Readers' Ministry

At Mass "when the Word of God is spoken, it is Christ himself who speaks" (Second Vatican Council) and God's people are nourished at the table of the Word and at the table of the Eurcharist. Readers at Mass are called to proclaim the Word of God in the assembled community of God's people and so to share in the church's mission to preach the Good News to all peoples. This is an enormous privilege but also a big responsibility.

As readers, we cannot proclaim what we do not understand or believe ourselves and so we have to work at our understanding of scripture and our faith in the Word of God. This means praying, reading scripture and preparing the readings very carefully.

Readers at St. Mary's come together about three times a year at evening meetings, to pray together, to received some input to help us grow in our ministry, to share ideas and problems and generally to support each other.

From time to time we practise in church with the microphone. New readers get a chance to do this and to get advice on pace of delivery and audibility.

The dioces has a day of recollection each year for readers and Eucharistic ministers.

St. Mary's has a rota for readers for Sunday Masses (you can see it in the church porch). We think the more variety there is at Mass the more everyone can gain from it, so we try to have two readers at each Mass.

Each one of us has special gifts to use in the service of God and of each other. If you could use your gifts to minister to our parish community as a reader, or in any other way, please give your name and contact details to the parish office.