The Custom of Twelve Prayers

At this the venerable gathering of the fathers understood that, by divine providence, a general rule had been fixed for the communities of the brothers through the angel’s direction. So they decreed that this number should be kept in both their evening and their night services. When they added to these the two readings, one from the Old Testament and one from the New, they added them simply as extras, by their own appointment, and only for those who wished it and who were eager to gain, by constant study, a mind well stored with Holy Scripture. But on Saturday and Sunday they read both from the New Testament, namely one from the Epistles or the Acts of the Apostles, and one from the Gospel. Those whose concern is the reading and remembering of the Scriptures also do this throughout the fifty days from Easter to Pentecost. [a]