MINISTRY OF THE LECTOR, THE Caroline M. Thomas Paper, $6.95 64 pages, 5½" × 8½" ISBN 0-89390-689-1 View Table of Contents View Excerpt View Bulk Pricing Quantity:

How do we bring the word of God to life for our assembly at Mass? What makes the readings speak to each one personally? How does lectoring become proclaiming/storytelling? This book tells how to do just that, giving suggestions on how to prepare and describing actual techniques. Examples of the various techniques are presented. The book establishes the ministry of lector in relationship to the assembly and develops the concept of proclaiming as a faith witness. Although the title references the ministry of lector, the principles and techniques will be helpful to deacons, presiders, catechists, and all who proclaim God's word.

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Caroline Thomas has been involved in liturgy planning since the early 1970's, leading to an MA degree from the University of Santa Clara in 1992. She has worked in parishes as the director of liturgy for over 14 years, and continues to be passionate about the potential of the liturgy to transform its participants.

Table of Contents

Preface
Importance of the Sunday Assembly
Variety of Ministerial Roles
Items Lectors Use
The Structure of the Liturgy and the Lector's Role
Preparation
Specific Techniques
   Practice Techniques
   Emphasis
   Tempo
   Eye Contact
   Conviction
   Energy
   Inflection
   Movement
   Silence
   Focus
   After Mass
Checklist
Lector's Prayer
Continued Growth in Ministry
Endnotes

 Preface

So you have been asked, or have otherwise agreed, to be a lector. Or maybe you've been ministering as a lector for some time already and can use a fresh approach. What does that mean? Where do you start?

This book will help you understand your role within the liturgy and within the assembly of God's people. It will also give you suggestions on how to make your ministry more meaningful, for yourself and for the assembly. The goal is to make God's word come alive with meaning for God's people, to make it alive and transformative for them and for you. Edward Foley, Capuchin, is a professor of liturgy and music and the founding director of the ecumenical doctor of ministry program at the Catholic Theological Union, Chicago, Illinois. In his recording "The Eucharist as Mystagogy: Volume V" he equates the importance of the Liturgy of the Word with that of the Liturgy of Eucharist:

  For just as later we will
   raise the elements,
   hymn the elements,
   and share the elements in sacramental Communion,
  so in this moment do we raise the word,
   hymn the word,
   and share the word as auditory communion
   with the one Christ who-
    at least in Johannine cosmology-
   was the Word long before he was rendered in the flesh.1