In a parish ministry of thirty-some lectors, I observed a typical bell curve pattern where a very few at the beginning were great proclaimers, another few at the far end were terrible, and all the others fell somewhere in between.

Then one day, a new lector joined the parish, but in the beginning was only permitted to read at the daily morning Mass until the pastor got a good enough look at her to decide if she was suitable for a full house on Sunday.

But one daily Mass was all that was needed when the pastor and small assembly of daily Mass goers couldn't take their eyes away from this "newbie" until she ended with "The Word of the Lord."

Little was said to the lector at the time. No wows or congrats. But at a reconciliation Mass a few weeks later with several priests from the diocese participating, our new reader was given the spotlight and captured the attention and hearts of everyone in the assembly.

Slowly, during the upcoming months, her passion, skills and spirituality all began to rub off on many of the other lectors. She simply raised the bar for all of them by humbly being who she was; a completely committed servant of God's word.

So whoever the good apples are in your church's lector ministry, encourage your pastor and parish leaders to be grateful for them and give them every opportunity to share their passion for this ministry with everyone.

In the same way we tend to play better bridge, tennis or golf when surrounded by better players than ourselves, we can also proclaim God's word better when exposed to better lectors than ourselves.