Vatican II One-Year Reading Plan
Grand Procession of Vatican II Council Fathers, 11 October 1962
For the new year, consider beginning a reading plan of the documents issued by the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council. Or of the New Testament. Or of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Vatican II
Here is a reading plan for Vatican II: The Sixteen Documents of Vatican II – 52-Week Reading Plan.
The daily division is slightly adapted from that of the Daily Reading Plan of The Great Grace website. The arrangement of documents there, however, has been abandoned here.
The arrangement here has been designed to spread the most important documents – the constitutions – through the entire year, rather than bunching them all at the beginning. Furthermore, the other documents – decrees and declarations – have been interspersed largely according to their relationship to the constitutions. This aspect of the arrangement is inspired by a graphic overview of the relationship among Vatican II’s documents originally appearing in the January 2002 issue of The Sower, published by Maryvale Institute, and displayed on the website of the Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions.
No division or arrangement, however, is going to be entirely unobjectionable. And none can be useful unless it is actually used.
Each day’s selection is rather short. For some people, it may be more desirable to read all of the passages for a week on one day, whenever the most time is available. For others, this arrangement may be more useful as a guide for reading the documents at one’s own pace throughout the year, rather than as a detailed schedule to be followed strictly.
Here are several websites where one can find on-line versions of the documents:
Jeffery Mirus has written an excellent Summary and Guide to the Documents of the Second Vatican Council. For intensive and expansive reflections on issues surrounding the Council, I recommend these essays:
- After the Council: Living Vatican II
- Why the Second Vatican Council Was a Good Thing & Is More Important Than Ever
Other Documents
Here is a one-year reading plan for the New Testament, previously posted here: One-Year NT Reading Plan.
And here is a one-year reading plan for the Catechism of the Catholic Church, previously posted here: How to Read the Catechism of the Catholic Church In One Year – One Day at a Time.
