When we gather for a special meal that includes extended family such as at Thanksgiving or Christmas, we typically share family stories from the past, including those family members who have died. We reminisce about the good old days and the people who helped shape our family. In the Mass, the Liturgy of the Word creates a similar environment for us. Reading from both the Old and New Testaments, we share the collective memories of our past, stories of our spiritual ancestors and faith heroes, most especially Jesus. The Scriptures proclaimed on any given Sunday are predetermined by our Catholic calendar and what is assigned for those given Sundays in a book called the Lectionary. The Sunday Lectionary contains three cycles that alternate from year to year. Creating the lectionary in this way allows for a greater portion of the Bible to be read at Mass in a systematic way over a three-year period. The overall format of the Sunday Lectionary is based upon the Gospels. In Year A we read primarily from the Gospel of Matthew, in Year B from Mark primarily and Year C features passages mainly from Luke’s Gospel. John’s Gospel finds its way into the three-year cycle with extensive passages during the Easter season, on special holydays and feasts, and, in Year B, we read the entire sixth chapter – the Bread of Life Discourse – during the summer months. The first reading is generally selected from an Old Testament book, and has some correlation to the Gospel reading for the day. Although during the Easter Season, our first readings come from the Acts of the Apostles. The Responsorial Psalm, which we appropriately sing (since the Psalms were originally composed as songs), is a response to the first reading and has some correlation back to that reading. The second reading (often called the Epistle) comes from one of the New Testament letters of St. Paul or the early church or occasionally from the Book of Revelation. Since the Epistles are assigned to be read semi-continuously in segments from each of these letters, there isn’t an intentional correlation between the second reading and the Gospel.