Reading in St John’s
Please note that the following are not suggestions or guidelines but instructions and ideals
Preparation for Reading
- Read the passage privately in various translations, not just the one you will use in public
- Choose key words and phrases to help you grasp the main ideas
- You might pencil mark the passage on a photocopy for practice: underline words to be stressed, and put a stroke / for pauses
- Practice reading aloud until you can read confidently and with expression.
- Check the book before Mass that it is open at the right page and that the print layout is not going to catch you out.
Approaching the Ambo, Announcing and Ending the Reading
- Approach the front of the church efficiently and reverently
- Please bow to the altar
- There is no need to say ‘First Reading’ or ‘Second Reading’
- Please do not read the ‘blurb’ at the top
- Announce the reading while looking at the congregation
- Pause for a moment at the end before saying clearly and with the same level as you read, “The Word of the Lord”
- ‘Bring in’ the congregation for the psalm response and help them out for the long and difficult ones
- Leave as you came. Please do not ‘reverence’ the book – this is reserved for the Gospel
Reading with Expression
- Put emotion into your voice by feeling what you read
- Put stress on the right words
- Pause in the right places
- Use changes of volume, pitch, and pace
- Stand naturally erect, not stiff, and not stooped.
- Use appropriate gestures and body language
- Use eye contact.
- Let your mind read ahead of your lips (this takes a little practise). While your lips catch up, look at congregation
- Place or hold the lectionary so that you can keep you head up. A head jerking up and down is very disconcerting, It may also affect the sound from a microphone, alternating loud blasts with muffled voice.