Church Fathers had opened for us a way to live with Christ all the time. Planned for us daily reading with different themes. The Annual Sundays speak about the love of God the Father and the grace of the only begotten Son, our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ, and the communion and the gift of the Holy Spirit be with you all. For The Special season like Great Lent we have the themes of Repentance and Baptism , Pascha: the Passover week with its orderly events, and Holy 50, celebrating the Risen Christ.
To read well you have to read well, the first read is when you are asked to read in the Church, the second “read” is at home. So in order to read well in the Church, you have to read well at home, to have daily encounter with Word of God. When you read you read on behalf of St. Paul ( Pauline), or St. John, St. James, St. Peter, St. Jude (Catholic Epistles), or St. Luke ( Book of Acts), or St. Matthew, St. Mark, St. Luke and St. John ( Gospels) to deliver God’s message to you.
When you read at home, try to read slowly, understanding the meaning, make appropriate signs, end of sentence, question mark, exclamation mark, the more you read, the better you will learn by heart the verses, especially that it is being repeated many times during the year.
You should not speak to yourself, it is you who deliver God’s Words to His Body; The Church. Speak out clearly, pronounce the words correctly, you do not want the audience to hear another message than what God wanted them to hear. Sometimes you need to change the tone of your voice when there is a question, or exclamation mark. You need to show the end of the verse.
In our Church the readings used to be prayed in long hymns: Coptic Pauline, Coptic Catholic Epistle, Coptic Acts, Coptic Psalm, Coptic Gospel, what is left till now only few verses of each. The aim was to leave opportunity for the people to think and digest the words. Do not read quickly, pray before the reading that you might deliver the message as it is.
When you read, if you are trained to learn some verses by heart, you will be able to look to the people’ eyes.
One of a good exercise is to record yourself by video and then watch, would you understand the message you wanted to deliver?
If you read the daily reading in your home, you will be improving greatly.
By Father Bishoy Lamie