THE TRADITIONAL EUCHARISTIC LECTIONARY of the Western Church, thought extinct by some,
is alive and well in many parishes throughout the world. Anglicans, Roman
Catholics, Western-rite Orthodox, Old Catholics and many protestant churches,
are still using that ancient and truly ecumenical eucharistic lectionary
which has been feeding the faithful for well over one thousand years.
The Anglican Book of Common Prayer, The Roman Missal, The St. Andrew Service
Book (Antiochian Orthodox), and many more beloved books of the Church contain
within them (or they did, until recently) what is now referred to as "the
traditional lectionary" of the Western Church. Robert Crouse
expresses well the heart of the traditional lectionary:
In the cycle of the Christian Year,
in the ancient lectionary - that cycle of Epistle and Gospel lessons which
has served the Church for well over a millennium ... the essential message
of Holy Scripture, God's word to us, is set before us in an orderly and supremely
logical way. As we follow the lessons appointed for the Sundays and
the great festivals, as we meditate upon them, as we open our minds and hearts
to understand the pattern and meaning of them, we are led, step by step,
into an ever deeper and clearer perception of Christian truth and the essentials
of Christian life.
This website
is aimed at spreading the word
to all Christians: the traditional lectionary is not dead, and it is still
a vital instrument for teaching the faith and deepening our walk with Christ.
Within these pages you will find sermons, commentaries,
scriptural texts, anecdotes, images, all based on
the traditional lectionary. We hope to be adding resources continually. We have materials ready for all of the
Sundays in the Christian Year now and hope soon to have materials for all of the Holy Days and Saints Days as well.
At present all of our "propers" are from the Book of Common
Prayer 1662 and also, on the few Sundays where it differs, from the Canadian
BCP, 1962 revision. Although the traditional lectionary is generally
speaking "common" among many churches, there are slight variations and additions
made by each church. We want to expand these in time to include the variations.
We are grateful to the fine people at
Episcopalian.org who hosted this site
for the first few years of its existence. We are also
grateful to the work of the Prayer Book Societies of
Australia,
Canada,
the
United Kingdom, and the
United States for their
promotion of the use and understanding of the Book of Common
Prayer, which retains the traditional Eucharistic lectionary, in
the worldwide Anglican Communion.
