Suggestion for those trying to wrap their mind around lectionaries or using the RCL in one of its ma

MJ. Smith

• Scripture and Memory: The Ecumenical Hermeneutic of the Three-Year Lectionaries by Fritz West
  Amazon description: The history of the three-year lectionaries tells a tale of an evolving hermeneutic. Originating in the Roman Lectionary, this hermeneutic was developed in subsequent denominational and ecumenical versions, most recently the Revised Common Lectionary. In keeping with the broad appeal of the three-year lectionary pattern, the hermeneutic is ecumenical in character. An amalgam of the historical hermeneutics of the two western traditions, it uses both the memory of the Church to interpret the Bible and the Bible to structure the memory of the Church. After an examination of the hermeneutic, West lays out the memory patterns of the two most widely used versions of this lectionary, the Roman Lectionary and the Revised Common Lectionary.
• The Sunday Lectionary: Ritual Word, Paschal Shape by Normand Bonneau, O.M.I.
  Amazon description: The Sunday Lectionary: Ritual Word, Paschal Shape examines a key aspect of the liturgical use of the Bible--how the Lectionary puts biblical flesh on the bones of the liturgical calendar and gives paschal shape to the Christian year.
• Two Ways of Praying by Paul F. Bradshaw
  Amazon review: This book should be required reading for anyone not appreciating their liturgical heritage. Bradshaw has written a readable, slim volume describing cathedral and monastic prayer - their appropriate use, history, the need for both in a full spiritual life ...Cathedral prayer is the communal prayer with fixed roles, use of external signs, etc. generally oriented towards the benefit of the world at large. Monastic prayer is the private prayer with temporary roles, external signs only as training devices, generally oriented towards the benefit of the one praying. This distinction derives from early church practices. Bradshaw shows that either practiced to the exclusion of the other is harmful - to the church and to the individual.
• A Three-Year Banquet: The Lectionary for the Assembly by Gail Ramshaw
  no review available - a short, historical introduction
• Treasures Old and New: Images in the Lectionary by Gail Ramshaw
  Amazon description: Gail Ramshaw illuminates forty primary images from the three-year lectionary. With each of the images she considers related terms, exploring a total of nearly two hundred words and phrases in light of biblical history, typological relationships, poetic nuances, metaphoric meanings, and liturgical year connections.

TCBlack

A fascinating list MJ.  [y]