Readings

After the Collect we have our readings. Our readings for Sunday are on a three year cycle. Each cycle of readings begins with the first Sunday of Advent. The gospel reading for cycle A is taken from the Gospel of Matthew, for Cycle B the gospel is from Mark, and for Cycle C the gospel is from Luke. What about the Gospel of John? We sprinkle the Gospel of John throughout the other three cycles. The first reading and the responsorial psalms have been chosen to compliment the Gospel. The second reading, which is usually from one of St. Paul’s letters, is not chosen to match the Gospel. What happens is that we will have a series of readings from the same letter over the course of one or two months. Once we have gone through that letter, then we will begin another letter from the New Testament. So, if you’ve ever wondered why the second reading didn’t seem to fit with the Gospel, the answer is that it isn’t chosen to match the Gospel. The first reading and the responsorial psalm are chosen to match the Gospel, while the second reading is chosen to give us the most important parts of each of the letters from the New Testament.