Lectors

Lectors help proclaim the Good News of the Lord. As they share the Word of God, they cooperate with the Holy Spirit, to bring comfort, healing, love, faith and especially hope to the hearts of God's people.

Let us all proclaim the Word of God with joy!

*-*-*-*-*

Minister Of The Word

Those who proclaim God's word in the liturgy are ministers. When you answer the call to be a minister of the word, you enter a deeper relationship with God revealed in sacred scripture. You take upon yourself the awesome duty and privilege of bringing the printed word to life, making it flesh.

Your proclamation enables God's word to achieve the purpose for which it was sent. As a Christian you believe that God's word find their fullest expression in that one perfect Word, Jesus, the Word made flesh...

The word of God is a living and dynamic presence, achieving the salvation it describes, even as the reader proclaims it. The church's own teaching expresses this view: "[Christ] is present in his word, since it is He himself who speaks when the holy scriptures are read in church"; and, again, "[In] the liturgy God is speaking to his people and Christ is still proclaiming his gospel" (Second Vatican Council, Constitution on the Liturgy, 7, 33).

The reader proclaims God's word to the assembled faith community. It's that simple and that sublime. Simplicity does not, however, refer to the reader's task, for the task itself is quite challenging. Not everyone is equal to it...

But there is an element of the sublime in the work of the reader as well. To be chosen to proclaim God's word to one's fellow believers is to participate in the mystery and struggle of their individual journeys of faith. There can be no more sublime ministry than that. And there can be no more humbling responsibility, for the quality of the reader's proclamation determines whether his or her service will help or hinder the hearers.

The mere wish or willingness to serve as reader does not qualify one for the ministry. This statement sounds harsh. No one wants to discourage a volunteer. But the fact remains that the ministry of reader is a charisma for the building up of the community.

It requires certain native abilities that some do not have, such as an adequate vocal instrument, self-possession and confidence, maturity, poise, and sensitivity to diversity in one's audience. Like all ministries in the church, liturgical proclamation of the word is an awesome responsibility to which one is called and into which one is formed...

Excerpts taken from the introduction of "Workbook for lectors and gospel readers" by Aelred R. Rosser.