...except the one person who may be desperate to hear, or benefit greatly from what your assigned reading TODAY has to say.

One morning, I attended daily mass with only one other person in the chapel. When the priest motioned me to read, I suddenly found myself proclaiming God's Word to that one person with the same feeling of responsibility as if I were reading to a full house on Sunday.

Who knows. Maybe that one young man that morning heard exactly what he needed to start his day off right, clear his mind over a problem, give him the courage he needed to face an upcoming challenge, or whatever. We just never know how important our proclamation will be for someone, and we can't afford to take the chance by being ill prepared.
 

I once read regularly for several years to 20 or 30 people at daily mass, and always felt a special commitment to them because daily mass-goers are generally hungry to hear God's Word. And dare I look at this small group any lesser than a full house on Sunday. God please forgive me if I do!

We can never afford to let our degree of preparation be influenced by how many people we think will be attending Mass . . . be it 10, 100 or 1,000