The Woman At The Well

A reader writes:

Yesterday, I attended my sister’s parish.  For the Gospel reading (Jacob’s Well), a "play" format was used with the priest saying the words of Jesus and parishoners reading other parts.  Is this in accord with the rubrics of the mass?
It wasn’t terribly distracting, but I’m not sure of the reason for it. I have seen this done at Good Friday, but not with this reading.
It’s not allowed.
There are only two days of the year on which such dialogue readings of the gospel are permitted: Palm Sunday and Good Friday.
I have seen the same thing happen, though, and I have a suspicion why it’s being done: Aside from general touchie-feelie, "Let’s shake up the liturgy"-ness, I think it’s because the text involves Jesus interacting with a woman, and it’s just too tempting for some liturgists to have the chance to get a woman reading the part of a woman character from the gospel, as this otherwise doesn’t occur. I think it’s done as some kind of advancement of women/Jesus’ compassion for women thing.
That’s just speculation, though. You’d have to ask the folks who did it in any given parish for the real story on their motives. In many cases, it may have simply been that they’d seen it done elsewhere and didn’t realize it wasn’t allowed.

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."

17 thoughts on “The Woman At The Well”

  1. My parish went a little further. There were small musical trophes interpolated at various points in the Gospel narrative for the congregation to sing. The text was “Give us living water.” The music was rather banal in my opinion.

  2. Interesting conjecture Jimmy. My parish did a little “play” as well. It was the Priest, a Deacon, a woman and the music ministers reading the parts. They also had us sit during the Gospel.
    It surprised me, because usually the parish is pretty good about not doing that sort of thing. There does seem to be something about this reading that makes it particularly tempting to mess around with…

  3. My parish did the same thing as Sean’s although the Deacon did read the entire Gospel. I did not find very edifying.

  4. I want to say thanks to my pastor (Saints Simon & Jude-Pittsburgh, PA) that I have never had the misfortune of experiencing anything like this, or any of the other liturgical abuses one hears about. Just a solid, reverent mass/liturgy with solid reverent music week in and week out. I feel so blessed.

  6. I had the same experience as Sean at the parish I went. As I was hearing this gospel I was wondering what they were doing.

  7. My parish has been strengthening its commitment to the liturgical rubrics over the past couple of years, so I was disappointed that the “tradition” of the multiple readers and the musical accompaniment has remained. I have hopes that it will be next on the chopping block that has been executing liturgical nuttiness from the Mass at my parish.
    I have my own suspicions about why this is done. Aside from Jimmy’s speculations, which I think are valid, I also think it has to do with this being the first week for the scrutinies of the catechumens in RCIA. In an effort to make them more special, I think they want to “jazz up” the Gospel.
    Which leads me to bemoan the deterioration of RCIA ceremonies at Mass as well. When I was in RCIA a mere ten years ago, we didn’t have to tell the parish our hopes and dreams. This week, for example, I got to hear about how one individual hoped his reception into the Church would satisfy his thirst for “tolerance” by giving him the “living water” of “Christ’s compassion.”
    Good thing we have to fast for an hour before Communion. My stomach churned — not out of disgust for this guy’s otherwise legitimate aspirations, but out of pity that he was compelled to share them as part of the RCIA process.

  8. Same thing at my parish as at Seans. And the pianist continued to play music throughout the entire Gospel read by the Deacon. A bit distracting but maily because it was unusual.

  9. I’m glad (?) to see that others have shared my own experience. I’m just wondering what is going to happen with the Gospels for the coming weeks–next week tells the story of the man born blind, the following, the story of the raising of Lazarus.

  10. Some liturgical publisher must have put that out there because I had the same experience: instrumentals in the background, occasional refrains of “give us living water” and a dialog back and forth between the celebrant and the lector.
    Well, if nothing else, I put my copy of Magnificat down for a while. 🙂 But I always get a bit undone when I see a little liturgical ad-lib’ing.

  11. Yes, mine, too. Thanks for the heads-up and the documentation. Father is usually very good about sticking to the rubrics – he may have been talked into this by someone. He’s not from the U.S. originally.

  12. Btw, the Passions of Holy Week should not involve the congregation doing the dialogue, but a lector.
    See article 33 of Paschales Solemnitatis (1988).
    Missalette printers, of course, still screw this up.

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