Institution as a Lector

Mass Starts at 4:40pm CT on October 21st 2026  (or Oct 22nd, 3:10 AM IST)

To watch the livestream of the Mass, please visit:  

https://usml.edu/mundelein-seminary/mass-of-the-installation-of-lectors/ 

or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-J1x5cmCLc



"Hear the word of the Lord, O nations, and declare it in the coastlands far away" (Jeremiah 31:10)

On October 21, 2026, the Church will institute me into the ministry of Lector. 

I have been trying to find the right words for what that means to me, and I keep coming back to the image of standing at the ambo with the Scriptures in my hands.  

For anyone wondering what a lector is, it is a ministry of the Word. A lector proclaims the sacred scriptures at Mass, apart from the Gospel, which is reserved for the deacon or priest. 

For centuries it was one of the minor orders on the road to priesthood, and after the Second Vatican Council Pope Saint Paul VI, with his Ministeria Quaedam,  reshaped it into the instituted ministry we have today. 

In the rite, the bishop places the book of the Scriptures in the hands of the one being instituted and asks him to proclaim the Word of God faithfully.  When I think about receiving that book, what moves me most is how much of it I have yet to understand, and how much of it my human frailty might never grasp. The words I will proclaim were spoken to people long before me, and they will be spoken to people long after me. Every time I open the Scriptures I find something I missed, or something that finds me when I am not looking for it. I want to be a man who reads slowly, listens well, and lets the Word change him before he ever speaks it aloud to others.  

Under each step on this road to priesthood lies an invite to grow intimate with my blessed Lord. At Candidacy, last year, I publicly declared to the Church my commitment in answering God’s call. At the Installation as an Acolyte, earlier this year, I was brought close to the altar and the Eucharist, and I felt how much care the Church takes with what she holds sacred. Now I am being asked to hold the Word with that same care. 

Each step has made me more aware of how God through many people have carried me this far, and how little of it I could have done alone.  I would be grateful for your prayers. Pray that I grow in my love for the Scriptures more and more, that I yearn and learn to hear God’s voice in them, and that I stay faithful to the Word entrusted to me. 

+Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam+

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