Lectors Formation Process

The Lord GOD has given me a well-trained tongue, that I might know how to speak to the weary a word that will rouse them. Morning after morning he opens my ear that I may hear; And I have not rebelled, have not turned back...The Lord GOD is my help, therefore I am not disgraced; I have set my face like flint, knowing that I shall not be put to shame.  -Is 50:4,7

This passage from the prophet Isaiah captures the essence of what it means to be a lector. The lector is the storyteller of the faith community.

But before there can be effective telling of the story, the teller must plunge into it, learn about it, know the characters and times and places. The lector comes to know these not as Bible history, but as the story that gives meaning to our lives. The special gifts and skills of the lector have to do with drawing everyone into the Scriptures so that we all become aware that we are part of the story.

For the lector, the Scriptures must live for them before they can live for anyone else. Hence, the role of a lector is not for everyone; effective proclamation is both a gift and a skill that must be developed before it can be used for the benefit of the faith community.

The ministry of Lector is about the service to the community and, as such, lectors must be persons who have a deep love of scripture and are open to ongoing formation in the Word and in the methods and techniques that ensure effective proclamation of that Word to the gathered assembly at Mass.

At Good Shepherd, we maintain an ongoing lector formation process and invite those who may feel called to this ministry to participate in regular skill-building and proclamation workshops (usually in the Spring and the Fall each year).

When you answer the call to be a minister of the Word (one who proclaims the Bible readings to the assembled faith community), you enter a deeper relationship with the word of God as revealed in Sacred Scripture. You take upon yourself the duty and privilege of bringing the printed Word to life - making it fresh, so to speak.

Your ministry as a reader gives voice to God's healing and strengthening Word as it goes forth irrevocably to the ends of the earth, achieving the purpose for which God sent it. In a very real sense, you become a prophet - one who speaks for God.  - Aelred Rosser