Liturgical Texts

There are many texts in support of the liturgies of the Church. However, four are most prominent.

The General Instruction of the Roman Missal

The General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM) —in the Latin original, Institutio Generalis Missalis Romani (IGMR) — is the detailed document governing the celebration of Mass of the ordinary form of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. It is printed at the start of recent editions of the Roman Missal.

The General Instruction is arranged in nine chapters, preceded by a preamble. The chapter headings are:

1. The Importance and Dignity of the Eucharistic Celebration
2. The Structure of the Mass, Its Elements and Its Parts
3. The Duties and Ministries in the Mass
4. The Different Forms of Celebrating Mass
5. The Arrangement and Furnishing of Churches for the Celebration of the Eucharist
6. The Requisites for the Celebration of Mass
7. The Choice of the Mass and Its Parts
8. Masses and Prayers for Various Circumstances and Masses for the Dead
9. Adaptations within the Competence of Bishops and Bishops' Conferences 1

The Lectionary

After the Second Vatican Council of 1962–1965, the Holy See promulgated the Ordo Lectionum Missae (Order of the Readings for Mass), giving indications of the revised structure and the references to the passages chosen for inclusion in the new official lectionary of the Roman Rite of Mass. It introduced an arrangement by which the readings on Sundays and on some principal feasts recur in a three-year cycle, with four passages from Scripture being used in each celebration, while on weekdays only three passages are used The Lectionary has been translated into the many languages in which the Roman Rite Mass is now celebrated, incorporating existing or specially prepared translations of the Bible and with readings for national celebrations added either as an appendix or, in some cases, incorporated into the main part of the lectionary. 2

The Book of the Gospels

The Book of the Gospels, Evangelion, is a codex or bound volume containing one or more of the four Gospels of the Christian New Testament — usually all four - from which are read the portions of the Gospels used in the Mass and other services, arranged according to the order of the liturgical calendar.3

The Roman Missal

The book that the priest uses at mass is called the Roman Missal. It is an English translation of a Latin text. That Latin version is translated into the other languages of the world. The English version we use here in the United States is the same English version used by all the other English speaking Catholics around the globe. When I say all the English speaking Catholics I mean all the English speaking Catholics in Australia, Canada, England, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Scotland, South Africa, United States, Wales, Antilles, Bangladesh, Pacific Islands, Gambia, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Kenya, Malaysia, Singapore, Malawi, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Those Catholics who speak other languages have the Roman Missal translated into their language so that all the Catholics around the world hear the exact same prayers, but in their own language. 4