Following is the preface to Nine Steps to Becoming a Better Lector.
All rights reserved. Copyright © 2000, Resource Publications, Inc.
Preface
I became a lector when I was 17 years old. I wish I could say I had done so
because I felt a call from the Lord, or I felt a keen desire to evangelize
those who had not yet heard the Word or some such lofty, spiritual
motivation.
The truth is, I liked the attention. When I walked up to the ambo, all the
eyes in the church were focused on me. Perhaps this is not the best reason
to become a lector, but it is the reason that a lot of us got started and the
reason some of us are still doing it after lots of years. I used to feel a little
guilty about my less-than-pure motivation until I realized that God can use
even my weaknesses to accomplish God’s goals. I began to accept
that I would never be visited by winged angels bearing burning coals to
purify my lips. I would never see a vision or hear a voice or receive written
instructions from the Lord directing the exact way in which I was supposed
to live out my baptismal commitment. My call was in fact my selfish desire for
attention.
What has helped me reconcile my selfishness with the mandate to be
selfless and to sacrifice myself, a mandate I proclaim almost every time I
read, is a commitment I made early on to continually improve my skills as a
lector. If I am going to take attention from the community, I feel obligated to
give my best effort back to them when I read.
I thought I was a “good enough” lector almost from the time I
started. I could be heard clearly, and I used pretty good eye contact.
Isn’t that all that’s expected of a lector? But the more I
proclaimed the Scriptures, the more I realized there is never really a
“good enough” minister. All the Scriptures point to the paschal
mystery, Christ’s self-sacrifice for us. The more I read, the more I
understood that God wasn’t calling me just to be a good lector. God
was and is calling me to sacrifice myself for the sake of the community, just
as Christ did.
There are some basics every lector has to master just to be “good
enough.” However, once those basics are mastered, every lector is
faced with a choice. “Am I going to be satisfied with ‘good
enough,’ or am I going to challenge and stretch myself for the sake
of the community? Am I going to work to become a better lector next year
than I was last year? Am I going to go out of my way to learn new ways to
proclaim God’s word more powerfully?”
I would respectfully suggest that neither God nor the Church needs
lectors who are “good enough.” What we need are lectors
who will sacrifice themselves. What we need are lectors who will work
every week to give back to the community more than they take from it.
What we need are lectors who are driven to give their best
effort—plus a little bit more—in order to proclaim the paschal
mystery.
You are that kind of lector or you wouldn't be reading this book. It is my
hope that some of the techniques you find here will help you in your
continuous efforts to improve and extend yourself. For some of you, these
nine steps will be reminders and encouragements of some of the things you
already do to prepare. For others, some of these steps may seem
overwhelming and challenging. Keep in mind that your goal isn’t to
be the best lector God has ever created. It is to be a little better next time
than you were last time. Work in small but consistent doses to improve your
skills. If you can do that, you will be meeting the Gospel’s mandate to
self-sacrifice.
May the Lord be on you lips and in your hearts so that you may worthily
proclaim God’s word.
Frequently asked questions
1. Where should the lectors be in the opening procession?
The order of procession varies from parish to parish. The most usual
order is for the lector carrying the lectionary to be second-to-last in
line, right in front of the presider. The other lector is third-to-last.
When the procession reaches its destination, the process for placing the
book on the ambo also varies from place to place. Usually all the ministers
in the procession either bow to the altar or genuflect. In most cases,
the lector carrying the Word would neither bow nor genuflect. In some
parishes, the lector carrying the lectionary bows his or her head but does
not “dip” the lectionary. That is also acceptable. If the custom
in your parish is for the ministers to genuflect, and if it is important in your
community that all the ministers do genuflect, it is best to place the book on
the ambo, return to the foot of the altar, and then genuflect.
2. How high should the book be held?
The higher the better. At a minimum, bottom of the lectionary should be at
about eyebrow level. Stretch your comfort level and raise it a bit higher than
that. Ideally, the lector would extend his or her arms as much as possible in
order to create a true sense of procession with the book. Imagine that you
are proclaiming the Word with the very first step of your procession. How
would you make the proclamation nonverbally? How would you let the
assembly know, before you ever reach the altar, that the Word of God is
among them? Use your body, the rhythm of your walking, and the way you
carry the book to make that proclamation.
3. Should the book be held during the reading?
The new lectionaries have almost made this a moot point. If you are
using one of the new Sunday lectionaries, it is impossible to hold them
for long because of their size. If for some reason you have a smaller
lectionary and you wish to hold the book as you read, that is probably a
good thing to do. It works just as well, however, to leave the book on the
ambo as you read. It should go without saying that the lector would always
read from a bound lectionary. Every symbol we use at Mass should be
worthy and dignified. It should not look temporary or disposable. So no
paperback lectionaries, workbooks, missallettes, or looseleaf papers.
Always read from a worthy book.
4. Is it okay for lectors to use hand gestures during the
reading?
Hand gestures are tricky to pull off. The first thing to ask is why a lector
would want to add in a gesture. Will the gesture significantly add to the
proclamation of the reading? Will it help the assembly to better understand
and “hear” God’s word that day? Too often, a gesture is
simply distracting. It can call attention to itself and to the lector and not
really help the proclamation. But on occasion, used sparingly and well,
a simple gesture can emphasize the most important point of the reading
and add an important element to the proclamation.
Here are some general guidelines for adding gesture.
- If you are at all unsure about using the gesture, don’t.
- If you have never before used gesture in your reading, start out using
only one.
- Practice, practice, practice in front of a mirror. Make sure the gesture
is natural, confident and smooth.
- Know your assembly. For some assemblies, no matter how good you are
and how natural the gesture it, it won’t work.
- Generally, the larger and more festive the liturgy, the more appropriate
a gesture would be. So in most cases gesture would work better at the
Easter Vigil than at a summertime weekday Mass.
5. Should the lector lift up the book at the end when saying, “The
Word of the Lord”?
There is no need to raise the book at the conclusion of the reading. The
lectionary is in a sense the Word of God. But the sounds that come out of
the lector’s mouth are also the Word of God. And the action of the
Spirit in the hearts of the assembly as they hear is also the Word of God.
And as the Word becomes incarnate in the assembly, the assembly itself
also becomes the Word. So when the lector says, “The Word of the
Lord” at the conclusion, it includes all those senses of the Word.
Elevating the book places too much emphasis on only one of the
meanings.
6. Where should the lectors sit?
The ideal would be for the lectors to sit in the midst of the assembly.
However, this also varies from parish to parish so check with your parish
leaders. When the lector comes from the assembly to proclaim the reading,
it creates a clear sense that the ministries flow from the assembly.
7. Should the lectionary be carried out the end of Mass?
There isn’t an absolute rule, but generally, what is carried in the
opening procession is carried out at the end of Mass.
8. How should lectors dress?
Lectors should dress up. Proclaiming the Word of God is a sacred ministry,
and lectors should dress as though they have a sacred calling. Casual
dress gives an air of the ministry being casual. What “dressing
up” means varies from community to community and even within
communities. So even though the ideal is to dress up, lectors need to be
careful not to criticize each other about how they dress. What is casual for
one person may be dressy for another.
9. How many lectors are required on Sunday?
There would ordinarily be one lector for each reading. If lectors do all the
preparation required of one reading, it would be quite difficult and time
consuming to prepare two. Even if a lector was willing to put in the work
required to prepare two readings, one would wonder why a second
lector wouldn’t be scheduled to do one of the readings. In a secular
drama, actors usually play only one major role, not two. The sacred drama
of the liturgy calls for a full compliment of ministers. Some parishes will have
difficulty recruiting enough lectors at some of the lower participation
liturgies (stereotypically, the Saturday evening liturgy or the very early
Sunday morning liturgy). Nevertheless, there would usually be an ongoing
effort to both increase the overall participation at these liturgies and
to recruit more lectors and other liturgical ministers. A lector should
do more than one reading only in emergency and compromise situations.
The scheduling process should never be such that having only one reader
is a goal. So, for example, if John Jones is the only reader scheduled for the
Saturday 5:00 p.m. Mass, his name should appear twice simply to reinforce
the idea that he is acting in a double capacity.
10. Would a third lector be required for the psalm and a fourth for the
intercessions? What about the announcements?
The ministry of the lector is not to “read stuff at the
microphone.” The ministry of the lector is to proclaim the word of
God. So the lector would not ordinarily read the intercessions or
announcements. While this does happen in many parishes, it is not the
ideal. It is a habit we have fallen into and that we should extract ourselves
from. The usual minister for leading the intercessions and making
announcements is the deacon. In parishes where there is no deacon, the
ministries of the deacon fall either to the cantor, the presider, or another
minister, but not to the lector.
The psalm is the Word of God, but it is not a reading. It is a song
and, at least on Sunday, it would ordinarily be sung.
11. Can a lector also serve as a communion minster or other liturgical
minister?
This would also be case in which a lector would double up only in an
emergency or compromise situation. If a lector takes his or her ministry
seriously, that person is lector even at times when he or she is not reading
just as a priest is a priest even when he is not presiding at Mass. As
a lector, how do you make the Word present when you are not scheduled
to read? How do you make the Word present when the Liturgy of the Word
has ended and the Liturgy of the Eucharist has begun? More elementally,
what does it say about our seriousness about fulfilling the mandate of the
Second Vatican Council to expand the liturgical ministries as broadly as
possible if a few people are serving in two or three ministries? If you really
feel called to be a communion minister or an usher or a choir member,
resign from your role as lector and serve in the ministry you are most called
to. If you can’t decide, serve in one for a year and then switch to
another for a year. If you serve at one of the “low participation”
liturgies and for the time being you and the other ministers are unable to
recruit more help, then try your best to at least not serve in two ministries at
the same liturgy. So for example, you might be a lector on the 28th Sunday
of Ordinary Time and a communion minister on the 29th Sunday, but you
would avoid doing both ministries on both Sundays.
12. What are the differences among translations of Scripture?
None of Scripture was originally written in English. Most of the New
Testament was written in ancient Greek and much of the Old Testament
was written in Hebrew. Translations of Scripture began to occur almost as
soon as it was written. There are several modern translations that are
excellent. The translations Catholics might most frequently encounter are
the New American Bible (NAB), Revised Standard Version (RSV), New
Revised Standard Version (NRSV), Jerusalem Bible (JB), and Contemporary
English Version (CEV; used in the Lectionary for Masses with Children). Any
of these translations may be used in parishes for prayer, study and
catechesis. In parishes in the United States, only the NAB may be used in
the liturgy. In parishes in Canada, only the NRSV may be used in the
liturgy.
The most widely used translation among Protestants is perhaps the King
James Version (KJV). The KJV is unrivaled for its masterful use of the
English language. However, it dates from the 1600s, and more accurate
translations have superseded it for use in scholarly, theological work.
