Q: Thank you for your insightful interpretation and sharing of liturgical norms. I learn a great deal from your blog and other publications. My question is about the third Old Testament reading at the Easter Vigil, from the Book of Exodus. Since the last verse of the reading and the first verse of the Responsorial Psalm overlap, is it permissible to have one person do both and just begin singing the psalm after proclaiming, “Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord:”? As you might suspect, this is how I have done it for the last few years, using the Psalm setting by Scott Soper and singing it a cappella, without a break from the reading. When I was finished, I said, “The word of the Lord.” Later, I was called on the carpet, not for combining the two, but for saying, “The word of the Lord” after the Psalm. Now I am wondering if it is even permissible to combine the reading and response in such a way, and if so, would I just leave out, “The word of the Lord”? Your comments are appreciated.
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A: Thanks for your comments on my work.
I cannot point you to any documentation that permits skipping the dialogue at the end of the Exodus reading at the Easter Vigil and plunging right into the psalm / canticle that follows.
But that is exactly what happens at St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican with the pope presiding every year. Every year.
They do not end the psalm with “The word of the Lord,” however.