To assist you in performing your role as Lector in a proper and meaningful way, please use these documents as starting points.

• Description of a Good Lector
• Basic Rules of Public Speaking

There are, of course, many more sources listed in your Lector Workbook which the Parish furnishes to you and you should study. The DVD furnished by our Lector Coordinator, Dana, is also a welcome source of guidance.

Lector Preparation & Techniques

The words of Sacred Scripture are unlike any other that we ever hear. God reveals himself to us through the Scriptures which are inspired by the Holy Spirit and must be revered as God’s Word. In hearing God’s Word, we come to know the depth of His love for us and our responsibilities as followers of Jesus. Reading the Bible alone, in silence, is formative, spiritual and meditative, but it is not a sacrament. The Word of God is only realized in the sacramental experience of the Church in the communal celebration of the Word, where not “one,” but “two or three are gathered in my name.” Matthew 18:20.  Thus, the duty of a Lector in publicly proclaiming God’s Word is an awesome one. Like all ministries in the Church, liturgical proclamation of the Word is a serious responsibility to which one is called and into which one is formed.

Meaningful preparation for this duty cannot merely be a process of mechanical review, rather, it must first and foremost be “Prayerful” preparation. Indeed, St. Augustine spoke of Preparation as Prayer, that is, the necessity of coming to the ministry of the Word from one’s personal prayer. Although referring to the clergy, his thought applies very well to all who proclaim the Word of God. Augustine asserted that one is “an empty preacher of the Word of God to others, not being a hearer of the Word in his own heart.” (Sermon, # 179).

All of this means that one must carefully read the Word of God and, through prayer, listen to it in your heart. The time proven Latin axiom applies well here: “Lex orandi, lex credendi,” that is, as we pray, so we believe. In performing this duty, one should ask oneself, “How can I better hear the Word of God in my own heart so that I can better proclaim and communicate that Word to the Assembly gathered before me to pray at Mass?” Thus, spiritual preparation is and must be first and foremost for the Lector, and it pre-supposes both biblical and liturgical formation and study. Lectors must endeavor to prayerfully study Scripture to learn more of its meaning and significance, and must also have some grasp of the meaning and structure of the liturgy of the Word and of the significance of its connection with the liturgy of the Eucharist.

This does not mean that everything in a particular Scriptural passage will make sense to you or will resonate with special meaning. As Thomas Merton has warned us, however, “There is nothing comfortable about the Bible if we are truly engaged with it.” Regardless, it is important to have a regular manner and sufficient time in which to prepare your assigned reading. In that preparation and rehearsal, prayerful spiritual preparation must have a central role, that is, your own dialogue with God as to how best you can be the conduit for his Word to your Assembly.