Moses telling the Israelites that he’s passing the baton, so to speak. God will give them a new prophet, so they don’t get scared by direct contact with God. Phew! Be strong at the end!Coming Soon!
SECOND READING
Paul to Corinthians – again, thinking the end is very near, generalizing. Lisa has suggestions about how you might proclaim this message so that it comes across as “everyone should focus on the Lord first!”
Adapt these tips to your own style and the preferences of your parish priest or presider.
General Notes
As a lector, it is an important responsibility to effectively convey the Word of God to the congregation during the Mass. Although tips on what words and phrases to emphasize and when to pause can be helpful, your delivery should ultimately depend on your own prayerful interpretation of the passage. From the series of tips given each week on this page, reader should choose which verses and words they want to emphasize. It’s important to find a balance that helps communicate the message effectively.
1. Familiarize yourself with the text
Read and study the Scripture passage several times before the Mass. Understand the context, the message it conveys, and the emotions it evokes.
2. Practice pronunciation and enunciation
Ensure that you know how to properly pronounce the words and names mentioned in the passage. Practice enunciating clearly and maintaining a steady pace throughout.
3. Use appropriate intonation and emphasis
Experiment with different ways to emphasize certain words or phrases that carry significant meaning. This can help in conveying the depth and impact of the message to the congregation.
4. Maintain a calm and confident demeanor
Approach the ambo with a serene presence and a sense of confidence. Maintain good posture, make eye contact with the congregation, and avoid rushing through the reading.
5. Speak slowly and clearly
Take your time while reading, ensuring that the words are clearly audible to everyone present. However, avoid artificially elongating words or sentences, as it may sound unnatural.
6. Pause when necessary
Pause at appropriate intervals, particularly at natural breaks in the text, such as commas or full stops. Pausing can help listeners absorb the message and reflect on its meaning.
7. Use nonverbal cues
Employ body language and gestures to effectively convey the emotions and ideas expressed in the passage. However, be mindful that gestures do not distract from the message or become exaggerated.
8. Maintain a respectful tone
Be mindful of the emotions conveyed in the words and try to transmit them genuinely to the congregation.
9. Breathe and relax
Take a deep breath before beginning the reading to calm any nerves or anxiety. Remember, you are called to facilitate a meaningful encounter with the Word of God, and the Holy Spirit will guide you.
10. Pray before and after your reading
Seek God’s guidance and ask for His grace to effectively convey His message to the congregation. Offer a prayer of thanksgiving after the reading, asking for a blessing on the listeners and yourself.
By following these practical tips, you will be better equipped to deliver a clear, engaging, and spiritually uplifting reading during Mass.
Ask your presider to tell your listeners (or tell them yourself):
Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B, January 28, 2024
Before the first reading:
Ancient people believed a face-to-face encounter with God would be overpowering, even deadly. So they welcomed the idea that a prophet, a single human being, could bear the brunt of that encounter for them. They did not always welcome what the prophet had to report from God.
After the psalm, before the second reading:
Saint Paul continues his teachings about how to be prepared for the imminent return of Jesus in glory. That coming should make people put their priorities in order.
Before the gospel acclamation:
This gospel recalls a time when people questioned Jesus’ authority and right to teach, because of his modest origins.
First Reading, Deuteronomy 18:15-20
The Liturgical Setting: The gospel today depicts Jesus speaking with authority that commands the respect of the people (and, incidentally, of the evil spirits). By juxtaposing these readings, the editors of the Lectionary suggest that Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise God makes through Moses in the first reading.
The Historical and Literary Background: If necessary, let the reader suspend for a moment the sunny assumption that all the Israelites were always devout monotheists. Their literature shows that, while they should have been so, for a long time many were not. Their background and environment urged them to be simply syncretists, that is, people who graft new religious ideas onto existing ones, untroubled by the contradictions. Syncretism let them try to cover all bets in the world of unknown spirits, unforeseeable threats and uncounted possibilities. The god we know as the One God, sometimes called Yahweh in the ancient literature, frankly had to compete for their loyalty over many generations.
In her book A History of God — The 4000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993, and London: William Heinemann, Ltd.), Karen Armstrong says the book of Deuteronomy comes from a period when some of Judaism’s leaders were emphasizing two complementary ideas: the oneness of God and that God’s election of this tribe as his Chosen People. I suspect the latter was to make the former more palatable, for Armstrong says of the struggle to become monotheistic: “The God of the prophets was forcing Israelites to sever themselves from the mythical consciousness of the Middle East and go in quite a different direction from the mainstream. In the agony of Jeremiah, we can see what an immense wrench and dislocation this involved. Israel was a tiny enclave of Yahwism surrounded by a pagan world, and Yahweh was also rejected by many of the Israelites themselves. Even the Deuteronomist, whose image of God was less threatening, saw a meeting with Yahweh as an abrasive confrontation: he makes Moses explain to the Israelites, who are appalled by the prospect of unmediated contact with Yahweh, that God will send them a prophet in each generation to bear the brunt of the divine impact.” (p. 56)
Proclaiming It: So in the text at hand:
Don’t let the promise of a prophet sound like a routine thing, but the answer to a perennial serious problem. Make sure your listeners know that it’s a prophet that Moses is promising.
Describe clearly the problem to be solved, that this demanding God was unlike the comfortable, manipulable gods of Israel’s neighbors, “Let us not again hear the voice of the LORD, our God, nor see this great fire any more, lest we die.”
Make the Lord sound kind and concerned in the next sentence, “And the Lord said to me, ‘This was well said. …'”
Even so, one can still die at the hands of this awesome God, either for disregarding the prophet, or for being a false prophet. Pause before “Whoever will not listen,” and assume a more stern tone of voice.
Second Reading, 1 Corinthians 7:32-35
The Historical Background: This letter comes from a time when Christians believed that Jesus was about to return in glory, bringing history to its climax. (Many other factors influenced the letter, as we saw last week, but it’s the expectation of Jesus’ return that governs today’s passage.) Paul here urges the presently unmarried to stay that way, for the little time that they all have left, and remain focused on the Lord’s coming.
Proclaiming It: Since the Apostle is contrasting states of life and their respective anxieties, use contrasting tones of voice as you move from clause to clause and sentence to sentence. Your listeners should hear the difference between the married and unmarried, between concern for the world and concern for the Lord.
