What is a Lectionary?

I grew up in an Evangelical Free Church. Never have been a part of a church that used a Lectionary. Don't care what denomination. I think I have them for several of them though denomination differences in purpose would be interesting. How to? I have some with "BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER" in the title. What does that signify?

Thanks

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MJ. Smith

A lectionary is simply a list of readings or lessons for a particular date - liturgical calendar or secular calendar. They evolved from the Jewish reading cycles from the time of Ezra. Reading may be chosen by reading through books of the Bible, a semi-continuous reading through a book, selection to correspond in some way to another reading, or a selection based on a celebration for that date (think Easter, Christmas). The Book of Common Prayer is the historic Anglican prayer book which includes a lectionary and liturgies for the main service of the day plus morning and evening prayer etc... The Revised Common Lectionary has a variety of variants. It is based on the Catholic Sunday lectionary - it's daily lectionary is based on the RCL Sunday lectionary not the Catholic daily lectionary. It is used by more than 27 denominations world wide. The one year western lectionaries are based on the pre-Vatican II Catholic/Lutheran/Anglican lectionaries. The Byzantine Orthodox lectionary comes from an independent tradition of lectionaries.

Dan Francis

To expand only slightly on MJ Smith's excellent reply, the pre Vatican II church and many protestant churches used a annual lectionary meaning every year the readings were identical not only for the big events like christmas but also say the third Sunday after easter. The 3 year lectionary of the Catholic church was seen as one of it's greatest gifts to the body of Christ on a whole as numerous bodies took it as a starting point for their own 3 year lectionary. Rather than having dozens; of different but very similar lectionaries a movement grew up to make a common lectionary (among protestant groups). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revised_Common_Lectionary is a great article. I greatly appreciate a lectioanry and prefer following it, one particularly evangelical minster I had in the Lutheran tradition said for him it kept from falling into comfortable parts of the Bible and forced him to deal with hard passages that had they not come up in the lectionary he might have avoided. The 3 year lectionary touches on most of the Bible but doesn't cover every passage. But it remains in my mind an ideal template, I know of one group who even made an anti lectionary to supplement the RCL so that the entire Bible was covered in 3 years by adding in a 5th reading (THE RCL has typically the following set up: Old Testament (athoguh after east Acts readings sometimes supersedes an OT reading). Psalm (although occasionally a poetic passage like Luke 1:46-56 my again supersede a Psalm), a reading from the New Testament letters, and finally a Gospel reading.

-Dan

PS: Below is a comparative sample of the RCL and Roman Catholic lectionaries for the coming Sunday while often times having near identical readings the time after Epiphany (January 6, is treated differently by the two lectionaries and end up the most different, as often times they are close to identical:

SEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY

Revised Common Lectionary

Old Testament Le 19:1–2, 9–18

Psalm Ps 119:33–40

New Testament 1 Co 3:10–11, 16–23

Gospel Mt 5:38–48

Sunday, February 19, 2017 | Ordinary Time

Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Year A | Roman Missal | Lectionary

First Reading Leviticus 19:1–2, 17–18

Response Psalm 103:8a

Psalm Psalm 103:1–4, 8, 10, 12–13

Second Reading 1 Corinthians 3:16–23

Gospel Acclamation 1 John 2:5

Gospel Matthew 5:38–48

Catholic Daily Readings (Bellingham, WA: Faithlife, 2009).

Scott Groethe

Is there a "Lectionary Resouces Wishlist" out there?

Mine would be

Adrien Nocent "The Liturgical Year"
Reginald Fuller "Preaching the Lectionary"
Hoyt Hickman "The New Handbook of the Christian Year: Based on the RCL"
Thomas O'Loughlin "Making the Most of the Lectionary: A User's Guide"

Dan Francis

Is there a "Lectionary Resouces Wishlist" out there?

Not that I am aware of you might post those to the Suggestions sub forum

or set up one for each at Book Suggestions but that is not something that is widely used I always forget about it myself and this is best followed up by posting back here with links to there requesting people vote for your book.

or email Faithlife directly a request to

New Book Suggestions

suggest@logos.com

-dan

Eduardo Espiritu

https://lectionaryreadings.org/About Lectionaries.html

Dr. Ken

So how does one set up a lectionary in Logos 8 on the homepage? I am trying to do the whole lectionary thing for the first time in my life and am basically clueless.

I have done it, but it only gives me the Biblical passages in BCP's (1979) Daily Office. These readings are limited.

I do not have the prayers nor the readings from the Fathers? How do I add them? It has the morning reading and an evening Psalm, but I thought there were other noontime and bedtime prayers also. I also figured there would be readings from the Apocrypha as well. I understood the daily office to include quite a bit more than what I am seeing presently.

I was hoping to get it all set up even on my phone.

MJ. Smith

A miracle resurrection of an old thread [;)]

So how does one set up a lectionary in Logos 8 on the homepage?

In the dashboard, click on the "gear" and select "lectionary"

Select the lectionary(s) that you want on the home page

but it only gives me the Biblical passages in BCP's (1979) Daily Office. These readings are limited.

This is correct. With the daily and Sunday/feast lectionaries you get the readings for the 3 public services - Morning Prayer, Primary (Eucharistic) Service, and Evening Prayer. The relevant prayers are found in the Book of Common Prayer.

But it sounds like what you're looking for is Breviary/Liturgy of the Hours not a lectionary.

While many Anglicans use a full Liturgy of the Hours, it is not provided by the BCP nor does Faithlife publish any of the volumes they frequently use. See Universalis for what you are seeking. Many Anglicans use the current Liturgy of the Hour (Universalis), some use an older Anglican Breviary Another option is the Lutheran Treasury of Daily Prayer..

Get back to me and I'll walk you through how to use your choice.

Dr. Ken

A miracle resurrection of an old thread

So how does one set up a lectionary in Logos 8 on the homepage?

In the dashboard, click on the "gear" and select "lectionary"

Select the lectionary(s) that you want on the home page

I did that.

All I get is:

The Bible a few Bible passages.

I thought there should be more.

I understood there would be prayers and passages even from the Fathers? Am I mistaken?