Searching For Jonah

A reader writes:

Jimmy

Can you tell me how offten the book of Jonah is use in the Liturgy, I only see it being used once in cycle "B" third Sunday of Ordinary Time. Thanks for your help in this matter.

You’re in luck! I probably am one of the few people who could tell you this (easily, at any rate), since there doesn’t seem to be a published correlation table for the the Scripture readings sorted by book.

Fortunately, I am in possession of such a list, because I made one last year. A friend of mine who is a Chaldean priest was in need of one so that he could correlate Latin Rite homily helps with the Chaldean liturgical calendar and, since no such table seemed available, I spent a few hours reverse-engineering one for him on the computer.

I’ve meant to convert it to HTML and put it on the web so that it can be of service to others. (Thanks for the reminder!) But in the meantime, here’s the info on where Jonah shows up. As you can see, it AIN’T the whole book–just selected passages:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jonah
  1:1–2:1, 11		 YEAR I Week 27 – Mon
Jonah 2:2, 3, 4, 5, 8 YEAR
  I		 Week
  27 – Mon
Jonah 3:1-10 YEAR
  I OR II		 First
  Week of Lent — Wed
Jonah 3:1-10 YEAR
  I		 Week
  27 – Tues
Jonah 3:1-5, 10 YEAR
  B		 3rd
  Sunday of Year B
Jonah 4:1-11 YEAR
  I		 Week
  27 – Wed

Note that Jonah shows up TWICE on the Monday of the 27th week of Ordinary Time in Year I. This is because the second reading (from Jonah 2) is used as a responsorial psalm, after the first reading from Jonah 1.

Hope this helps!

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

9 thoughts on “Searching For Jonah”

  2. I started doing this myself. So far I only got through Cycle A of the Sunday readings.
    YOU JUST SAVED ME HOURS OF WORK!
    Publish it when you get a chance. Thanks!

  4. So the Responsorial Psalm is not always a Psalm? (from Psalms, that is?)
    Interesting. I guess that explains why I always think of “I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord” as a Psalm even though it’s from Jeremiah.

  6. It seems this information is published in the back of the various lectionaries we use here in the parish.

  7. The list did not include Jonah 3:10-4:11. This is for Occasional Masses: For the Spread of the Gospel, option 4. It is in the Lectionary for Mass, volume 3, Study Edition, published by Collins Liturgical Australia in 1983, ISBN 0-00-599766-6, page 532. Each volume has a helpful index, enabling me to find this particular passage.

  8. Yes! Publish it! The best would be something where you could see what verses are in the readings and which ones aren’t.

  9. My LTP Lectionary for Mass study edition for weekdays has this as an appendix. It goes from Geneis through Revelation. It list verses and shows which Sunday and daily masses it is used in.
    I would scan it and post it but it is copyrighted.

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