Lectoring

This morning, I was given the opportunity to lector at my new parish. Now I’m officially in the rotation and I’ll get the chance every few weeks or so.

I love proclaiming the Word. It makes me feel so connected to my parish and enhances my Mass experience.

After being sick all week, I wasn’t sure if I’d be up for it. I even skipped ushering at a show last night to be sure I could rest up and not sound like a snotty mess up there at the lectern.

But when I woke up this morning, I was sounding a bit better and I figured I could suck it up and make it work. This was my first official time lectoring at the parish after all [the Easter Vigil doesn’t really count, because it was, um, special and I didn’t have to process in or anything].

When Husband and I got to church, he went in to the pews and I headed to the Sacristy to check in and make sure I knew what in the world I was supposed to do. I’m a trained lector, but every parish has their own quirks and special procedures. It was especially good to check in today because it turned out that there were no deacons – which made for some rearrangement of certain things.

I hadn’t actually introduced myself to the pastor yet. Yes, he had heard me proclaim at Easter Vigil, but so much was going on that night, I would be surprised if he remembered me. So I approached him and told him who I was and that I was the lector assigned to the first reading.

He stopped for a moment, looked at me, and then asked if I had attended SLU and lectored at College Church. I smiled and said, yes, that was me. He said he had heard so much about me and how wonderful I was at proclaiming the Word! Wow. He was so happy that I had joined the parish and was able to lector for them.

So yeah, there was totally no pressure for me to be awesome today, now was there?

In any case, the reading went well. :)

A few people approached me after Mass to say how much they enjoyed my reading. It’s always nice to hear those things!

But even better? The woman who approached me in the parking lot who said that her six-year-old actually perked up and paid attention through the whole reading. She even told her mom “I really like that lady’s voice!” while I was reading.

And isn’t that the whole point of lectoring? Making the parish really understand the words and hear the story that is meant to be told aloud?

That’s my goal at least – and I think I achieved that today.