What Is a Lector, Part One (GIL Section 14)

I will now begin a periodic examination of the General Introduction to the Lectionary (2nd Edition), abbreviated from now on as GIL.

The first mention of the lector (reader) in the GIL is the following:

14. A speaking style on the part of the readers that is audible, clear, and intelligent is the first means of transmitting the word of God properly to the congregation.

Let's take these requirements one at a time:

AUDIBILITY - The lector must speak loud enough for the congregation to hear the words. Lectors worldwide sometimes have problems with loudness.  Some don't speak loudly, in the first place, so trying to get them to speak loudly when reading at the ambo is difficult.  Most times, however, I think it is just the fact that no one is brave enough to tell them that they don't speak loud enough.

Adequate preparation can instill confidence in a lector. If a lector first learns the words of the reading through silent recitation, then moves on to practice time and again the reading while reading out loud, mere familiarity with the reading will bring a confidant tonation that can easily be increased in volume.  When a lector understands what words come next in their recitation, then they can become louder as the situation dictates.

If fear can be conquered through preparation, it is a wonder to me why more lectors don't practice, practice, practice!!!


CLARITY - As section 14 tells us, a lector must be a good speaker.  That is a prerequisite for service in this ministry. Over the years that I have been a lector, and even before, I have heard many lectors with strong accents foreign to the place they are reading (geographical place, that is) say words in the readings in a way that is unintelligible to the congregation, or at least confuses the people enough that they can't pay attention well to the reading and get stuck on "just what was that word he just said?"  In my youth, one of our lectors was from St. Louis and said "Lord" as "lard," which always brought chuckles.  She could never understand why.

Because I am from Colorado, a state most foreign intelligence operatives are recruited from because they have no visible accent, I never could understand why this lector did not see the difference in our "real" pronunciation of the word and her own.  In times since, I have heard lectors with strong Spanish accents say "Hay-sus" instead of "Jesus" (which is fine in Mexico, but not in an English speaking country) and New Englanders mess up every other word, sometimes.  In my current parish, native Tagalog speakers have a hard time with consonants like "J" and "F" and ""L," either over-enunciating them or saying them incorrectly, like the "J" being pronounced like "ZJ."  These are, however, faults that CAN be corrected.

We have all heard drunks in our lifetimes slur words, running them together.  I've never known a lector to be drunk when reading, but it can sound like this sometimes. The lector just speaks too fast and mumbles some words while stumbling over others.  This is due to a fast delivery, often the result of nervous tension or fear of reading.  But in my experience, when a person is not clear in their reading because they are speaking too fast, it is because they did no preparation at all for their reading.  I saw just such a reading this past week, where an obviously unprepared lector said "loincloth" in such a way that it first sounded like "light clock" and then like "line clout."  If a lector does not prepare for their reading, then they falter and make these mistakes that can be simply corrected. When these mistakes are made, the congregation suffers.

Mistakes in clarity can usually be corrected.  First, some speech training to relax the muscles of the throat and expand the range of motion of the tongue can temporarily eliminate any accent the lector possesses. Second, simply preparing ahead of time can eliminate the running together of words.

INTELLIGENCE - of course, this requirement isn't saying a lector has to have a certain level of education, or even a specific IQ minimum to be able to read.  What this requirement is telling us is that the lector must know the Scripture they are reading.  This includes some, yes, PREPARATION!!!

Bible study groups are important ways for a lector to figure out what the reading is saying. Biblical interpretation and exegesis is very difficult, so doing it in groups is beneficial.  If a lector can understand what comes before and what comes after their reading, then they will have a leg up.  However, that is not enough.

Knowing the type of reading (poem, oracle poem, narrative story, letter, sermon/preaching) is a big help in getting the audibility and clarity down. You don't read a narrative story from Genesis the same way you read a poem from the Song of Songs or a letter from St. Paul.  The reading style is different and I think a lot of lectors out there either do not realize this or do but don't prepare enough to see the subtle nuances in how the same word can be emphasized differently in these different types of readings.

The intelligence requirement also takes time to fulfill.  The lector has to know just what the reading is saying to the reader, to the good Christian who is sitting in the pew and is being taught by us through our interpretation of the reading.  Yes, we interpret for our listeners by emphasizing certain words, slowing down our talk, giving small voice changes to different persons speaking in dialog.  But these things can only come about with preparation.

This first section of the GIL that talks about lectors is important because it highlights for us not only the requirements of a good lector, but the requirements of any lector.  A lector who is not adequately preparing for a reading is doing a bad service to the congregation they are ministering to. We don't just get up and read because someone needs to, we proclaim because God calls us to do so.  And just because we are called by God does not mean that we will be able to be the perfect lector every time without the proper preparation to perform our ministry. We must be audible, clear, and intelligent in our proclamation.  Are you?

Lay Lectors In Canon Law

I have recently become re-interested in canon law.  As it applies to lectors is this day's post topic.

Caveat: the Church has what are called instituted readers (called instituted lectors in canon law) and commissioned lay lectors. Unfortunately, the Church, for once, is not consistent in calling the instituted minster one thing the commissioned minister another, though the commissioned minister is almost always called a lector. Instituted readers are created by a bishop in a special ceremony; commissioned lectors are commissioned once a year by their parish priest.

Code of Canon Law As It Relates to Lectors (italics are mine)

Can. 230  §3. When the need of the Church warrants it and ministers are lacking, lay persons, even if they are not lectors or acolytes, can also supply certain of their duties, namely, to exercise the ministry of the word, to preside offer liturgical prayers, to confer baptism, and to distribute Holy Communion, according to the prescripts of the law.

Can. 231 §1. Lay persons who permanently or temporarily devote themselves to special service of the Church are obliged to acquire the appropriate formation required to fulfill their function properly and to carry out this function conscientiously, eagerly, and diligently.

Okay, so the first section above (Canon 230) talks about lay persons being allowed to exercise the duties of lay lector (commissioned) when an instituted reader is not around.  Easy one.  The hard one is next:

Canon 231 is very specific about lay persons exercising ministries, including lector, as going through appropriate formation.  This is tricky because it could mean simple getting taught the basics of the procedures for reading at one's parish - whether both lectors go up to the ambo at the same time, when to bow or genuflect, what to do with the microphone, to turn the page or not to turn the page.

But I think Canon 231 should be interpreted a bit more strictly to mean that formation is a continual process. Some of the liturgical documents (which I will discuss in future posts) talk about their being a spiritual and Scriptural formation for lectors.  I think that is what this means.  

The questions that every lector has, though, is what these mean and when are they supposed to take place? That really depends on the parish, I guess.  On whether the pastor wants lectors to receive annual or semi-annual training and enrichment for their ministry.  On whether someone is available to do so for a parish or not.

Regardless of how much formation is necessary, as discussed in my last post, formation and preparation are not the same thing, though preparation leads one on to formation, something much more spiritual than merely preparing to read Scripture at Mass.

Preparation or Formation?

During some much needed prayer time recently, I stumbled upon two words that I had never thought were related: preparation and formation. To me, at least before now, I had always thought of them as roughly the same thing. But now I am not so sure.

As a lector, I spend a lot of time preparing to read the reading I am assigned. I first read it silently for a few days, then I look at surrounding Scripture to get the context of the reading. I look at the type of writing (poetry, oracle poetry, letter, speech, contemplation, narrative story).  I then begin practicing reading it out loud and I spend a lot of time trying to get it right. That is my preparation.

Unbeknownst to me, since becoming my parish's lector coordinator, I seem to be gravitating toward formation and how it might change me to concentrate more on my place as a lector in my parish. I am pushing myself harder, trying to be better than I can be. But I wonder if I am not making myself change?

For a few months back in 2005, I stopped being a lector for a few months.  In "formation speak," I guess, you'd call that taking a sabbatical. I did this because I was finding that when another lector read, I was concentrating on how they read and critiquing them instead of paying attention to the Word of God being proclaimed.  I came away from that experience wanting to read again, but to do so for the glory of God, not for the glory of Russell.

It is hard not to critique people. I think that it is human nature, especially in this one - me!  But preparation for one reading is not the same as formation toward becoming a better reader overall.  Now that I am concentrating on more than me, concentrating on the congregation that I am reading to and making sure that I convey to them what God wants me to convey, I feel a little better about myself as a lector.  I am not there for me, I am there for them. That makes me feel good, a rare thing indeed.

So I guess that preparation that leads to formation of the lector is a good thing, as long as it has a positive response in the lector's soul, in the way they act and react to their ministry.

Now I just worry that there is nothing else beyond this.

Shepherds

I've participated in two Tuesday night Sunday readings Bible study sessions and have gotten a lot out of them. Coupled with the Sunday homily by our pastor (a Scripture scholar himself and former dean of a seminary), I have gotten so much more out of the Sunday readings than ever before.  But tonight I got even more than I ever expected.

In our Tuesday group, which I facilitated this past week (way to make the new guy run it!), we talked about a lot of stuff, but somehow didn't spend much time on the shepherds and shepherding found in the readings. But our homily at tonight's vigil Mass was about shepherding and how we all need to recognize when we are the shepherds and do our best to be good ones.

Tonight was also, incidentally, the first time reading for both of our lectors.  We had two new lectors and three brand new altar servers.  All did wonderful jobs, too!  But I got to the thinking: I trained both of these lectors and I'm in charge of scheduling our lectors, finding solutions to small problems that have already arisen (is it because of me and my newness?), and generally being a resource for the lectors I work with.  Then it dawned on me and hit me like a rock right between the eyes:  DAMN, I'M NOW A SHEPHERD MYSELF, A SHEPHERD OF THESE LECTORS!!!  It was like the kick in the ass that God gives me every once in a while because I enter a Jonah phase and tell God "No, I don't want to do it.  It will hurt." 

Now I recognize that I am in need of a lot of prayer, even more than I do now.  I need to focus this new part of my prayer on me, something that is very hard for me to do.  I need to ask God to grant me the graces I need to use the skills and talents he has loaned me for the greater good of the lectors in my parish, to prepare me for what is to come in the future in this position, and to give the lectors patience (they will need it, I'm sure).

I have not been blessed with a wife and children, I own no pets of any kind, and I am not leading any other groups right now besides being the lector coordinator at my parish.  Now I see I am also the one they look to because both lectors thanked me repeatedly after Mass and both made the comment that they didn't want to embarrass me.  Of course, I told them they could never embarrass me, but it struck me as humbling that they thought that that was even something they needed to worry about.  Another kick from God?  Maybe. Probably. But also a grace, of sorts, one that I need to reflect on more as I go even further into this position.  How can I be a better lector coordinator, helping these lectors?  What do they need that I can provide or get for them from another source?  How do I even go about doing that?

Studying This Sunday's Readings

First, I recognize that not everyone has the free time I do to concentrate on the lector ministry. I am not married, have no children, no pets, and work from home.  I can sleep or eat anytime I choose and am not fixed on a set schedule. 

That being said, I still believe it is not only imperative, but necessary for every lector to do weekly or daily reading of the Bible, in particular the upcoming Sunday's readings, and also to spend some time each day in prayer.  Both prayer and study (akin, sort of, to St. Benedict's ora et labora) are necessary to become a better lector, I believe.

I put out a call to the lectors at my parish to join me one hour per week in studying the upcoming Sunday readings and got a small number, about six, replying that they would like to do so.  Thankfully, one of our deacons has such a group that meets for an hour once a week.  I am joining that group and will report here and via email to the lectors about my experiences at the group.  Perhaps I can get more to join?

I know it is hard with work and family and life, in general, keeping us from spending time with God in prayer and Scripture study.  But it is necessary for every Catholic.  It is also doubly necessary for every lector.  After one is a lector for five or ten or twenty years, one feels that they "know it all" in regard to being a lector. I think that is why we see few lectors go to any training and enrichment opportunities.

But such prayer and study are important and I am going to continue to encourage lectors at my parish to do so, individually and together.