The Revised Common Lectionary (RCL)

Published

May 2, 2024

Note

For authoritative information about the Revised Common Lectionary, see the Consultation on Common Texts website, including:

Overview

A lectionary is a collection of Biblical readings arranged according to the calendar of the liturgical year. The Revised Common Lectionary, or RCL, is a product of two groups, the North American Consultation on Common Texts (CCT) and, later, the International English Language Liturgical Consultation (ELLC). Their work is documented on the Consultation on Common Texts website.

The readings in the RCL are organized in a cycle of three years referred to as Year A, B or C. The cycle begins with Year A when the calendar year of the first Sunday of Advent is evenly divisible by three. The liturgical year 2022-2023, for example, was Year A because 2022 is evenly divisible by three (or, phrased differently, 2022 modulo 3 is 0). The following liturgical year (2023-2024) is Year B; 2024-2025 will be Year C. In each year, the gospel readings systematically follow one of the three synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke).

Content of readings for a given liturgy

The RCL lists four readings for each liturgy it includes. (The readings for the Easter Vigil are an exception to this rule.) Most often, the first reading is taken from the Old Testament and the second reading from the New Testament, accompanied by a reading from the Gospels and a reading from the Psalms. (During Eastertide, however, the first reading is regularly taken from Acts, so both readings are from the New Testament in that season.) Three days in the liturgical calendar of the RCL have readings for more than one liturgy: Christmas Day, Palm Sunday and Easter Day.

Readings may include suggestions for shorter and longer selections of the same passage; they may also offer alternative selections of completely different passages.

In the longest season of the year, ordinary time after Pentecost, the RCL defines two “tracks” for each Sunday after Trinity Sunday. In the first track’s system, the first (Old Testament) reading for each day follows a “semicontinuous” selection of Old Testament passages; in the second system, the first (Old Testament) reading is instead chosen for its connection to the gospel passage assigned for that liturgy. The first system provides a three-year survey of the Old Testament in much the same way that the gospel selections provide a three-year survey of the synoptic gospels.

Movable dates and precedence of readings

In addition to the regular cycle of Sundays in the liturgical year, the RCL defines readings for seventeen other days (listed below). Eight of those days have fixed dates that can, in some years, fall on a Sunday. The lectionary listings on the Consultation on Common Texts do not explicitly address which set of readings have priority in years when two sets of readings are defined for the same liturgy. Lectionary.jl follows the guidelines on pages 15-17 of The Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church (PDF online here) to determine which readings should take precedence on days with multiple sets of readings.

Days in the liturgical year with RCL readings

The RCL includes readings for all Sundays in the the liturgical year and the additional special days listed here. Dates are included in parentheses for those days with fixed dates.

  • Christmas Day (December 25)
  • Holy Name (January 1)
  • Epiphany (January 6)
  • The Presentation (February 2)
  • Ash Wednesday
  • Monday of Holy Week
  • Tuesday of Holy Week
  • Wednesday of Holy Week
  • Maundy Thursday
  • Good Friday
  • Holy Saturday
  • Ascension
  • The Annunciation (March 25)
  • The Visitation (May 31)
  • The Holy Cross (September 14)
  • All Saints Day (November 1)
  • Thanksgiving Day