Continuing Faith Formation

Some years ago, I was a lector at a parish in Mississippi.  This parish had a lot of small faith communities, groups of five to eight persons who met regularly to discuss their faith and spirituality. I was in one such group and it was quite an experience. I grew so much during that year and a half.  My group consisted of four women and three men, married and single, young and old, who met one hour each week. We discussed the readings for the upcoming Sunday Mass and how they played out in our lives.

I recently read two articles somewhere on the web (I didn't bookmark them and now can't find them, but I will!) that both argued that lectors need to be constantly vigilant to improve their spirituality in order to prevent them from becoming automotons that just read from the Lectionary and instead become men and women who proclaim the Word of God in a manner that the Word is no longer on the page in front of the lector, but instead is in the minds, hearts, and souls of the assembly who just heard the lector proclaim.

I like the idea of lectors getting together to assist each other to become better lectors. I know it is very common in parishes of mid- to large sizes for the lectors to not know each other more than just on a "hi, how are you?" basis before or after Mass.  At some parishes, the lectors have all been reading at Mass for ten years or more and there is no new lector talent coming up the ranks.  Is this because of a stagnancy in the ministry at those parishes?  Is the reason why no new lectors are coming forward because there is no dynamic spiritualism in the lector cadre at the parish and potential lectors see this and don't want to become "old fuddy-duddies" like the ones they see week after week at Mass?

I think that spiritual formation is scary. I think that spiritual formation is important.  I think as Catholics that we need to recognize that spiritual formation cannot take place by oneself, but must take place in community, especially in small faith communities.

So I took a step forward today and took a risk (something I'm not good at doing) and asked the lectors in my parish if they might want to join me for no more than an hour per week to meet and discuss our ministry, the upcoming Sunday readings, and possibly some work on the Liturgy of the Word, lectors, or whatever.  Now I just await any responses.