Do you remember the first day of a new course in college? The professor makes her way around the room handing out the dreaded syllabus. As it lands on your desk you mentally prepare yourself for the bulleted list that’s going to map out your reading for the coming semester.

Fast-forward one semester. You look back and can’t imagine taking any other route. You soon realize that your professor carefully planned out your route. Together you and your classmates journeyed, discussed, and complained your way through the texts. In a way it became your story.

Just as a college class has a reading plan, the Church also, in a way, has a reading plan. It¹s called the lectionary. Maybe you¹ve heard of it. If not, no worries. I only learned of it a couple of years ago.

But…the lectionary is more than just a reading plan.

Unlike our college classes, when reading through the lectionary we¹re not guided into solitude with an agenda to consume gallons of words in order to learn. Instead we are invited to participate with a community who cherish experiencing a series of “lections” or “reading of passages” from God’s story.

So it seems right to imagine the lectionary as a map of God¹s story. And we (the community) seek to live into God¹s story. And because it¹s a map and not, say, a mandatory route, we are invited into a journey.

The essential element of community in performing the lectionary pushes us to recognize our connectedness.  We¹re taught that we¹re dependent on each other to live into this story we gather around.

The joy of this reality is that experiencing God¹s story does not just happen through one medium.  We don¹t just hear the lectionary passages.  We see them performed in skits and videos.  We taste them in the Eucharist.  We touch them in the passing of peace.  God¹s Spirit breaths the lectionary passages to life in our communities worship and we hear, see, taste, and touch the story.

Intrigued?

Here are some of our favorite lectionary resources:
CatchyLecty.com
TextWeek.com
CRIvoice.org

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Special thanks to our friends over at The House Studio for sharing their thoughts with us. And for giving us a shout out. Find out more at thehousestudio.com.