Seasonal Responsorial Psalm
  • SMR
    Posts: 13
    I was trying to find a decent setting of the Responsorial Psalm for the feast of Saint Thomas Aquinas, but to no avail. So, I looked in the Seasonal Responsorial Psalms, and found one for the Season of Ordinary Time that would fit. Would this be permissible to use? Alternitavely, does anyone know of a good setting for this psalm: http://usccb.org/bible/readings/012814.cfm
  • matthewjmatthewj
    Posts: 2,700
    Here's the Lumen Christi setting of the Psalm response for the actual day.
    who-is-this-king-of-glory_RP_AB_VIII.pdf
    14K
    Thanked by 1SMR
  • ronkrisman
    Posts: 1,394
    First of all, the commemoration of St. Thomas Aquinas is an obligatory memorial, not a feast, in the 1969 General Roman Calendar. That clarification is important in what follows.

    The Introduction (praenotanda) to the Lectionary for Mass has this to say about weekday readings:
    4) The Weekday Readings
    82. The arrangement of weekday readings provides texts for every day of the week throughout the year. In most cases, therefore, these readings are to be used on their assigned days, unless a solemnity, a feast, or else a memorial with proper readings occurs. [107]

    As will be shown below, the memorial of St. Thomas Aquinas does not have any "proper readings," so it is possible that the readings for Tuesday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time could be used on January 28. Readings from the sanctoral cycle are obligatory only on solemnities and feasts, but not on memorials, even obligatory memorials, unless there is one (or more) reading(s) on an obligatory memorial which is/are designated as "proprium." (For instance, for July 22, St. Mary Magdalene, the rubric from the 1981 Latin Ordo Lectionum Missae ([OLM], states: "Evangelium huius memoriae est proprium." - The gospel of this memorial is proper.]

    Concerning the readings for the celebrations of saints, the Introduction to the Lectionary for Mass has this to say:
    d) THE READINGS FOR CELEBRATIONS OF THE SAINTS

    70. Two series of readings are provided for celebrations of the Saints.

    1. The Proper of Saints provides the first series, for solemnities, feasts, or memorials and particularly when there are proper texts for one or other such celebration. Sometimes in the Proper, however, there is a reference to the most appropriate among the texts in the Commons as the one to be given preference.
    2. The Commons of Saints provide the second, more extensive group of readings. There are, first, appropriate texts for the different classes of Saints (martyrs, pastors, virgins, etc.), then numerous texts that deal with holiness in general. These may be freely chosen whenever the Commons are indicated as the source for the choice of readings.

    71. As to their sequence, all the texts in this part of the Order of Readings appear in the order in which they are to be read at Mass. Thus the Old Testament texts are first, then the texts from the Apostles, followed by the psalms and verses between the readings, and finally the texts from the Gospels. The rationale of this arrangement is that, unless otherwise noted, the celebrant may choose at will from such texts, in view of the pastoral needs of the congregation taking part in the celebration.

    Unfortunately the USA's 1997 English-language Lectionary for Mass does not present all the rubrics which are given in the sanctoral cycle of reading citations found in the 1981 Latin OLM. For example, at OLM, no. 522, we read:

    Die 28 januarii
    S. Thomae de Aquino, presbyteri et Ecclesiae doctoris (memoria obligatoria)
    De Communi doctorum Ecclesiae vel pastorum.

    [St. Thomas Aquinas, priest and doctor of the Church (obligatory memorial)
    From the Common of doctors of the Church or the common of pastors]

    Then follow four citations:
    Reading 1 (Wisdom 7:7-10,15-16 (no. 725.2)
    Resp. Ps. (Psalm 118:9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 (no. 727.3)
    Alleluia (Mt. 23:9b,10b (no.729.2)
    Gospel (Mt. 23:8-12 (no. 730.3)

    The 1969 USA edition of the Lectionary for Mass did not contain those four citations. It merely stated: Common of doctors or pastors, p. 846 or 858. The second edition of the OLM (1981) added the citations as "readings to be given preference" (see Introduction, no. 70.1, above). And, for Jan. 28, since none of the readings is listed as "proprium," none of them is obligatory. (A proper reading is one in which the saint being commemorated on a particular day is actually mentioned in the reading, so Mary Magdalene can have a "proper" reading, while St. Thomas Aquinas or St. Cecilia cannot.)

    In summary, the four citations for St. Thomas Aquinas are the "preferred" readings, but any other readings (including responsorial psalms) from the common of doctors of the Church or the common of pastors may be used instead. Or the readings for Tuesday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time may also be used.
    Thanked by 3Ignoto SMR Siena1347
  • Ignoto
    Posts: 126
    Thank you, Fr. Krisman, for your thorough explanation and especially this part:

    (A proper reading is one in which the saint being commemorated on a particular day is actually mentioned in the reading, so Mary Magdalene can have a "proper" reading, while St. Thomas Aquinas or St. Cecilia cannot.)


    It is very helpful to know about the differences between those Lectionary editions and how to determine the licit options.