Dear Cardinal Sarah, Archbishop Roche, et al, may we have the traditional lections for Pre-Lent?

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We in the Ordinariate often hear the lections prescribed for the Ordinary Form of the Mass, readings that do not align well, for example, with the pre-Lenten days of Septua-, Sexa- and Quinquagesima observed in the Ordinariate Liturgy.

Dear Eminences, Your Graces, Excellencies and Reverend Fathers of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, please permit the Pre-Lenten lections to be admitted into the Ordinariate Lectionary.

The scriptural readings (Propers) from the Book of Common Prayer prescribed for the pre-Lenten period would provide a peaceable and thorough fix to the current situation.

The readings traditionally fixed to the '-gesimas' have for centuries prepared souls to enter well prepared into the Lenten season. Our Extraordinary Form brethren who, it practically goes without saying, have retained the pre-Lenten readings.

Please, sir, I want some more. - Oliver Twist

It is reasonable to promote and affirm the inclusion of the Patrimonial readings given that:
  1. for centuries they captured the flavour of the brief pre-Lenten season in a manner that provided an effective bridge between Epiphanytide and the Lenten penitential season;
  2. they can continue to preserve the character of the pre-Lenten days which the Church, in Her wisdom, has determined to be worthy of inclusion in the Calendar and Ordinariate Missal, by providing the necessary content to form in clergy and laity a deeper awareness of the condition of their souls as a necessary communal meditation preparation for the Lenten penitential season.
The rationale for the retention of the '-gesimas' would be complete and therefore sustainable were the scriptural texts traditionally assigned to those days included in the Ordinariate lectionary. Without the proper readings, i.e., without the prescribed texts corresponding to the subject matter of these pre-Lenten days, the full meaning and benefits to the formation of clergy and laity are withheld.

At the risk of belabouring the point, having any feast or memorial or solemnity without proper texts (introits; gradual psalms; tracts; offertory, preface and communion texts; etc.) that flesh out the character of a given Mass obscures the character and thus the purpose of that particular Mass. What would Christmas Day be without the appropriate Nativity texts? Where would Good Friday be without the Passion Narrative? Why would the Church include the unique Mass of the Five Wounds (Officium missæ de quinque vulneribus domini nostri Jesu Christi) drawn from the ancient Sarum Use and not its particular associated texts?

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