Readings for Solemnities and Major Feasts

Solemnities of the Lord during Ordinary Time:

The following three special celebrations occur each year in the weeks immediately following Pentecost Sunday.

NOTES:

1. Readings that are different from the first edition of the Lectionary for Mass (Latin 1969; USA 1970) are marked in the tables above and below. Click on the underlined links (diff) for more detailed explanations.
2. Numbers in the second column are the official reading numbers from the Ordo Lectionum Missae, second typical edition, 1981. Each of these is one less than the number for the corresponding readings in the first typical edition of the Lectionary from 1969, since the Chrism Mass (on Thursday of Holy Week) was moved from #39 in the 1969 edition to #260 in the 1981 edition.
3. In the dioceses of the United States, the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body of Blood of Christ (traditionally called Corpus Christi) is now celebrated on the Sunday after Trinity Sunday; it was formerly celebrated on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, as it still is in many other countries today.
4. A "Sequence" is a special text sung (or recited) used just before the Gospel Acclamation on four feasts during the liturgical year; the Sequence Lauda Sion is optional on Corpus Christi..
5. Rationale for reading selections: "On the solemnities of Holy Trinity, Corpus Christi, and the Sacred Heart, the texts chosen correspond to the principal themes of these celebrations." (Lectionary for Mass, 1981, "Introduction," par. 108).
6. Printing Suggestion: If you wish to print out this page, use "LANDSCAPE" rather than "Portrait" as the paper orientation, so the tables will fit better.

Solemnities and Feasts of the Lord and the Saints:

Readings for the following twelve celebrations are included in the Sunday Lectionary (Volume I of the Lectionary for Mass), since most of these celebrations supplant the corresponding Sunday of Ordinary Time if the date falls on a Sunday in a particular year, as shown in the following table for years between 1998 and 2050.
Such feasts cannot, however, take precedence over the Sundays of Advent, Lent, or Easter, or the weekdays of Holy Week or the Easter Octave (acc. to the Vatican's General Norms for the Liturgical Year and Calendar, promulgated March 21, 1969). Thus, if March 19 or Dec. 8 falls on a Sunday in a particular year, the feast is moved to the following Monday. The transfer of March 25 is more complicated; see the table further below for details.

Sundays of Ordinary Time Supplanted in Particular Years:

In every year, several Sundays of Ordinary Time are supplanted or omitted, for various reasons:

1. At least three Sundays of O.T. are supplanted each year by Pentecost and the two Solemnities that follow it (as listed in the first table above). Exactly which Sundays are affected, however, varies from year to year, depending on the date of Easter.
2. Since the length of the Advent Season varies (between three and four weeks, depending on which weekday Christmas falls), but in order to ensure that the readings for the 34th Week in Ordinary Time are read at the very end of each liturgical year, one entire week of Ordinary Time is often (but not always) omitted after the Season of Easter. Thus, for example, if the weekdays just before Lent belong to the 5th week of O.T., then after Pentecost we continue with the 6th week of O.T. in some years, but skip to the 7th week of O.T. in most years. See the Calendar of Lectionary Cycles and Movable Feasts for details on which week is omitted in which years.
3. Other Sundays of O.T. are supplanted whenever a Solemnity or major Feast (as listed in the tables above) falls on a Sunday. In such cases, the following weekdays still use the liturgical readings for the corresponding week of Ordinary Time.

 
Notes on the Solemnities of St. Joseph (March 19) and of the Annunciation of the Lord (March 25):

If March 19 is a Sunday during Lent, then the Solemnity of Joseph, Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is transferred to the following Monday, March 20.
For 2008, however, since March 19 was Wednesday of Holy Week, the Vatican's Congregation for Divine Worship decreed that this solemnity was to be celebrated on the previous Saturday, March 15, 2008.
For a detailed explanation, see the Newsletter of the Committee on the Liturgy of the USCCB (Sept. 2006, pp. 34-35).

If March 25 is a Sunday during Lent, then the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord is transferred to Monday, March 26;
but if it falls during Holy Week or the Easter Octave, then it is transferred to Monday of the second week of Easter.
The following table lists all the years between 1970 and 2100 on which this Solemnity was or will be transferred:

Holy Days of Obligation:

• The number of "Holy Days of Obligation" varies around the world. Countries in Europe tend to retain more, while countries in Africa, Asia, and South America tend to have fewer.
• In the USA, the following Solemnities (in addition to all Sundays) are observed as Holy Days of Obligation (except in Hawai`i):
  • Jan. 1, Mary, Mother of God (not of obligation when it falls on a Monday or Saturday; not of obligation in the metropolitan province of Los Angeles [Southern California])
  • Aug. 15, Assumption of Mary (not of obligation when it falls on a Monday or Saturday)
  • Nov. 1, All Saints (not of obligation when it falls on a Monday or Saturday)
  • Dec. 8, Immaculate Conception (Patronal Feast of the USA; when Dec. 8 falls on a Sunday [as in 2019], the observance is transferred to Monday, Dec. 9, but the obligation is not transferred)
  • Dec. 25, Nativity of the Lord (Christmas)
• In Hawai`i, following the policies of the Conference of Bishops of the South Pacific, only Dec. 8 and Dec. 25 are retained as Holy Days of Obligation.
• The Solemnity of the Ascension is celebrated on the Seventh Sunday of Easter, except in the ecclesiastical provinces of Boston, Hartford, New York, Newark, and Philadelphia, and in the state of Nebraska. In these areas, it is observed on the Thursday between the Sixth and Seventh Sundays of Easter and is a Holy Day of Obligation.

1998 USA Lectionary (Main Page)