The Book of Common Prayer Table of
contents
The Order how the rest of Holy Scripture
is Appointed to be Read
The Old Testament
is appointed for the First Lessons at Morning and Evening Prayer,
so as the most part thereof will be read every year once, as in the
Calendar is appointed.
The New Testament is appointed for the Second
Lessons at Morning and Evening Prayer, and shall be read over
orderly every year twice, once in the morning and once in the
evening, besides the Epistles and Gospels, except the Apocalypse,
out of which there are only certain Lessons appointed at the end of
the year, and certain Proper Lessons appointed upon divers
feasts.
And to know what Lessons shall be read every
day, look for the day of the Month in the Calendar following, and
there ye shall find the chapters and portions of chapters that
shall be read for the Lessons, both at Morning and Evening Prayer,
except only the moveable feasts, which are not in the Calendar, and
the immoveable, where there is a blank left in the column of
Lessons, the Proper Lessons for all which days are to be found in
the Table of Proper Lessons.
If Evening Prayer is said at two different
times in the same place of worship on any Sunday (except a Sunday
for which alternative Second Lessons are specially appointed in the
Table,) the Second Lesson at the second time may, at the discretion
of the minister, be any chapter from the four Gospels, or any
Lesson appointed in the Table of Lessons from the four Gospels.
Upon occasions, to be approved by the Ordinary,
other Lessons may, with his consent, be substituted for those which
are appointed in the Calendar.
And note, That whensoever Proper Psalms or
Lessons are appointed, then the Psalms and Lessons of ordinary
course appointed in the Psalter and Calendar (if they be different)
shall be omitted for that time.
Note also, That upon occasions to be appointed
by the Ordinary, other Psalms may, with his consent, be substituted
for those appointed in the Psalter.
If any of the Holy-days for which Proper
Lessons are appointed in the Table fall upon a Sunday which is the
first Sunday in Advent, Easter Day, Whitsunday, or Trinity Sunday,
the Lessons appointed for such Sunday shall be read, but if it fall
upon any other Sunday, the Lessons appointed either for the Sunday
or for the Holy-day may be read at the discretion of the
minister.
Note also, That the Collect, Epistle, and
Gospel appointed for the Sunday shall serve all the week after,
where it is not in this Book otherwise ordered.
Text from The Book of Common Prayer, the
rights in which are vested in the Crown,
is reproduced by permission of the Crown's Patentee, Cambridge
University Press.