My good e-friend John van de Laar has recently added Daily Worship to his wonderful website Sacredise.
His reflections are based around the reading system in the 2005 resource from the Consultation on Common Texts (CCT). That organisation, in 1992, produced the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL), a revision of the 1983 (Common Lectionary) which was a reworking of the Roman Catholic 3 year lectionary resulting from Vatican II. The RCL/3yrRClectionary is, IMO, one of the great movements of the Holy Spirit in our time. It means that the majority of Christians are, most Sundays and major feasts, reading the same set of readings. I am a strong advocate of this three year cycle of Sunday readings.
What John is using for his Daily Worship is a collection of readings that CCT produced in 2005 that complement the Sunday and festival readings: Thursday through Saturday readings help prepare the reader for the Sunday ahead; Monday through Wednesday readings help the reader reflect and digest on what they heard in worship.
Download RCL Daily Readings (includes RCL Sunday and festival readings)
Year A PDF format RTF format
Year B PDF format RTF format
Year C PDF format RTF format
Download An Overview of Revised Common Lectionary Daily Readings in PDF format
Although the Sunday readings are so widespread, I am not aware of a large number of people using this particular daily system of readings, but I can recommend John’s work and reflections unconditionally. If you do not have a daily discipline, and you are looking for one, check this out. [One niggle, common for online devotions: it is 7am Wednesday here in NZ. The resource is still on Tuesday. By now a lot of Kiwis will have completed their devotions and be preparing for the rest of the day. People forget that there are lots of people Eastwards of them, between them and the Date Line. I think John updates at 8am NZ time – by which time I am at work. I will speak to John about this again. You can have the complete week’s devotions emailed to you ahead of time].
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Previously I have also posted about a way to read the whole Bible in a three year period. (I’m aware there’s a pause currently until Lent with the provision of some of the online resources that go with this).
I also want to remind people that the daily readings most used by Christians would be the daily Eucharistic readings which again originate with a Vatican II reform. This covers most of the Bible in two years, with the Gospels every year. Many will be aware of my preference for the NRSV – you can find that version of the daily Eucharistic readings online here. There is an easy-to-use calendar view where you simply click on the date and then use the readings in the right-hand column. Eg. for today, Wednesday 8 Feb:
This Liturgy site has an online Chapel with a variety of ways of organising a discipline of daily devotion – there is bound to be something there that suits you.
You can add other suggestions and responses and ways that help you in the comments.
This current post is one which I felt I had to respond to. I went through a period when I found it very difficult to be disciplined in daily prayer but then I came across the Oremus website http://www.oremus.org – a wonderful resource which has helped me a great deal. I signed up for it to deliver the daily office to me as an e-mail, so as someone whose first task of the day is to check e-mails, I begin my working day with prayer. I’ve downloaded the Common Worship calendar and lectionaries from the Oremus website into my iPhone calendar. I also use the Church of England’s Reflections for Daily Prayer, downloaded as an app on my iPad with links to the lectionaries readings in the Oremus website. Electronic access might not be right for everyone but it’s helped me.
I use the Daily Office readings as provided by the Mission of St. Clare: http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html
Thanks, Kormos. This is another wonderful resource – thanks for highlighting it for others. Blessings.
I like to use bible gateway. It gives me a daily verse to read. I start every day with that verse and prayer.
Encouraging Thoughts for Life
Thanks for that idea, Derrick, and for your own site. Blessings.
I got the Universalis app for my iPhone to do my daily devotions. While its a somewhat pricey app, it has everything on the phone and doesn’t need Internet connection to access the daily office, and it works on my phone’s local time.
Thanks, Kine. That is another helpful hint. Blessings.
I enjoy your tweets,and devotions!
My family recently visited NZ, and I look forward to hearing about their travels there!
I invite you to visit and Like my Facebook page~ Author Barbara Parentini.
I’m reading through the Bible to my dad each night over the phone-800 miles away. He can no longer read. It has become one of the most powerful daily devotions ever!
Many blessings!
Barbara
Thanks, Barbara, for that moving image of your daily reading of the Bible to your dad over the phone. May God bless you both.
Thanks for these resources – it’s good to have them referenced in one place instead of having to google over the internet by oneself.
I’ve subscribed to the email from Sacredise, but haven’t started using it yet. I don’t usually turn on my computer until later in the day, so I’d have to print them out.
At the moment I’ve been using the readings from the NZ Liturgy for Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer. I’ve found that having both morning and evening devotions is working well for me at the moment, and I like having a psalm to start with.
Thanks, Claudia. You were one of the people I thought of as I prepared this post, because we have had discussions here about ways we can have daily devotions which are not convoluted in preparing and following. Blessings.
Hi Bosco,
What I am finding fascinating about a lot of this is how ‘IN’ such daily liturgical prayer etc is becoming.
Lots of Christian groups seem to be discovering old treasures which for a while were disdained. I belong to a Community which in its early days used to meet thrice daily for ‘free prayer’ – but found ‘they couldn’t sustain it’ (in itself a telling phrase 🙂 ) . When we finally got round to a Community Rule it included liturgical prayer and Lectio as Necessary for Life.
(It also included a commitment to an annual meeting at our Mother house but as it is in the far west of Wales I was given special dispensation 🙂 )
Yes, Eric. Missional and emergent communities and individuals have leaped over the tired (anti-liturgical) debates. They discover and rework the treasures that sustained the early church. I see (healthy) newer denominations go through similar evolution – they move towards better theological formation, recognisable ministry structures, and liturgical forms. Blessings.