I did a daring thing this morning at the only Mass of Christmas Day we had at St. Anne's the Christmas Mass at dawn. It was spontaneous but oh so effective.
After the Prayer after Holy Communion, I had my normal brief announcements and then received an inspiration of the Holy Ghost who told me to read the Last Gospel, The Prologue of John. Of course this Gospel is read for the Christmas Mass at Day, so it was in the Book of the Gospel already at the ambo.
So I told the congregation, as well as our cantor who announces the recessional, that after the Solemn Blessing of Christmas and Dismissal, I would go to the ambo and proclaim the Last Gospel as is the norm in the Extraordinary Form of the Mass but quite apropos for Christmas Masses in the vernacular Ordinary Form Mass.
I worked out beautifully! After I read the Last Gospel, the recessional began, "Joy to the World" and the priest and ministers departed.
Did you experience the Last Gospel in your vernacular Ordinary Form Christmas Mass?
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And yet, at the third traditional Mass for Christmas Day the Last Gospel was omitted today (since John ch. I had already been read).
I have the new CTS Sunday Missal which, apart from the lectionary items, has the Latin and English texts side-by-side. Too many people who criticize the new translations are ignorant of the text they are attempting to render; one priest commentator on this blog admitted that he was quite happy to use the corrupt old ICEL versions for years since he didn't have the originals to compare them with. But I digress.
Turning to the OF Missa in Die, I noticed that the John prologue has been lengthened by the addition of four verses (15-18). However, since it is assumed that most congregations have the attention span of a five-year-old, there is a shorter version which omits these verses, as well as verses 6-8, which also concern John the Baptist. I can only surmise that the compilers of the 1970 lectionary were worried that the average pewsitter would confuse the two Johns and think the Evangelist was referring to himself.
Get outta here!
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