Q: Hello Fr. Turner, thank you for the reliable assistance in staying faithful to the Roman Missal. Your books and blog have been most helpful.
My question regards kissing the Gospel book. I saw your 2017 post saying that #133 admits to the use of other books (e.g., lectionary) but I do not read that there. From retrieving the book of the Gospels from the altar and after the proclamation, it follows that when “the priest kisses the book saying,,,” it is the Gospel book he kisses. the same language and sequence is in #175 when a deacon is the minister of the Gospel.
Why kiss the lectionary? It is not carried in procession, is not placed on the altar, is not incensed, and is not brought to a bishop to kiss. It seems to me that it follows from all this that the kiss is reserved for the Gospel book, not a lectionary. What if the Gospel has been proclaimed from a printed sheet or a three-ring binder? Is it kissed?
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A: Well, look at GIRM 262, which gives instructions for a priest celebrating Mass with the assistance of a single minister. There’s no mention of a Book of the Gospels, and it’s highly unlikely that its use is implied in this instance. Yet the instruction is the same: The priest kisses the book.
I stand by my position that 133 is talking about what you do if you have a Book of the Gospels, and 134 addresses the proper veneration whether or not you do.
Christ is present in the proclamation of the gospel (GIRM 29). You can’t kiss the sound of his words. You can kiss the book from which those words are read.
Proclaiming the gospel from a printed sheet, binder, or tablet is to be avoided (Introduction to the Lectionary for Mass 37).