Excerpt from
The Ministry of Lectors
Second Edition
Collegeville Ministry Series
James A. Wallace, C.Ss.R.

To the Lectors at Holy Trinity Parish, Georgetown, Washington, D.C. in gratitude for their service to the People of God

© 2004 by the Order of Saint Benedict, Collegeville, Minnesota. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, microfilm, microfiche, mechanical recording, photocopying, translation, or by any other means, known or yet unknown, for any purpose except brief quotations in reviews, without the previous written permission of Liturgical Press, Saint John’s Abbey, P.O. Box 7500, Collegeville, Minnesota 56321-7500.

Contents
Introduction

Part One: The Lector--What's in a Name?

Part Two: God's Word is Spoken to Us

Part Three: God's Word Spoken Through Us

A Final Word

Resources

Introduction

The novelist Anna Quindlen has said that people read to know they are not alone. Reading brings us into worlds real and imaginary, introduces us to people wise and foolish, and provides us with knowledge and insight. Reading brings to us other voices with different perspectives. The American novelist Eudora Welty wrote that from the time she was a child and was introduced to the world of books, she knew that, whether her mother read to her or she was reading to herself, the voice she heard was not her voice or her mother’s but the voice of the text. This is a wonderful insight. A text has a voice—sometimes more than one—that speaks to us and, when we read to others, it speaks through us. A good book begins as the dark markings of print on a page but ends as a companion with whom we have spent hours and whose voice might well have an enduring impact on our lives. Then, too, there are those great books, or passages in a book, that we return to again and again, to savor, learn from, delight in, or lean against for comfort and consolation in times of distress and sorrow.

Such a book is the Bible. It is really a collection of books, some of which have been around for over three thousand years. It brings us stories of beginnings and visions of endings, sagas of ancestral lineage, and tales of royal families whose men and women listened for the voice of God over the call of their own desires. Within its pages are snippets of wisdom in couplet form and prophetic utterances in poetic meter, letters of instruction and advice and homilies of theological depth and emotional appeal, prayers of longing and lament, and songs of praise and exaltation.

From the pages of the Bible, selections have been made for the worship life of many Christian communities of faith and put into a book called the Lectionary. There are a number of such lectionaries at present. In the United States the two principal ones are the Lectionary for Mass used by Roman Catholics and the Revised Common Lectionary used by many churches in the Protestant tradition. Whenever these communities gather, whether on Sundays or to celebrate other special acts of worship and praise, men and women educated to the task are called upon to read the sacred texts. The name given to those who perform this work is “lector,” a word rooted in the Latin word legere, which means “to read.”

This work for lectors is divided into three parts. The first part considers three different ways of understanding the role of the lector: as a job, a ministry, and a vocation. The second section will then reflect on the mystery of the Word of God. Our God speaks to us in the Scriptures. Whether a community reads from a Bible or from a Lectionary, the Word of the Lord comes once more to dwell in our midst, to take up residence in our hears and minds, so that it might bear fruit in our lives. God continues to speak to us through human words. As in the past, God calls men and women in our own day to help bring this divine self-revelation about. The third part will then focus on how we can cooperate in bringing to fulfillment God’s decision to speak not only to but also through us. Here we get down to practical matters by looking at the two areas of spiritual preparation and speaking preparation. The former will suggest a process for opening one’s mind and heart to the word, while the latter will consider the requirements for a satisfying public reading that are located in the needs of the text, the listeners, and the liturgical setting. Three suggestions for ongoing development as a lector will conclude this section.

Both spirit and flesh are involved in the preparation to lector. The spirit of the lector is called to surrender to the Spirit of the Lord who truly gives us words to speak. It is the Holy Spirit that is at the heart of the word’s bearing fruit: “The working of the Holy Spirit is needed if the word of God is to make what we hear outwardly have its effect inwardly…. The working of the Holy Spirit precedes, accompanies, and brings to completion the whole celebration of the Liturgy” (Introduction to the Lectionary for Mass, 9). As it was from the beginning, the Holy Spirit continues to come upon those called to serve and to work through their very being. Thus, the body of the lector—which includes the entire person: mind, imagination, and feelings, as well as facial expression and muscular response—is invited to submit to the body of the text and to embody its thoughts and feelings as faithfully and fully as possible.

I am grateful to the many lectors with whom I have worked and celebrated the liturgy over the last thirty-three years, particularly the lectors who serve so well the people of Holy Trinity Parish, Georgetown, in Washington, D.C. Their love of the word of God has been an inspiration; their passionate proclamation of it has led to its being heard in ever new and fruitful ways. May the word they have sown so well in the lives of others continue to bear a rich harvest in their own. A special word of thanks to my colleagues and friends who were kind enough to read this work and offer suggestions: Margaret Costello, Judith Gilbert, Mary Johnston, Patrick Towell and, most especially, Daniel Grigassy, O.F.M.

James A. Wallace, C.Ss.R.
August 1, 2003—Feast of St. Alphonsus de Liguori