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Showing posts with label Lector Fundamentals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lector Fundamentals. Show all posts
Friday, March 20, 2015
Monday, July 22, 2013
Selecting a Lector
This Saturday at the GK Workshop I'll be talking to GKs & DGKs about who in a council might make a good lector. At the end of my presentations I'll ask the attendees to visit this post when they get home. So if you current Lectors have anything to add, please put it in a comment. If you comment before Friday July 26 I may work it into my Saturday pitch.
I'll be including the following:
To start, what is a Lector? Here's good general definition of the Lector's job:
"The lector provides both educational and entertaining programs to the council. He is responsible for the ‘Good of the Order’ portion of council meetings. In order to provide members with informative and educational programs, he must be knowledgeable and aware of all council programming."
I agree with this job description; but for South Carolina Lectors I would rephrase it to:
"The lector provides both educational and entertaining programs to the council. He is responsible for the ‘Good of the Order’ portion of council meetings. His goal is to prepare his Brother Knights for the New Evangelization. That is, to help them know Catholicism well-enough to explain it to non-Catholics."
A good potential lector would likely have some of these characteristics:
-is orthodox.
-is actively interested in Catholicism, does more than go to Mass on Sunday.
-goes to Confession.
-prays regularly.
-is a convert.
-is a deacon.
-reads regularly to deepen his faith.
-is evangelistic, likes to talk about God.
-is a catechist or helps with RCIA or Adult Ed, Bible study, etc.
-reads the Bible.
-speaks well to an audience.
-is self-motivating.
I would say giving one lecture a month is fine. If a council wants two a month it might consider having two brothers be co-lectors. If I were starting from scratch I might find two-a-month to be burdensome. If the Lector has trouble generating topics, he might take requests from the council members, or borrow from the talks already posted here at the blog.
I'll be including the following:
To start, what is a Lector? Here's good general definition of the Lector's job:
"The lector provides both educational and entertaining programs to the council. He is responsible for the ‘Good of the Order’ portion of council meetings. In order to provide members with informative and educational programs, he must be knowledgeable and aware of all council programming."
I agree with this job description; but for South Carolina Lectors I would rephrase it to:
"The lector provides both educational and entertaining programs to the council. He is responsible for the ‘Good of the Order’ portion of council meetings. His goal is to prepare his Brother Knights for the New Evangelization. That is, to help them know Catholicism well-enough to explain it to non-Catholics."
A good potential lector would likely have some of these characteristics:
-is orthodox.
-is actively interested in Catholicism, does more than go to Mass on Sunday.
-goes to Confession.
-prays regularly.
-is a convert.
-is a deacon.
-reads regularly to deepen his faith.
-is evangelistic, likes to talk about God.
-is a catechist or helps with RCIA or Adult Ed, Bible study, etc.
-reads the Bible.
-speaks well to an audience.
-is self-motivating.
I would say giving one lecture a month is fine. If a council wants two a month it might consider having two brothers be co-lectors. If I were starting from scratch I might find two-a-month to be burdensome. If the Lector has trouble generating topics, he might take requests from the council members, or borrow from the talks already posted here at the blog.
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Lector Bible
In South Carolina at least, Catholics must know their faith Biblically to be best equipped to be New Evangelizers: you know, talkin' 'bout ya faith ta people dat ain't Cat'lic. So that means you, Mr. Palmetto Lector, should have a Bible. I mean you should have one you will read. And mark up. And highlight. And make your own.
When I first started reading the Bible regularly, I used a plain hardbound copy of the NAB. But because it was hardbound, I wouldn't mark it up. I kept telling myself to get over it: it was my book, I could mark it up however I liked. I finally forced myself: I highlighted something. I felt like a vandal.
So I bought a cheap paperback version of the same Bible. Highlighted something...that seems ok. Highlighted something else...uh-huh. Added some margin notes...I feel good! This works!
Over the next few years I colored and tagged that cheapie like a graffiti artist. But eventually that Bible became so globbed with stickytabs, highlights, underlines, paperclips and margin notes that it was unmanageable for speaking from. As Frederick the Great said, "Wer alles verteidigen will, verteidigt nichts/ Who would defend everything defends nothing." If everything is eventually highlighted, then nothing is highlighted. Besides, I had internalized most of what I had been marking up. So three years ago I gave that copy to my son Michael, and bought another copy, same as the old one:
Still manageable. When it's not, I'll pass it on and start again.
Catholics in general, and Lectors in particular, who want to study the Bible are rightly advised to own a Bible that they are comfortable reading. I know everyone does not love the NAB, but one thing in its favor is that the readings we hear at Mass come from the NAB. So that's what I use.
********************************
P.S. Little quiz for ya! See handwritten note Shekhinah > Cherubim > Mary>. What's that got to do with the 'Signs and Wonders of the Apostles' in Acts 5? (Click image for a bigger jpeg.)
When I first started reading the Bible regularly, I used a plain hardbound copy of the NAB. But because it was hardbound, I wouldn't mark it up. I kept telling myself to get over it: it was my book, I could mark it up however I liked. I finally forced myself: I highlighted something. I felt like a vandal.
So I bought a cheap paperback version of the same Bible. Highlighted something...that seems ok. Highlighted something else...uh-huh. Added some margin notes...I feel good! This works!
Over the next few years I colored and tagged that cheapie like a graffiti artist. But eventually that Bible became so globbed with stickytabs, highlights, underlines, paperclips and margin notes that it was unmanageable for speaking from. As Frederick the Great said, "Wer alles verteidigen will, verteidigt nichts/ Who would defend everything defends nothing." If everything is eventually highlighted, then nothing is highlighted. Besides, I had internalized most of what I had been marking up. So three years ago I gave that copy to my son Michael, and bought another copy, same as the old one:
Still manageable. When it's not, I'll pass it on and start again.
Catholics in general, and Lectors in particular, who want to study the Bible are rightly advised to own a Bible that they are comfortable reading. I know everyone does not love the NAB, but one thing in its favor is that the readings we hear at Mass come from the NAB. So that's what I use.
********************************
P.S. Little quiz for ya! See handwritten note Shekhinah > Cherubim > Mary>. What's that got to do with the 'Signs and Wonders of the Apostles' in Acts 5? (Click image for a bigger jpeg.)
Record Your Stuff!
I have a digital recorder. It's been much more useful than I had imagined. If you're a Lector you want one too, even if you don't know it yet.
In catechism class in 2010 I was using an all-new, no-textbook-in-class curriculum which I had developed during the summer. I decided to record all the classes so I could compare each lesson plan to the reality in the classroom. Within a day or so after a given class, I'd listen to the recording, and mark on the lesson plan what needed review, what I'd missed, etc. For a public speaker it's invaluable.
Oddly enough, it never occurred to me to use the thing to record FGOs until last month. What was I thinking?
Benefits for the Lector:
1. You can send me an mp3 file and I can post a link to it here. Be famous! Or anonymous! Either way is OK!
2. The recorder can do basic editing of the files. It's easy to trim irrelevant stuff from the beginning or the end if you don't turn it on and off at the right moments. You can also do all kinds of editing with free software; I use WavePad Sound Editor on my mp3s.
3. It names each new file with the date all by itself.
4. Since FGOs are so short, you can probably put a lifetime's worth of them on the recorder with no worries about running out of memory.
And the best thing about recording your FGOs:
5. To listen to yourself speak is a great way to refine your skills! Get fired up! Be your own audience! Yeah, I know you'll sound weird to yourself at first; don't worry, you'll get over it. Within a year you'll be thinking,"Wow- I sound good."
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