The Day's Gospel Reading

If you've read my introductory post on the lectionary, you'll know there are Bible passages set for Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer and the Eucharist for every day of the week. The readings for the Eucharist are a bit shorter than the Morning and Evening Prayer readings, and they always contain a short reading from one of the four Gospels. When people talk about "the day's Gospel reading" it's this that they're talking about.

Some people like to reflect every day on a short passage from one of the Gospels. And some people like to do Lectio Divina with the day's Gospel passage.

Here are three websites that help us reflect on the day's Gospel reading:

This one, called "Pray as You Go" is a podcast you can download. It gives you a 15min reflection on one of the readings set for the Eucharist that day - 95% of the time it's the Gospel passage. They read the passage out twice and give you a few questions about the passage to contemplate. It's a bit like a form of Lectio Divina that you can engage with while you're driving or eating lunch or whatever you're doing: http://www.pray-as-you-go.org/home/

This website is ideal for people on a break at work and sat at a computer. It leads you through a mini Examen and short reflection on the day's Gospel reading. Rather than being a podcast, it's a kind of prayer slideshow that you go through at your own pace: http://www.sacredspace.ie/daily-prayer

This third website is great if you want to do Lectio Divina with the day's Gospel passage. It gives you some background context or commentary on the passage, and once you've read the Gospel passage it gives you some questions to help you reflect on it:  http://ocarm.org/en/lectio-divina

The Sunday lectionary in churches

If your church uses the "Revised Common Lectionary", you'll be familiar with having an Old Testament reading, a New Testament reading, and a Gospel reading read out in church every Sunday. (Your church might also read a psalm.) The readings you have in church each Sunday will be the same as the readings being read out in thousands of other churches across the country and across the world!

The way a lot of churches follow the lectionary means the Gospel reading usually follows on from where it left off the previous Sunday, and the other readings are chosen because they have similar themes to the Gospel passage and help us understand it better.

Some people like to study or pray with the readings ahead of the service each week.

To read a bit more about the Revised Common Lectionary and to download it you can click here: http://www.commontexts.org/rcl/

Also, this is a website that some preachers use. You can click on the date you want and it will show you the Bible passages for that Sunday as well as offering links to commentaries and sermons on those passages: http://www.textweek.com/

The Benefits of the Lectionary



 

 

A lectionary is pretty much a Bible reading plan that's followed by thousands of Christians (even from other denominations). It means we can all read the same Bible passages on the same days even though we can't all physically meet together.

 

There's a lectionary used by lots of denominations and across the whole world for the Bible passages that we'll all read 'together' on Sunday in church. It's called 'The Revised Common Lectionary'. (See my post on 'The Sunday Lectionary'.)

 

In the Church of England there's also the Common Worship 'daily prayer' lectionary. That one's for every day of the year - for Morning and Evening Prayer and midweek Eucharists.

 

I guess all reading the same Bible passages on the same days emphasises that we're one big Christian family and we're on a spiritual journey together. (NB what I said in a previous post about catholic spirituality being more 'we' than 'I'?) The lectionary helps us read through the whole Bible over a period of time and it also helps us focus on certain themes at certain times of the year. For example every day during Lent we read passages that focus on injustice and repentance and forgiveness. You can buy the 'daily prayer' lectionary as a little booklet from a Christian bookshop. There are also lectionary apps and websites.

 

 

 

 

I've found that one of the great things about following a lectionary in your personal prayer life is that you're not stuck deciding what Bible passage to read that day. Another great thing is it encourages you to read bits of the Bible you might not normally read, keeps your reading balanced by giving you an Old Testament reading, Psalm and New Testament reading each time, and keeps you from falling into the trap of just choosing the bits you know or like or that challenge you less! I like the fact that on any given day I can text a friend and say, "What did you make of this morning's Old Testament reading?!", or on Sundays I know that my friends in different churches around my city, in different towns across my country, and even my friends across the world in California are all reading and praying about the same Bible passages. It's quite common among my friends to have discussions on Facebook about 'this Sunday's Gospel reading'.