Ioannes Michael Hanssens: Institutiones liturgicae de ritibus orientalibusTomus 2. De Missa rituum Orientalium, Pars Prima,Romae, Pont. Universitas Gregoriana, 1930 English TranslationChapter I. On the constitution of the Mass of the East(p. 7) 12. I. S. Assemani attests that the Nestorians, even in the eighteenth century, were accustomed to read thesacred Scriptures only in the Mass of Sundays and feast days, but in daily Masses they entirely omitted them(BO 3/2, 316–318).Thomas of Marga (fl. early 9th century), in the Liber antistitum, chapter 29, BO 3/1, p. 473, relates that Babaithe Great, when around the year 600 he was making a visitation of the monastery of Bet Abe, persuaded Jacob,the superior of the monastery, to abolish the use of the sacred readings which had been preserved in the SundayMass; from which it likewise becomes clear that the custom of omitting them in daily Masses is of very greatantiquity.When the blessed Mar Babai was visiting villages and monasteries, and required from each monk and from thesuperiors of the monasteries he visited a profession of orthodox faith, examining the conscience of each one, healso came to our monastery. And since he asked our master Jacob nothing about the faith nor about the workingsof his thoughts, as he well knew his doctrine and his pious conduct, he asked him to abolish for the future thepraiseworthy order of readings which on Sundays was observed in honour of the life-giving mysteries. For hesaid that this was not the work of monks, but only of clerics and seculars. Monks, he said, are teachers and arecontinually occupied with meditation and the study of the Scriptures; for this reason the orders of readings aresuperfluous for them, since they have no need of instruction or of knowledge of the divine dispensation and thegovernance of past ages. Moreover, that practice involves disputations, questions, and solutions, and not all havelearned to restrain their mind and their tongue.The narrative of Thomas of Mar...