How lectors prepare for Sunday

Since I heartily encourage readers here to prepare for Sunday Mass by reviewing the scriptures to be proclaimed, one of the lectors in my parish suggested I share with you the Tips For Lectors which I write each week for those who will proclaim the scriptures in our parish. In addition to these Tips, each lector has in hand the Workbook for Lectors and Gospel Readers which offers other helps to the lector preparing to understand and proclaim God's Word.

By way of example, here is this Sunday's first and second lessons: the bold text is the scripture and the words in italic are my tips for proclaiming the text:

A reading from the second book of Maccabees (7:1-2, 9-14)
Slight pause

Your entire task here is to tell a story – keep that in mind as you prepare and as you proclaim this text. These first three lines set the scene and contain information critical for understanding the story. Read as though your listeners have never heard this text before, making sure that you help them understand what’s happening.

It happened that seven brothers with their mother
were arrested and tortured
with whips and scourges by the king,
to force them to eat pork in violation of God's law.
Slight pause...

This brother announces that they are ready to die rather than eat pork! Don’t let your delivery fail to communicate the faithfulness of these folks!

One of the brothers, speaking for the others, said:
"What do you expect to achieve by questioning us?
We are ready to die
rather than transgress the laws of our ancestors."

As you can see, the text skips here from verse 2 to verse 9. See the missing portion, below, and you will understand that the graphic description of the torture was deemed too strong for general consumption at Sunday Mass. This omission, however, makes your task as a lector more difficult. I will place an alternate text in the lectionary which adds a phrase and a word to help your listeners understand how the story has moved.

Text as given
At the point of death he said:
"You accursed fiend, you are depriving us of this present life,
but the King of the world will raise us up to live again forever.
It is for his laws that we are dying."

Alternate text
After one of the brothers had been tortured and killed,
a second brother was tortured
and, at the point of death, said:
Proclaim the following with strength and conviction
"You accursed fiend, you are depriving us of this present life,
but the King of the world will raise us up to live again forever.
It is for his laws that we are dying."
Slight pause

After him the third suffered their cruel sport.
Unfortunately, your audience will not immediately understand the significance of this brother extending his tongue and his hands since your listeners have not heard of the mutilation the first two underwent.
He put out his tongue at once when told to do so,
and bravely held out his hands,
as he spoke these noble words:
A nice triplet follows here:
"These I have received; these I disdain; these I will receive again…"
"It was from Heaven that I received these;
for the sake of his laws I disdain them;
from him I hope to receive them again."
Slight pause

Even the king and his attendants
marveled at the young man's courage,
because he regarded his sufferings as nothing.

After he had died,
they tortured and maltreated the fourth brother
in the same way.
When he was near death, he said,
"It is my choice to die at the hands of men
with the hope God gives of being raised up by him;
but for you, there will be no resurrection to life."

Pause, look up and say,
The Word of the Lord.

Missing Verses in First Reading

3
At that the king, in a fury, gave orders to have pans and caldrons heated.
4
While they were being quickly heated, he commanded his executioners to cut out the tongue of the one who had spoken for the others, to scalp him and cut off his hands and feet, while the rest of his brothers and his mother looked on.
5
When he was completely maimed but still breathing, the king ordered them to carry him to the fire and fry him. As a cloud of smoke spread from the pan, the brothers and their mother encouraged one another to die bravely, saying such words as these:
6
"The Lord God is looking on, and he truly has compassion on us, as Moses declared in his canticle, when he protested openly with the words, 'And he will have pity on his servants.'"
7
When the first brother had died in this manner, they brought the second to be made sport of. After tearing off the skin and hair of his head, they asked him, "Will you eat the pork rather than have your body tortured limb by limb?"
8
Answering in the language of his forefathers, he said, "Never!" So he too in turn suffered the same tortures as the first.

A reading from the second letter of Paul to the Thessalonians
Slight pause
Brothers and sisters:
Slight pause

The next verse has three elements, in different colors here, to suggest how the words need to be grouped for better understanding
May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father,
who has loved us and given us everlasting encouragement
and good hope through his grace,
encourage your hearts and strengthen them
in every good deed and word.

This letter of Paul is only three short chapters and the passage you are proclaiming is the beginning of its conclusion: thus, the parting exhortation above and the portion below beginning, “Finally…” Paul is earnestly asking for prayer, here – be earnest in your proclamation of those three words, “pray for us…” And if you pay attention to the commas in this long verse they will serve you and your listeners well!
Finally, brothers and sisters, pray for us,
so that the word of the Lord may speed forward
and be glorified,
as it did among you,
and that we may be delivered
from perverse and wicked people,
In the next line those who are without faith are the perverse and wicked people in the previous line
for not all have faith.
But the Lord is faithful;
he will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one.
In the following verse the word “you” occurs three times. Be sure you understand how the word functions in each instance so that your proclamation will be clear for those who hear you.
We are confident of you in the Lord that what we instruct you,
you are doing and will continue to do.
Slight pause
May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God
and to the endurance of Christ.

Pause, look up and say,
The Word of the Lord.