Oddie exaggerates the difficulty, even for newbies, of understanding what’s going on in the Old Rite. It was designed to be understood without being heard, since they didn’t have sound systems in the Old Days. With a bit of preparation, one can readily learn.
But putting the new lectionary 3-year cycle into the Old Rite would be very, very, very foolish.
The 3-year cycle, 150 sets of 3 readings (really 4, since they turned the Gradual into an extended Responsorial Psalm), means 600 different readings that repeat only once every three years.
The genius of the Old Mass was the annually repeating cycle of 2 readings. That’s 100 readings (plus another 30 perhaps for major feast days). After 20 years of devoutly attending Mass, a Catholic could know them all by heart. 600 readings wash over everyone like water off a duck’s back.
I say, put the old cycle of readings into the Novus Ordo. And return to the gradual versicles that are there, in the Novus Ordo, instead of the responsorial psalm, which no one responds to.
**600 readings wash over everyone like water off a ducks back.**
Disagree, because we Catholics are exposed to a greater part of the Bible. We can handle it.