D. (beginning with the prior calendar year’s Advent). Thus, 2004 (which began with the first week of Advent in 2003) is a Year C.* The years are also known by the Gospel reading selections for Ordinary Time – Matthew in Year A, Mark in Year B, Luke in Year C. The gospel of John is read during the Easter season in all three years. Similarly, the Order of Readings for weekdays extends over two liturgical years. Year I corresponds to odd numbered years; Year II to even.

*Note: An easy way to determine which year of the cycle we are in is to determine which years are divisible by three. Those years are Year C. An easy way to do this is to add the digits of the year together and see if the they are divisible by three. If so, it is a 'C' cycle year. Example: 2004. 2+0+0+4=6. 6 / 3=2. Therefore, 2004 was a 'C' cycle year.

Thanks to Jim Blackburn and the USCCB .

Mane Nobiscum Domine
Ferdinand Mary

[itsjustdave1988]

Not every passage is read in the Sunday lectionary.

Here's an index I found online that crossreferences every passage of Scritpure to one or more lectionaries, to include the Roman Catholic Lectionary (Sunday readings only). You'll note some passages and some books are not included in the current lectionary for Sunday readings.

What you need to understand is that the Catholic Mass is celebrated every day, not just on Sunday, which provides more Scripture readings. The daily readings can be found here: http://www.usccb.org/nab/index.htm


Index of Scripture passages to Lectionaries
http://www.textweek.com/scripture.htm

In the above reference, Roman = Roman Catholic Church Lectionary.

RCL = Revised Common Lectionary, which is a multi-denominational lectionary.

Revised Common Lectionary was produced by The Consultation on Common Texts (CCT). At the time the RCL was compliled, the CCT was composed of representatives from the following denominations (taken from Consultation on Common Texts. The Revised Common Lectionary. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1992) :

• The Anglican Church of Canada
• Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
• Christian Reformed Church in North America
• The Episcopal Church
• Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
• Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada
• Free Methodist Church in Canada
• International Commission on English in the Liturgy
  (an Agency of 26 Roman Catholic National or International Conferences of Bishops)
• The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod
• Polish National Catholic Church
• Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
• The Presbyterian Church in Canada
• Reformed Church in America
• Roman Catholic Church in the United States
• Roman Catholic Church in Canada
• Unitarian Universalist Christian Fellowship
• The United Church of Canada
• United Church of Christ
• The United Methodist Church

[Todd Easton]

The readings for Sunday Mass are repeated every three years. The reading for Weekday Mass are repeated every two years. The following table, based on my own calculations (and therefore likely not entirely error-free), will give you an idea of about what percentage of the Bible, Testament, or each individual book of the Bible, you might hear read at Mass over the course of any three-year period, based on the number of verses read. (Note: All optional Mass readings were included. Also, a verse was counted even if only part of verse is used.)

Book(s) (verses) . . . . . . Sundays only . . Sundays & Weekdays



Entire Bible (35478). . . . . . 14% (5035) . . . 30% (10722)
Old Testament (27524) . . . 6% (1663) . . . . 18% (4830)

Genesis (1532) . . . . . . . . . 8% (123) . . . . . 27% (420)
Exodus (1213). . . . . . . . . . 10% (127) . . . . 20% (245)
Leviticus (859). . . . . . . . . . 1% (8). . . . . . . 5% (41)
Numbers (1288. . . . . . . . . 1% (17). . . . . . 6% (82)
Deuteronomy (959). . . . . . 5% (52). . . . . . 13% (123)
Joshua (657). . . . . . . . . . . 2% (10). . . . . . 7% (43)
Judges (618). . . . . . . . . . . 0% (0). . . . . . . 8% (51)
Ruth (85). . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0% (0). . . . . . . 25% (21)
1 Samuel (809) . . . . . . . . . 3% (24). . . . . . 19% (153)
2 Samuel (695) . . . . . . . . . 3% (21). . . . . . 15% (107)
1 Kings (816). . . . . . . . . . . 4% (31). . . . . . 19% (158)
2 Kings (719). . . . . . . . . . . 1% (14). . . . . . 16% (118)
1 Chronicles (943) . . . . . . 1% (6). . . . . . . 1% (9)
2 Chronicles (821) . . . . . . 2% (18) . . . . . . 3% (26)
Ezra (280) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0% (0) . . . . . . 8% (21)
Nehemiah (405) . . . . . . . . 2% (9) . . . . . . 5% (20)
Tobit (245). . . . . . . . . . . . . 0% (0) . . . . . . 32% (79)
Judith (340). . . . . . . . . . . . 0% (0) . . . . . . 3% (9)
Esther (272) . . . . . . . . . . . . 0% (0). . . . . . 6% (15)
1 Maccabees (921). . . . . . 0% (0) . . . . . . 6% (53)
2 Maccabees (556). . . . . . 2% (12) . . . . . 7% (38)
Job (1060). . . . . . . . . . . . . 2% (17) . . . . . 8% (87)
Psalms (2524) . . . . . . . . . . 26% (648) . . . 50% (1263)

continued on next post...

[Todd Easton]

...continued from previous post

Book(s) (verses) . . . . . . . . . Sundays only . . Sundays & Weekdays

Proverbs (914). . . . . . . . . . 3% (24). . . . . . 6% (56)
Ecclesiastes (222). . . . . . . 2% (4). . . . . . . 15% (34)
Song of Songs (117) . . . . . 0% (0). . . . . . . 11% (13)
Wisdom (436) . . . . . . . . . . 11% (50). . . . . 25% (109)
Sirach (1372). . . . . . . . . . . 4% (54) . . . . . 16% (226)
Isaiah (1281). . . . . . . . . . . 15% (192). . . . 26% (335)
Jeremiah (1364) . . . . . . . . 32% (43). . . . . 12% (165)
Lamentations (154). . . . . . 0% (0). . . . . . . 5% (8)
Baruch (213). . . . . . . . . . . 13% (27). . . . . 22% (46)
Ezekiel (1255) . . . . . . . . . . 4% (48) . . . . . 14% (172)
Daniel (530) . . . . . . . . . . . 1% (7) . . . . . . 38% (204)
Hosea (196) . . . . . . . . . . . 7% (13). . . . . . 19% (38)
Joel (73) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16% (12). . . . . 44% (32)
Amos (146) . . . . . . . . . . . . 9% (13) . . . . . 35% (51)
Obadiah (21) . . . . . . . . . . 0% (0) . . . . . . 0% (0)
Jonah (48) . . . . . . . . . . . . 13% (6) . . . . . . 90% (43)
Micah (105). . . . . . . . . . . . 4% (4) . . . . . . 23% (24)
Nahum (47). . . . . . . . . . . . 0% (0) . . . . . . 15% (7)
Habakkuk (56). . . . . . . . . 9% (5). . . . . . . 18% (10)
Zephaniah (53) . . . . . . . . 15% (8) . . . . . . 25% (13)
Haggai (38) . . . . . . . . . . . 0% (0). . . . . . . 45% (17)
Zechariah (211) . . . . . . . . 2% (4). . . . . . . 12% (25)
Malachi (55). . . . . . . . . . . 22% (12). . . . . 36% (20)
continued on next post...

[Todd Easton]

...continued from previous post...

Book(s) (verses) . . . . . . . . . Sundays only . . Sundays & Weekdays

New Testament (7954) . . . . . . 42% (3372) . . . . 74% (5892)

Matthew (1071) . . . . . . . . . . . 58% (623) . . . . . 87% (936)
Mark (678). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61% (412) . . . . . 97% (656)
Luke (1151) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60% (690) . . . . . 89% (1026)
John (878) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62% (545) . . . . . 95% (833)
Acts of the Apostles (1006) . . 18% (182) . . . . . 52% (525)
Romans (433). . . . . . . . . . . . . 26% (114) . . . . . 53% (230)
1 Corinthians (437). . . . . . . . . 40% (173) . . . . . 59% (259)
2 Corinthians (256). . . . . . . . . 21% (53). . . . . . 50% (127)
Galatians (149) . . . . . . . . . . . 28% (41). . . . . . 60% (89)
Ephesians (155) . . . . . . . . . . . 59% (91). . . . . . 91% (141)
Philippians (104) . . . . . . . . . . 47% (49). . . . . . 71% (74)
Colossians (95) . . . . . . . . . . . 37% (35). . . . . . 68% (65)
1 Thessalonians (88) . . . . . . . 44% (39). . . . . . 74% (65)
2 Thessalonians (47) . . . . . . . 36% (17). . . . . . 62% (29)
1 Timothy (113) . . . . . . . . . . . 18% (20). . . . . . 53% (60)
2 Timothy (83) . . . . . . . . . . . . 30% (25). . . . . . 67% (56)
Titus (46) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17% (8). . . . . . . 61% (28)
Philemon (25). . . . . . . . . . . . . 32% (8) . . . . . . 56% (14)
Hebrews (303) . . . . . . . . . . . . 26% (80). . . . . . 62% (188)
James (108). . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29% (31). . . . . . 92% (99)
1 Peter (105). . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37% (39). . . . . . 81% (85)
2 Peter (61) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18% (11). . . . . . 33% (20)
1 John (105). . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30% (31). . . . . . 100% (105)
2 John (13). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0% (0) . . . . . . . 46% (6)
3 John (15). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0% (0) . . . . . . . 27% (4)
Jude (25). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0% (0) . . . . . . . 28% (7)
Revelation (404) . . . . . . . . . . 14% (55). . . . . . 41% (165)

[asteroid]

Poor Obadiah. He doesn't get a single reading. Maybe my Old Testament lecturer back at college was right when he said that we could forget Obadiah. And he was a Presbyterian minister so probably wasn't up on missal readings.

Thanks for posting the statistics. Think I'll stick to supplementing the missal readings with a Bible otherwise, even if I don't ever miss a day, there will be over two thirds of the Bible that I never read.

[RosaLydia]

Todd,

Thank you so much for your wonderful posts! That is a lot of hard work there. I will print it for my reference.



I help teach RCIA and we always say that we Catholics listen to most of the Bible during Mass, but now I know that this is only accurate for the New Testament. Your research does highlight the importance of emphasizing Bible study independent from the Mass (especially Old Testament), as per your calculations only 18% of the Old Testament is covered by Mass readings.



Thanks again,



PS. Another idea I had was just to start highlighting my bible everyday with the Mass readings, at the end of 3 years I would know what was not covered!

[RosaLydia]

Dave,


Thank you! Another excellent resource!!
RosaLydia

[YADA]

Yes, thanks Todd, that is alot of work. I never actually counted the verses, what an extreme amount of work! One of my favorite passages is the 'talking ***' a wonderful passage that never makes it into the Sunday Mass schedule! But good story, good humor, and yes, a message. St. Jerome said that ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ. A major reason that scripture reading is on my "must do regularly" [read religiously ] list.


Pax