I went to a youth Mass tonight. Both lectors were teenagers. Both did a good job at reading. The young lady was dressed to the nines, looking very professional. The young man was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt that was hanging out of his waistband.
Over the past few weeks, as free time lets me, I have been looking at regulations and rules for lectors from Catholic parishes all over the country. I've perused their training manuals and websites looking for commonalities and some spark that will get my butt in gear to begin to develop a training program that will truly help train lectors in the technical aspects of our ministry. One thing that keeps popping up is dress codes. I really wasn't sure why until tonight.
One person in the know told me after Mass that the lectors for that Mass are told to not wear t-shirts, to look good when they are reading. After all, they do represent the congregation and need to present themselves as professionals fulfilling a ministry. How would we react if a priest showed up to say Mass in shorts and a t-shirt? How would we feel if a priest wore white athletic shoes and jeans to perform a baptism. Clothing is important and somehow America's Catholic parish are having a hard time getting many lectors to not only believe this, but live it.
In the last parish where I was the lector trainer, the pastor had a hard rule - no jeans, no shorts, no t-shirts, no tank tops, no flip flop sandals, no athletic shoes, PERIOD!!! If a lector showed up and checked in wearing one or more of these, then he or she was asked to not read that day and told why, by whichever priest or deacon was at that Mass. Extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion and ushers were given the same rules and had to adhere to them. The only exception I ever saw was a pregnant lector who told the pastor that she had to wear flip flops because she couldn't see her feet to put on her shoes. That rang true with the pastor, as it should have, and he told her it was not a problem in her case.
I know a lector who told me that her only summer shoes are flip flop sandals. I didn't know how to reply to that and I still don't. Hmmmmmm.
If you go to a job interview in a t-shirt and jeans, then you won't get that job. If you go to a funeral in the same attire, everyone present will give you dirty looks and someone will inevitably tell you what the problem is. If I went to an interview with God, I'd sure dress up, wouldn't you? That is exactly what is happening each time we serve at Mass, as lectors or in another capacity. So why do some lectors dress so abominably?
I am not sure what the answer is to the age old dilemma of how to get lectors to dress nicely when reading. But I know that something has to be done somewhere. Maybe the U.S. bishops need to insert something appropriate in a future liturgical document? Maybe my diocese needs to?
Part of our parish's training for new lectors includes dress standards. I still have my copy and it starts "As lectors, the way we dress says a great deal about what we hold to be important." And that's the key, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteThe dress code concludes with "A communications model used by Stanford University states that when asked about a presenter, '55 percent of people recall visual things like clothing, posture and grooming, while just 7 percent recall what was said.'"
Our lectors take this fairly seriously. I was once asked to sub for a lector who had forgotten he was scheduled that Mass and hadn't come dressed to proclaim. I think dress code is important and should be part of any lector (or any other ministry) training.