Fall Lector Workshop - 2023
I’m not sure if you heard this, but in January of 2021, Pope Francis made a big change in the Liturgy.
It began with these words, “The Spirit of the Lord Jesus, the perennial source of the Church’s life and mission, distributes to the members of the People of God the gifts that enable each one, differently, to contribute to the edification of the Church and the proclamation of the Gospel.
These charisms, called ministries because they are publicly recognized and instituted by the Church, are made available to the community and her mission in a stable form.”
He would go on, in this same Apostolic Letter, [it is] “established that from now on the ministries of Lector and Acolyte are to be open to women…”
Let’s see Vatican II ended in 1965, so that only took 56 years.
I want to take the opportunity to briefly share with you the relationship between the Liturgy and your role as Lectors.
The entire context of our worship together is saturated with a sense of ritual.
Ritual is something with which we are familiar. Some rituals are communal: Thanksgiving Dinner, blowing out the candles on a birthday cake, standing for the national anthem.
And other rituals are private and personal: spouses exchanging gifts on a wedding anniversary, or parents saying goodnight to their children.
Ritual involves repetition. Ritual involves the "doing" of something repeatedly in a particular way.
As we know, the Liturgy is replete with ritual.
By engaging in ritual behavior, actions, gestures, and prayers, that follow a recognizable and familiar pattern, the Liturgy can become second nature, as long as two very important things happen:
1.) People are comfortable with what they're
doing and…
2.) People are aware of why they are doing it.
Ritual establishes a rhythm that alleviates distracting uncertainty which obscures the mystery we are called to unveil.
The entire Liturgy is choreographed for the mystery of the transcendent to become present in the sacred action that takes place within sacred time and sacred space.
The fundamental purpose of proclaiming the Word of God amid an assembly of believers is to help everyone experience the life-giving presence of Jesus.
If what we do as Lector, proclaimers of God’s Word, is to make any sense to those who are listening-- it must make sense, first, to us.
Communication is a two-way process: it involves the speaker and listener, and what we say is just as important as how we say it!
And that's why we are here today.
The ritual action of proclaiming the Word of God is most effective when all the participants in the liturgy take on their specific roles and work together as a team.
What we are about to do is geared toward helping all of you-- ministers and servants of the Word to join in creating a life-giving ritual action.
And if we do it right, and if we do it well, we will make it possible for all the members of our Parish to experience the healing and saving action of God, revealed to us in His Son in the Word we proclaim.
I couldn’t count the number of times, I have approached the ambo, the Table of God’s Word. Suffice it to say, I have a few pearls of wisdom from my many years of experience that I would ever so briefly like to share.
Proclaim don’t Read.
Pay attention to punctuation.
Let’s finish one thing before moving on to the next.
Failure to Prepare is Preparing to Fail.
No one ever says, “You are too loud!”
Don’t apologize for a mistake.
The introduction and the conclusion are not part of the text.
Finish your words.
Jerusalem, not Jerusalum.
Never lose your place again.
See some of your favorite St. Nicholas/St. William Lectors show us how it is done!