Daily Worship from Sacredise: Frequently Asked Questions
Where do the readings for Daily Worship come from?
What is the Revised Common Lectionary?
Why do the Daily Worship guides link to the Revised Common Lectionary?
How can I receive Daily Worship on my computer?
Is there a way to make copies of Daily Worship for my congregation?
May I share Daily Worship emails with my friends and family?
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How do I use Daily Worship?
Daily Worship is designed to be a resource that you use, not just read. It is based on four principles that help to make worship the directing influence in your life:
- Each week is guided by a “Thought for the Week” which flows out of the theme for Sunday’s worship. Each day provides guides that help you apply this thought to the daily realities of living – making Sunday not just an event, but the fountainhead from which your Christ-following life flows.
- Each day focusses on a short reading from the Scriptures and a reflection that helps you apply the Bible’s truths to your daily living. This is the “reflective” or “meditative” part of the guide. I recommend that you read the passage slowly and prayerfully, listening for anything that stands out for you. As you read, you may want to ask questions like: What is actually happening or being said in this passage? Where do I see myself in this passage? What is God saying to me?
- In order to move from reading and thinking to practical living, each day includes a “daily practice”. The idea is that you carry this practice with you through the day, in order to consciously apply what the Scriptures have said to you in your life.
- Finally, each day includes a short “breath-prayer” which you can pray continuously through the day. This prayer helps you to maintain an awareness of God’s presence throughout the day, while also supporting the practice and helping you to apply your worship in whatever situations you may encounter.
Using these four principles, Daily Worship promises to take you into a deeper, more thoughtful and practical application of your faith. The idea is that, through this daily spiritual discipline, you can easily practice discipleship, and become more like Christ a little more each day.
Where do the readings for Daily Worship come from?
Daily Worship draws each day’s reading from the selection provided by the Revised Common Lectionary Daily Readings (Copyright © 2005, The Consultation on Common Texts). This resource, provided by the Consultation on Common Texts offers three readings for each day, but I only select one. The idea is that the daily readings link with the readings for Sunday’s worship. From Sunday to Wednesday the daily readings look back at what was experienced in worship, while the readings for Thursday to Saturday prepare for the coming Sunday’s worship. For more information click through to The Consultation on Common Texts website.
What is the Revised Common Lectionary?
The Revised Common Lectionary (also called simply “the Lectionary”) is a three-year cycle of Scripture readings for Sunday worship and daily spiritual practice that is used by many churches, including almost all of the mainline denominations, and which covers almost the whole of the Bible in three years. Along with the Church Calendar, the Lectionary leads us through the main events of Jesus’ life for roughly the first half of the year, and then focusses on discipleship, or living within God’s Reign, for the second half of the year. Each year is based on one of the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew – Year A, Mark – Year B and Luke – Year C), and John’s Gospel, and also includes readings from the Old Testament, the Psalms and the Epistles.
For more information see this Wikipedia article.
What is the Church Calendar?
The Church Calendar (also known as the Liturgical Calendar) is a way of journeying through the year based on the major events of Christ’s life. It helps to remind us that our primary way of living within time is with “eternity in our hearts” (as Ecclesiastes says it), and it provides the opportunity to meditate on the main features of our faith, and on the core issues of discipleship, each year.
The Church Calendar begins each year on Advent Sunday (which is usually the end of November of the beginning of December) then moves, for the first half of the year, through the seasons of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, and Easter, concluding with the Ascension, Pentecost Sunday, and finally Trinity Sunday. Then, in the second half of the year, the Calendar moves into what is known as Ordinary Time (or Kingdom Time), in which the focus is on Christian discipleship. Ordinary Time can also include other significant seasons like, for example, the Season of Creation.
For more information see this Wikipedia article.
Why do the Daily Worship guides link to the Revised Common Lectionary?
The purpose of Daily Worship is to help you to connect your daily spiritual exercises with your Sunday worship. In addition, Daily Worship seeks to be a devotional resource that makes Scripture and the application of its truths the heart of the guides. Since many churches base their worship on the Revised Common Lectionary, it makes sense to use the Lectionary as the basis for daily worship as well. Even if your church does not follow the Lectionary, the daily readings provided by the Lectionary are a helpful way to ensure that there is a meaningful journey through the year in your personal worship.
What is a breath-prayer?
A breath-prayer is a short, simple prayer that can easily be prayed in a single breath. The idea is for this prayer to be memorised each day, and then carried with you through the day. Since it is short and easy to pray, the prayer can be used quickly in any situation, and can easily be remembered.
The best way to use the breath-prayer is to pray it through a number of times in succession, slowly and prayerfully, in the morning. Then, whenever you think about it, you simply repeat the prayer again, allowing its spirit to sink deeper into your heart through the day.
What is a practice?
A practice is something that is done regularly and repeatedly as a way to teach us to be disciples of Christ. They can also be referred to as spiritual disciplines – although I prefer to think of spiritual disciplines as a set of practices. In this case, the spiritual discipline which forms the basis for Daily Worship is worship. The practices are daily exercises which are repeated throughout the day to ensure that our worship moves from being just a mental exercise to a lived reality. Each day offers a single practice which is easy to remember and do, and which is drawn from the practices of Sunday worship (adoration, thanksgiving, confession, intercession, gathering, sending, dedication, sacraments, music etc.). The idea is to carry the practice with you repeating it throughout the day whenever the opportunity arises, and in this way turn your spiritual discipline into a habit that guides and directs your life.
How can I receive Daily Worship on my computer?
If you would prefer to receive Daily Worship automatically, instead of clicking through to the website every day, there are two ways you can do this.
- If you are familiar with RSS readers, you can subscribe to the RSS feed by clicking on the button in the right sidebar. Then, each day, when the Daily Worship guides are posted on this site, you will automatically receive them into your RSS reader.
- If you would prefer to receive the guides a week in advance, you can sign up to receive them via email by using the sign-up box on the right. The emails are sent out each week on Thursday in advance of the week starting on the next Sunday. If you choose to sign up, you will also receive the free five-part ecourse called “Transforming Worship” via email, and you will be able to download the entire week’s guides in a pdf file which may be copied or passed on.
Is there a way to make copies of Daily Worship for my congregation?
Yes. If you sign up to receive the email version of Daily Worship, you will also receive, each week in the email, a link to download the guides as a pdf file. This file may be copied and shared with your congregation free of charge, on condition that the link to this website remains intact. In addition, form time to time there may be information shared in this pdf about Sacredise resources that enhance and inspire worship, and these notifications must remain intact as well.
May I share Daily Worship emails with my friends and family?
Yes, you may! Feel free to share the link to this site in any way you can. You can also invite them to ‘like’ the Daily Worship Facebook page (click on the button in the right sidebar). Finally, if you sign up to receive Daily Worship via email, you are welcome to forward the emails to anyone that you feel will find them helpful.
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