Bishops to Vote on Updating Advent Mass Readings
WASHINGTON (October 17, 2006) — The U.S. bishops will vote on updating the Mass readings for the First Sunday and all the weekdays of Advent during their annual Fall plenary meeting in Baltimore, November 13-16.
The update of the readings marks the first part of a planned revision of the Lectionary for Mass. The action, which is being submitted by the Committee on the Liturgy, requires approval by two-thirds of the Latin Church members and subsequent confirmation by the Holy See. Revisions of additional portions of the Lectionary will be submitted at future meetings.
Plans for the revision began in 1999 and have involved a series of consultations to consider such matters as suitability for liturgical proclamation, poetic expression, grammar and vocabulary in the liturgical texts.
Among the proposed changes are replacing "steppe" with "wastelands" in a reading from Isaiah and replacing "an ephah" with "a large measure" in a reading from the first Book of Samuel.
Another change from Isaiah involves changing "I will not tempt the Lord" to "I will not put the Lord to the test." A change in a reading from the Gospel of Luke involves adding "people" after the word "many" in the phrase "Jesus cured many of their diseases…."
More information on the November meeting can be found at www.usccb.org.