Lectors have the responsibility of proclaiming the Word of God during Mass and other liturgical services.

As readers and bearers of God’s word, you will assist in this mission, and so take on a special office within the Christian community; you will be given a responsibility in the service of the faith, which is rooted in the word of God. You will proclaim that word in the liturgical assembly . . . Thus with your help men and women will come to know God our Father and his Son Jesus Christ, whom he sent, and so be able to reach eternal life.

Rite of Institution to the Ministry of Lector

The work of the lector involves reading the biblical texts during the Liturgy of the Word. To be an effective lector calls for adequate preparation that includes study, prayer, and practice. A lector is given the task of approaching with reverence that complex body of sacred literature we call the Scriptures, once described by no less a light than St. Augustine as “of mountainous difficulty and enveloped in mysteries.”