Someone wrote to me the other day, asking:

“Why did the priest use different readings from the ones in Universalis?”

This was not a terribly helpful question because I wasn’t in the church to hear what the priest was reading, and I wasn’t looking at the person’s screen to see what Universalis was displaying. Nevertheless, the email was sent on Friday 1 May 2026, and as I was guessing my way through everything I hadn’t been told, trying to compose a meaningful answer, I thought it would be worth writing it all up for future reference. So here we go.

Example: 1 May 2026

The priest today has a choice. St Joseph the Worker is an optional memorial, which means he can choose the Mass for Friday of the 4th week in Eastertide, or he can choose the Mass for St Joseph the Worker.

Friday of the 4th week in Eastertide

First Reading: Acts 13:26-33.

Gospel: John 14:1-6.

In favour of choosing this is the fact that the readings on weekdays in Eastertide form a sequence: the First Readings are telling the stories of the first steps of the infant Church, while the Gospel is giving the great discourses at the core of St John’s Gospel.

Saint Joseph the Worker

In favour of choosing this is the fact that Saint Joseph the Worker is an important feast closely connected with the social teaching of the Church – which is too little known and too little listened to.

If he chooses St Joseph the Worker, the priest now has a further choice. The Lectionary offers a set of readings for St Joseph the Worker but also says that these should not be used unless pastoral considerations require it.

Deciding to use the readings for St Joseph:

First Reading: Genesis 1:26-2:3 or Colossians 3:14-15,​17,​23-24.

Gospel: Matthew 13:54-58.

Deciding not to use the readings for St Joseph:

First Reading: Acts 13:26-33.

Gospel: Matthew 13:54-58.

• You may find it strange that if the priest is celebrating St Joseph but doesn’t have a reason to use the special readings for St Joseph, he is still required to use the Gospel from St Matthew and not from St John. This is because on a very few exceptional days in the year, the Gospel is what is called “proper to the feast”, which means it must be used, no matter what. This happens when the saint being celebrated is actually mentioned in that reading: as St Joseph is (implicitly) today. (Very occasionally indeed, the “proper reading” is the First Reading rather than the Gospel.)

All in all, then, there are three conceivable First Readings on Friday 1 May 2026 and two conceivable Gospels.

How to do it in Universalis

First, choose the feast to celebrate

At the top of the Readings at Mass page, the heading will say one of two things:

Friday of the 4th week of Eastertide or Saint Joseph the Worker 

or

Saint Joseph the Worker or Friday of the 4th week of Eastertide

In the right-hand margin you will see a menu button. In the mobile apps, this is a stack of red lines; in the Mac and Windows programs, it is a blue arrow. Either way, you can use the menu button to choose between the Friday and the memorial of St Joseph.

Next, choose which readings to use

If you have chosen the Friday, you do not need to do anything.

If you have chosen St Joseph, there will be a heading just above the First Reading which says either “Readings for the memorial” or “Readings for the feria (Friday)”. In the right-hand margin you will see a menu button. You can use the button to choose the set of readings you want.

Some people get into a terrible flap after the Epiphany, and six years out of seven they write to us to say that we have got the readings wrong. So this post really ought to appear every year.

In religious parts of the world the Epiphany is celebrated when it always has been: on the 6th of January, when good children get presents from the Kings. In more commercial parts of the world the Epiphany is moved to the Sunday after New Year’s Day, so that the Twelve Days of Christmas become the Eight Days or the Fourteen Days.

The reason for all the panic is that a day such as Saturday 7 January 2023 has different readings depending on where you are. In religious countries (including England and Wales) it is 7 January, the first day after the Epiphany. In commercial countries (including Scotland and the USA) it is the day before Epiphany Sunday, normally labelled “7 January (before Epiphany)” in the books. Everything gets back into step on Tuesday 10 January 2023, which is Tuesday of week 1 in Ordinary Time.

Read the rest of this entry »

Today is St George’s Day, and some people in England are wondering why it does not appear in Universalis today. The reason is that this year there is a collision with Easter Saturday.

The Church’s calendar has to deal with collisions. Suppose, for instance, that the Annunciation, on the 25th of March, falls on Good Friday (as it did in 2016). Should we omit Good Friday that year, or omit the Annunciation? Or try to celebrate both at once?

Read the rest of this entry »

Some people get into a terrible flap after the Epiphany, and six years out of seven they write to us to say that we have got the readings wrong. So this post really ought to appear every year.

In religious parts of the world the Epiphany is celebrated when it always has been: on the 6th of January, when good children get presents from the Kings. In more commercial parts of the world the Epiphany is moved to the Sunday after New Year’s Day, so that the Twelve Days of Christmas become the Eight Days or the Fourteen Days.

The reason for all the panic is that a day such as Saturday 8 January 2022 has different readings depending on where you are. In religious countries (including England and Wales) it is 8 January, the second day after the Epiphany. In commercial countries (including Scotland and the USA) it is Saturday after Epiphany Sunday, the sixth day after the Epiphany.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Birthday of St John the Baptist is celebrated on 24 June each year. The Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is celebrated a fixed time after Easter, and in 2022 (and 2033 and 2044) this puts it on 24 June as well.

The standard rules for coinciding feasts would keep the Sacred Heart on the 24th, as being the more important celebration, and move the Baptist back to Saturday the 25th.

However, there is a certain discomfort in having major celebrations on Saturdays, and so the Congregation of Divine Worship has decided to bring the Birthday of St John the Baptist forward to Thursday 23 June 2022. You can find the official document here.

(The one exception is in places of which St John the Baptist is the patron: in that case he remains on the 24th and the Sacred Heart is brought forward to the 23rd).

Some people get into a terrible flap after the Epiphany, and six years out of seven they write to us to say that we have got the readings wrong. So this post really ought to appear every year.

In religious parts of the world the Epiphany is celebrated when it always has been: on the 6th of January, when good children get presents from the Kings. In more commercial parts of the world the Epiphany is moved to the Sunday after New Year’s Day, so that the Twelve Days of Christmas become the Eight Days or the Fourteen Days.

The reason for all the panic is that a day such as Friday 8 January 2021 has different readings depending on where you are. In religious countries (including England and Wales) it is 8 January, the second day after the Epiphany. In commercial countries (including Scotland and the USA) it is Friday after Epiphany Sunday, the fifth day after the Epiphany.

Read the rest of this entry »

At about this time of year we tend to get a few emails from people who say that we have got the calendar wrong. This is because the solemnity of the Epiphany is celebrated on different dates in different parts of the world. There are two choices:

• It can be celebrated on January the 6th, the thirteenth day of Christmas. That is why the eve of the Epiphany is called Twelfth Night.
• It can be celebrated on the Sunday between the 2nd and 8th of January.

Universalis does both. If you set Universalis to use your local calendar, you will see the Epiphany on the right day for you.

• In England and Wales, 2021 is the first year for a while in which the Epiphany does not fall on the Sunday. Don’t worry: this is correct!
• In Scotland, you need to get the latest update to Universalis to make sure that you get the Epiphany on the Sunday.
• If you are confused about the readings, this page lists them all for both “Epiphany on the 6th” and “Epiphany on the Sunday”.

Read the rest of this entry »

Some people get into a terrible flap after the Epiphany, and six years out of seven they write to us to say that we have got the readings wrong. So this post really ought to appear every year.

In religious parts of the world the Epiphany is celebrated when it always has been: on the 6th of January, when good children get presents from the Kings. In more commercial parts of the world the Epiphany is moved to the Sunday after New Year’s Day, so that the Twelve Days of Christmas become the Eight Days or the Fourteen Days.

The reason for all the panic is that a day such as Wednesday 8 January 2020 has different readings depending on where you are. In religious countries it is 8 January, the second day after the Epiphany. In commercial countries it is Wednesday after Epiphany Sunday, the third day after the Epiphany.

Read the rest of this entry »