Continuous Reading Of The Bible Online: How It Can Change Your Life And Perspective

The Lectionary is arranged in two cycles, one for Sundays and one for weekdays.The Sunday cycle is divided into three years, labeled A, B, and C. 2021 was Year B, 2022 is Year C, Year A will being on November 27, 2022 and continue through December 2, 2023. In Year A, we read mostly from the Gospel of Matthew. In Year B, we read the Gospel of Mark and chapter 6 of the Gospel of John. In Year C, we read the Gospel of Luke. The Gospel of John is read during the Easter season in all three years. The first reading, usually from the Old Testament, reflects important themes from the Gospel reading. The second reading is usually from one of the epistles, a letter written to an early church community. These letters are read semi-continuously. Each Sunday, we pick up close to where we left off the Sunday before, though some passages are never read.The weekday cycle is divided into two years, Year I and Year II. Year I is read in odd-numbered years (2023, 2025, etc.) and Year II is used in even-numbered years (2022, 2024, etc.) The Gospels for both years are the same. During the year, the Gospels are read semi-continuously, beginning with Mark, then moving on to Matthew and Luke. The Gospel of John is read during the Easter season. For Advent, Christmas, and Lent, readings are chosen that are appropriate to the season. The first reading on weekdays may be taken from the Old or the New Testament. Typically, a single book is read semi-continuously (i.e., some passages are not read) until it is finished and then a new book is started.The year of the cycle does not change on January 1, but on the First Sunday of Advent (usually late November) which is the beginning of the liturgical year.In addition to the Sunday and weekday cycles, the Lectionary provides readings for feasts of the saints, for common celebrations such as Marian feasts, for ritual Masses (weddings, funerals, etc.), for votive Masses, and for various needs. These readings have been selected to reflect the themes of these celebrations.

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The Revised Common Lectionary for Sundays and Festivals follows a three-year cycle and incorporates a semi-continuous reading for much of the Bible during Ordinary Time, while embracing a select lectionary for the Christmas and Easter cycles and certain other festivals.

During the period of Ordinary Time that follows the Day of Pentecost, the Revised Common Lectionary published by the Consultation on Common Texts provides two parallel lectionary tracks: the complementary (in which the reading from the Old Testament is thematically tied to the Gospel lesson) and the semicontinuous (which allows for a more sequential reading through the major stories and themes of certain biblical books). Historically, churches of the Reformed tradition, including the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), have preferred the latter option, seeking to hear and preach the narratives of the Hebrew Scriptures in their biblical context. Our Web site reflects that tradition, consistent with the other published liturgical resources of the PC(USA), including the Book of Common Worship, the Mission Yearbook for Prayer and Study, the Presbyterian Planning Calendar and the Daybook of the Company of Pastors.

In the second half of the church year, after the Day of Pentecost, the RCL provides alternatives for reading from the Old Testament and the Psalms. Following a practice in some church traditions, the first alternative reads large portions of entire books from the Old Testament in a semi-continuous fashion. For example, the selections from Year A start with Genesis and continue on through to Judges. The second alternative selects passages from the Old Testament that thematically complement the Sunday Gospel selection. For example, the Gospel for the Fifth Sunday in Lent (Year A) tells the story of Jesus raising his friend Lazarus from the dead (John 4:5-42). That same day, we read from Ezekiel the prophecy that the Lord God will open the graves and give new life to the whole house of Israel (37:1-14). During the first half of the church year, from Advent up through to the Day of Pentecost, the Old Testament readings are always chosen according to this principal of complementarity.

To enhance the connection between your daily reading practice and Sunday worship, ask your worship leader whether your community follows the semicontinuous or complementary readings during the Sundays after Pentecost.

This page lists the COMMON WORSHIP LECTIONARY readings for principal services and festivals (but including all services for Holy Week). A calendar with the movable days of the church's year is included from 2009 to 2030. A coloured band shows the Litugical colour for the day. Select your preferred Bible version, but note that Psalms in all cases are from the Common Worship Psalter and (numbered) Canticles are from Celebrating Common Prayer (CCP), both as published at the OREMUS website. [Square bracketed reading options have been ignored in the link reference. In such cases the passage will show as a continuous reading.]

Expository preaching took on new life in the Reformation when Ulrich Zwingli began his continuous exposition of the Gospel of Matthew on January 1, 1519 in Zürich. Other Reformers, like Zwingli's friend Johannes Oecolampadius, followed suit. According to Hughes Oliphant Old, Oecolampadius' translations of the sermons of John Chrysostom, one of many church fathers who also practiced expository preaching, inspired him to return to this classic form, and with his own exposition of 1 John in 1523, the pattern for preaching in Basel, one that would be formalized in 1529, was set. Though both Oecolampadius and Zwingli died in 1531, the expository form of preaching they (and other Swiss Reformers, like Wolfgang Capito and Martin Bucer) established would be the form inherited, and some would say perfected, by John Calvin himself, who began to draft his Institutes of the Christian Religion in Basel in 1535, where every preacher in every pulpit was now devoted to continuous reading and preaching through books of the Bible. 2ff7e9595c