Theme reflections are offered to help you
become the finest reader possible and to enjoy this ministry of Christian
service.
1. Because the lector is “one who proclaim the Good News” they should lead a life that reflects their belief in this " Good News". We convey our attitudes toward scripture by the way we read it. People sense you believe what you read. The most effective sign of a good reader is a person reading with life, energy, intelligence, and enthusiasm. Remember the people come not as critics to pass judgement - their silence and attention show good will. We are not performers trying to captivate an audience but servants of God and God's people. Both reader and the assembly are ministers of the word.
2.
Your reading should be preceded by prayerful preparation, in
anticipation of the contact made with that person most in need of God's message
at that particular
3.
Your Proclamation of God’s Word may prove to be the chief nourishment
that worshippers will receive. You are ministers of the Word. In a real sense,
you break open God’s Word so the people might experience Jesus through God's
Word, just as the priest breaks open the Bread so that people experience Jesus
through the Eucharist. The people of God expect the Liturgy of the Word to strengthen
and prepare their faith for a more meaningful celebration of the Eucharist.
There is also danger here. We should never read over dramatically. That pulls
people’s attention away from God's Word toward the lector and we do not want
that to happen either. We do not want people to notice how you are
reading but what you are reading. The Sunday Liturgy is the only time
many people are exposed to Scripture. It is important that it be presented in
such a way to have a real impact on them. For we desire not only to interest
people, but also to move them, to elicit a response. For a few moments you are
the voice of the Lord, calling, challenging. encouraging,
inviting God’s people to a deeper experience of faith and life. Jesus has
something to say to this assembly at this time about the needs of this
moment. Like Ezekiel's dead bones, it is through the Spirit of Jesus. God
is creating new life bringing this people who are dead to life again.
Through the word Jesus is calling on this people to help Him make the
kingdom happen in this area. To be a sign and vision of hope in a world
shattered with loneliness and hopelessness.
4. Be
aware of the background of the readings. For most of the lectors it means some extra study in Scripture.
Get to know St. Paul and St. Luke and the Prophet, Jeremiah, so well that you
can anticipate the way they think. Remember scripture is also literature
written in a particular historical contexts and so we need to understand these
aspects. In this light, take advantage of
any Bible Study the parish offers. This
way you can understand the overall
meaning of the book. Who knows what
marvelous surprises await us when we serve
God through the word? So
try to read the Bible privately on a regular basis in order to let God
speak to you in your heart. (There was
an ancient saying: “Ignorance of scripture
is ignorance of Christ.”)
5.
Different materials require different treatment. Read the theological
part of a letter or epistle of St. Paul as if you were conducting an argument.
Read Sirach or Wisdom so as to bring out the individual wise sayings of which
those writings are composed. Read the denouncements of the prophets with ardor,
the admonitions of Paul with regret, the love poetry of the Songs of Songs with
passion, Revelation of John in the tradition of apocalyptic literature, and the
narrative of the Exodus as a story. In other words, put some feeling and mood
in the readings to make them come alive for the people, trying to make the
author's thoughts one's own thoughts so as to convey the spirit and the
personality of the original speaker. We have some books with background to the
scriptures available in the sacristy. Please take advantage of them.
It is Important to
understand the movement for the Mass and the liturgical season in which the
Word is located. We have literature on this if you are interested.
6.
The task of readers is NOT to read the scriptures “to” people at mass on
Sunday. Rather it is the task of readers to communicate how they think and feel
about the reading with those who are supposed to be listening.
7.
The goal of proclaiming God's word at Sunday mass is to help create for
the members of the assembly an experience of God's presence, of Jesus'
presence, in the Word. The goal
is not to get the Word only into heads but
also into hearts
If readers and listeners conspire together to
make a life-giving proclamation, we have some chance of experiencing the
presence of Jesus in and through His Word, as did the people of Christ's time,
who were amazed by the authority and clarity of how Jesus spoke. We form a link
with the first disciples of Jesus and the assemblies of the apostolic church.
Both experiences are 'faith experiences'. The only difference is that the
disciples did have a memory of Jesus' physical presence.
'8.
Proclaiming God's word is storytelling. When you read you are “telling a
story.” You must get into the storytelling mode. When you tell a good story,
both storyteller and listeners get inside the story and start living it over
again. That is what sharing God's story with your people is all about. So God’s
story and the people of God’s story is your story as well. For we are not just
transcribers of the Word, but interpreters of the Word.
You must try to get into the mood and feeling
of the story you are telling. You must try to get into the skin of the person
who speaks or writes. You must try to tell it like it really is through your
own personality.
9.
Proclaiming God's word is also a conversation. Readers need to think
“conversation” when they do public reading. (Yet done slower than normal
conversation.) It is an important way to avoid the very artificial mode of
so-called “public reading”.
10. Don't read, but speak. Speak ideas, not words. Speak
it as if it were your own fresh idea. Read in such an attractive way that you
would want to listen to it. Read ahead. See phrases, not words. You have to
know the meaning yourself before you can convey it to others; therefore, good
reading is a matter of getting the meaning, then giving the meaning. Readers
must thoroughly understand the copy so that they can unfold the thought
naturally for the listener, so that people are totally unaware of the amount of
work you have put into it. Readers must speak it as their own idea and give the
listener the Impression that the words are fresh. Be natural. Make sense out of
the words. Reading lacks expression chiefly because of a misunderstanding of
the meaning of words. Think the thought and then feel the emotion--think and
feel while you read. You have to call upon the images in your own mind and let
them live. You should make the listener forget that you are reading. Good “idea
diction” is the proper grouping of words. Put the words together that belong
together. Read ideas, not words. Be careful not to stress the weak words (such
as: a, the, and, or, from, by). (Giving these words too much vocal attention is
a dead give-away that you are reading words, not speaking and communicating
ideas.)
Usually, you will place
emphasis on nouns, action verbs, and you will color adjectives. Know the theme
and establish it with some sort of emphasis, some indication of its importance
to the listener. Avoid singsong sameness of emphasis and/or pitch. The idea is
for the pitch of your voice to avoid being too high or too low. Color and
inflect each word and phrase as you would in natural conversation. Speak to the
listener. Keep this in mind throughout the reading. Effective emphasis consists
of contrast. Strive for effective emphasis. If you emphasize everything, you
obviously emphasize nothing. The secret of effective emphasis is in knowing how
to throw away unimportant things. You can emphasize by voice intensity, color,
and pace. One of the best ways is by use of the pause--you set a word apart for
emphasis by pausing before that word.
Pause before all quotations. Pausing gives
your listener an opportunity to contemplate what you just said (to be brief but
not too brief, extended but not too extended). Yet at the same time we don't
want too many pauses because they can chop the life out of the reading. Good
cadence turns the control of punctuation (which is for the written word) over
to the reader. The goal of the pause is to charge the silence that will
highlight or emphasize a certain feeling or meaning. Pause is one of the
reader’s most powerful tools. Pause between phases, at the end of sentences and
between paragraphs or main ideas. Pause to point up a special word or thought.
Also, pause for a period, semi-colon, colon or question mark.
11. Never read publicly what you have not
first read privately. Even the most seasoned reader can be caught off guard by
a passage that he or she has not seen recently, whether because of content,
unexpected punctuation or the lack of it, or unfamiliar proper nouns. Remember
to pick up your workbook as early as possible on the shelf in the sacristy.
Don't be afraid to mark the workbook to help remind you where to pause, what to
emphasize, etc. (Please don't mark the Lectionary book that is used for
Mass!)
Please remember to return it
when you are finished. Try to read over the readings (Including the Gospel of
the day) and prepare them well so the "Good News" may sound like just
that and flow easily.
Perhaps the simplest way is to set aside
about 20 minutes on the day before you are scheduled to lector at Mass. The
procedure during this time could be as follows:
a. Find a quiet place where you are unlikely to
be disturbed.
b.
Prepare yourself to be open to the Word of God by a short prayer,
perhaps to the Holy Spirit.
c.
Read the readings ... slowly ... trying to understand the general idea
each contains.
d. Now
read each reading out loud while standing in the room. If you find yourself
stumbling over a sentence, stop and go back until you can read it smoothly. Be
careful of the pronunciation of proper names... they're generally not too
complicated if you take them apart by syllables.
e. Read each reading out loud again now that you
have worked at making sense out of it. (It is good to rehearse it at least 5
times before reading at Mass.)
12. Pronounce words correctly. There will be books on biblical pronunciation available in the sacristy or feel free to ask the celebrant ahead of time.
13.Speak slowly and clearly. In doing so, we permit the sound to travel better. We also become free to regain our composure should we lose our place. It is better to err on reading too slowly than too quickly; (although you don't want to speak too slowly, for the flow is destroyed). You also want to read briskly, brightly, for the Bible is the Good News. We don't want to read in a monotone or so drably that we cause a worshipper to groan inwardly as we approach the lectern "Oh, oh. Bad news". Pacing or deliberation is not a matter of reading more slowly. It is a matter of stretching and reducing. Your ability to pace your reading is a sign of how much control you really have over your reading. Many readers do not have control over their speed. They are helpless, like the driver of a car with no brakes. The medium (that's you) is inevitably the message.
14. Do not swallow the word with which a
sentence ends. Each vowel and consonant must be correctly formed so that the
listeners hear every sound that is necessary for them to get the “Good News”.
Enunciation becomes a primary factor because, not only is each word expressed
correctly, but also ideas are phrased so that the last word is heard. If you do
not, the listener, having heard every other word can lose all. If you must
drown or swallow an occasional word, never let it be a verb. The verb is the
word that holds a sentence together. Also, emphasize the last sentence. This is
important. Over 30% of all readers read too quietly. Make a special effort to
read loudly enough to be heard. Start the reading in a strong voice. Often the
first sentence or two hold the key to understanding the entire passage.
A very practical guideline, one that never
fails: always begin the next sentence on a different pitch than the one you
just finished. Sounds like an artificial rule, but it never fails. The other
way of saying it is, never start the next sentence at the same pitch level
where you left off.
Another suggestion: Always do dialogue at
different pitch levels and with greater inflection than you do narrative.
15. Good volume is assured by good breathing.
If you are a bit nervous, you may tend to be breathless. Before beginning, take
a couple of good breaths to settle down and be ready. Don't be afraid to pause
and breath but do it quietly so that the others nearby won't pick it up. Don't
begin speaking until you have "breathed" yourself into a state of
calm. When you are tense concentrate on the people and God's Word instead of on
yourself. Realize that a certain amount of
tension is natural and good. Trust in God's help.
16. You don't want too many or too few words
in one breath or too few. Gradually you will understand your abilities well
enough to strike a balance.
17. Approach the place from which you will
read with modest, attentive, but confident and relaxed bearing as if something
important were to happen. Indeed, it is, have both feet firmly planted on the
floor; and both hands resting on the lectern (not fidgeting). You are ready to
begin.
18. It is important to acquire the skill (if
you do not already possess the habit), of maintaining some eye contact with
your hearers. Eye contact conveys a personal immediacy. It takes time to learn
this (as it does other skills). Catch the eyes of several in the congregation
or maybe one person who is looking at you. Calmly assure your audience that you
are about to read to them, not at them. Many congregations still read the
missalettes silently because they are expressing a lack of confidence, because
of a lifetime of bad pulpit readers, microphone and church acoustics. Even
though we have a microphone, it is important to project your voice well.
19. Hold the book in your hands; stand up straight in a position that says "energy". Look directly at your listeners. In this posture you appear to your listeners as If you have something worthwhile to say and want to say it as well as you can. You are already making a life-giving sign before you start reading. It helps.
An effective reader learns to look at the
listeners more than at the book. Skillful readers speak out what they have just
looked at in the book. Effective readers pick up the material with their eyes
before they speak it. They are reading out loud what they have just looked at.
It's like you pick up a shovel full and then deliver it with all your attention
on the listeners. Then you go for the next shovel full, and so forth.
Make reasonable efforts not to read from the
book lying on the lectern. When you do this you are forced to bend your head
down. When you bend your head down you cut yourself off from your listeners.
You break most of the possible connection that you must have with them for the
sake of communication. You also cut off a considerable amount of the wind that
you need to produce adequate and interesting sound. You can't bend your
Windpipe too much, you know.
If the book is too heavy and too awkward, then get one from the
sacristy that s not too heavy or too awkward. Books are for people, not the
other way around.
20. What is being asked of you s a lot, but your ministry is such an
important one. I know also that what is being suggested is going to take time,
practice, study and prayer, but we need to have this vision of where we should
be going to become the most effective reader possible. There is only one way to
acquire the skills we have mentioned - do it! Practice over and over again
until you get it. It is reasonable to expect the lectors to make sure they take
their turn and do top quality reading. Most importantly, we can be sure that
God's help will be there all along the way. God desires the Word to be heard
more than we do. So we can be assured that God's grace will be sufficient to
fulfill our ministry.
21. If you think you might have trouble reading, find a competent
critic. Find a person who knows how to read well publicly and who will tell you
the truth (they also serve as a good model of reading for you). For it is
important to seek out regular evaluation of our reading style. It takes courage
and humility to do this. Most of our readers do very well, but we still need to
improve. There are very experienced public speakers like teachers who are
willing to help you. This is another reason we offer periodic workshops. If you
cannot make your voice do what you want it to do or cannot find adequate time
to prepare the readings, yield up the office of reader. You can serve the
worshipping congregation best by performing some other ministry.
Good liturgy needs the gifts of others so we prefer that lector not do
other liturgical ministries. It is better to do one ministry well, plus it
allows others to share their particular gifts.
Here are some final points:
A. You are a formal minister of the Eucharistic Liturgy. Since there is
no specific garb for our lectors, please dress in accord with the dignity of
your ministry as a lector. We desire the focus to be on the reading not the
clothes the lector is wearing. We suggest simple, neutral, tasteful clothing
that is not distracting.
B. If you are unsure of the reading look in the Ordo in the sacristy
(it provides readings of the lectionary) or the workbook or ask the celebrant.
Double check with the homilist to avert an embarrassing situation.
C. When processing in and processing out of Mass, try to make a
reverence along side the priest. We convey meaning and communicate by our
posture and movement.
D. The new liturgical directives call for
only the Book of the Gospels to be brought in the procession.
E. Make sure you know your place in the Lectionary when you place it in the pulpit.
F. Try
to arrive at least 15 minutes before
Mass. It gives you time to
prepare yourself by praying for
awhile and also to know your place In the
Lectionary.
G. It is possible that at times the choir
will not always be singing the responsorial psalm. This could be proclaimed by
the lector. The psalms are really meant to be sung. At these Masses, please be
seated while the psalm is sung, then return to the pulpit after the psalm to
begin the second reading; or you can step back just a little from the lectern
space and turn and face the music ministers (not the people). This is to show you are handing over the
leadership role to the choir while the psalm is sung.
Overall, everyone is very responsible when it comes to his or her turn at lectoring. Yet, there are still some missing their turn. Please make sure you check the list. Please get a substitute if you can't make it. Give the substitute enough notice to adequately prepare the readings. If there is a last-minute sickness, try to call someone to take your place.
One final but very, very important point:
We need to pause more before and after the
readings. It is probably because we are uncomfortable with silence. There should be several pauses:
a. First pause before you even begin to read
the first reading to allow people to settle down. (Especially when the children
leave for their Liturgy of the Word. Please
wait until every child has left before you start the first reading)
b. Secondly, after you finish the reading,
pause at least five seconds and then say; “ the Word of the Lord”.
c. There should be a significant pause after
the first reading (approximately 30 seconds). A yardstick might be to say
silently and slowly the Our Father to yourself. It may seem like a long time to
you but it really isn't.
d. There should be a pause after the
responsorial psalm before the second reading. Maybe long enough to silently and
slowly say a "Hail-Mary".
e. When you are reading the petition prayers,
there should also be pauses after each of the petitions, and a significant
pause after we pray for our own intentions. Sometimes these are read very fast
and without pauses like we are trying to rush through to get them over with.
f. Becoming a good lector is a process. The
Word continues to take flesh through our humanity. Be yourself. Remember God
calls fallible people to serve. God chooses humans; and God makes up for our
inadequacies. People make mistakes. It is not the end of the world (in fact
when a mistake is made it is better to just keep reading along instead of going
back; unless your mistake changes the sense of the passage - then go back and
correct it slowly). The main thing is to learn from them (maybe you did not
prepare enough or concentrate or were too tired or too hurried) and dedicate
yourself to being the best instrument of God you can.
Thank you for
sharing your time and talent with our Parish family.