1. Presentation: “Let's Warm Up”
Each child was invited to stand before the class to give an introductory lesson on two vocal warm-up exercise before his/her speech. A relatively simple task to teach. However, the one who is teaching will learn that there will some in the audience who are inattentive, ignorant, occupied with some other things or just chatting away with those around. The teaching aspect of the vocal exercises are simple, but captivating the audience attention and maintaining it is the difficult part. How do you set your tone of voice to try and sustain rap attention?

2. Tone of Voice
(a) Meaning: The manner in which a verbal statement is presented. It conveys the emotions and moods of the statement.
(b) Types: Under different situations,we speak with a variety and a combination of tones of our voice when conveying a message. It brings our feelings and emotions in the words that we express in speech.
Examples: Bored / interesting, happy /sad, angry / benevolent, worried / unconcerned, hurtful / ignorant etc.

3. Discussion: Watch your Tone of Voice
Each child was asked to select a newspaper article of his/her choice and was invited to deliver the contents of the article in his/her speech bearing in mind the above topic title. Some observations were:-
(a) To persuade potential buyers in the audience to try the new Olympus underwater camera, verbally describing about the camera to your audience will contain a combination of: slightly faster pace of speech, sounds interesting, higher than usual pitch, emphasizing on certains key words like 'brand new', 'never before', 'first time invention', 'wacky idea', etc
(b) To break the news to listeners about how the rice shortage affected a typical Filippino family, the tone of voice will have a combination of: sombre mood, slower than usual pace of speech, worrying and concern tones, keys words like 'poverty', 'coping hard', 'earning only $6 a day', 'hungry mouths', 'city slums' etc.

Different tones are used to convey the emotions and moods of the message under different situations. We speak in different tones to our spouse, children, collegues, boss, strangers. With it, we also convey our feelings and emotions in our manner of speaking in the same manner we receive the underlying tones of the message when someone speaks to us.

Lectors are called to place themselves in the context of Scripture and to feel what the biblical writer is trying to convey, not just by pronouncing the words clearly, but by incorporating the emotions that comes with it. To make the congregation feel the emotions of Scripture.

A poem for your reflection. Are we conscious of our tone of voice?

It's not so much what you say,
as the manner in which you say it;
It's not so much the language you use,
as the tone in which you convey it.
"Come here", I sharply said,
And the child cowered and wept.
"Come here", I said he looked and smiled,
And straight to my lap he crept.
Words may be mild and fair,
But the tone may pierce like a dart;
Words may be soft as the summer air,
But the tone may break my heart;
For words come from the mind
Grow by study and art,
But tone leaps from the inner self,
Revealing the state of heart.
Whether you know it or not,
Whether you mean or care,
Gentleness, kindness, love and hate,
Envy, anger are there.
Then, would you quarrels avoid
and peace and love rejoice?
Keep anger not only out of your words,
Keep it out of your voice.

1. Presentation: “Join Me!"
Each child was invited to stand before the class to present his/her speech, as a lector respresentative from the ministry, to invite children to join. After each lector has presentated his/her speech, they realise that:-
(a) There is a need for preparartion. Otherwise your points and essence of the speech will go off tangent.
(b) Say what you mean and mean what you say. This gives honesty, sincerity and truthfulness in your words.
(c) If you are speaking to a class, do check with the last row at the back if they can hear you. Otherwise, only a small number of listeners will be able to hear you and an even smaller number, who is interested, is actually listening to what you are saying.

2. Pace
(a) Meaning: The speed of speech.
(b) Types: Different people speak at different paces and different paces are adopted for different settings for the message to be effectively transmitted. Can be very fast, fast, moderate, slow, extremely slow. It all depends on a variety of factors:- your audience, purpose of message, situation setting etc
(c) Pauses: For the meaning of your sentences to be understood by the audience, there are pauses needed to effect a meaningful sentence. Otherwise, all sentences will just flow in connection without stopping thus giving no meaning to the text.

3. Discussion: You are the Voice
Each child was asked to select a newspaper article of his/her choice. Each child was invited to deliver the contents of the article in his/her speech bearing in mind the above topic title. Some observations were:-
(a) Signs of nervousness where the pace of delivery becomes too fast and listeners were unable to understand what was spoken.
(b) Ask around as to how to pronounce certain words you find difficult or unsure. You may be a fool for a minute (others may laugh at you) but you are wiser for a lifetime.
(c) Where permitted, articulations using hand and body motions/gestures can give greater effect to what you are saying. However as a lector, you can only make the best by giving meaning in the way you delivery without any other forms of articulation. The point is to draw the congregation's attention to the Word of God and not to you.

4. Listening skills
In conjuction with the exercise in (3), the rest of the children were asked to listen and questions will be asked. An observation was that the children heard what was said by the speaker but did not really listen to fully understand what was said and to infer from the information received as to the `whys' and `hows' of the newspaper article. E.g. in the recent case of the wife of the CEO of Venture Corpn who slapped the air stewardess. After the article was read to the class, the children are aware that a slapping case took place. Someone slapped someone but do not really know who slapped who. Only one lector pointed out that the incident took place during the Tokyo bound flight. Nobody really knows why did the slapping incident happened. The children were told to infer from the article where it described that after the slapping incident happened, the wife of the CEO asked the stewardess loudly "Why did you talk to my husband" - a sign of jealously as she might have felt that the air stewardess was flirting with her husband which made her angry resulting in her slapping the stewardess. Sometimes when the lector prepares to deliver the Reading, he/she must also try to understand why was such a message transmitted, in what tone was it spoken etc etc.

5. A sharing from one of the junior lectors whom we came to know is in his school debating team. He finds that the toughest part during the debate is when you are posed with questions against your motion and you are not in a position to prepare any answers to such adhoc questions. Thus it is difficult to refute, rebut and prove convincingly that your motion stands in an off-the-cuff manner. The only solution for such situation is - you got to know your stuff inside out. Similarly when someone were to question you: "Why are you wearing a Cross?", "Why do you make the sign of the Cross?" etc etc. How will you stand your ground?

We hope that the above feedback will provide you parents with a follow up to today's workshop with your children at home. God bless.

Des de fa mig any estic vivint a Beirut, després d'una curta temporada a Roma, i d'uns anys circulant per Igualada, Terrassa i Barcelona. M'agradaria afegir-hi Manresa, però no he tingut la sort de viure-hi (més que durant alguns estius) tot i que la família ve d'allà i, pel què sembla, ara hi torna.

Doncs bé, per tenir a la gent informada i per poder conèixer millor un país que sovint desconeixem més del què pensem, vaig decidir començar aquest blog, per explicar coses de Beirut, o com veig la vida des d'aquí. I trobareu escrits gairebé diaris, on procuro parlar una mica de tot, per tal de poder-se fer una idea de la vida al Líban, de la societat libanesa i de les peculiaritats (que són moltes) d'aquest país. Per això pot ser útil utilitzar les categories que teniu a la dreta, o el núvol de les etiquetes, que també trobareu a la barra lateral. I si algú té algun suggeriment o comentari a fer serà molt ben rebut!

Finalment, tot i que potser em repeteixi massa, no vull deixar de dir que les fotografies que trobareu en aquest blog (o la majoria) són fetes pel Jaume Canet, el meu germà, que va estar aquí fa unes setmanes.

No dubteu que el Líban és un molt bon país, i que, sense cap mena de dubte, malgrat els problemes que pot tenir val la pena visitar-lo!

Soldados de cerca és bàsicament un recull d'anècdotes sobre la feina dels llibreters. Consta de dues parts i un epíleg. La primera part tracta de la feina de llibreter i dels actors que hi intervenen —llibreter, caixeres, dependents, encarregats de magatzem, repartidors, comercials, etc.— escrita amb molt sentit de l'humor i una considerable dosi d'ironia. La segona consta bàsicament de les equivocacions que cometen els compradors a l'hora de demanar un llibre (el títol del llibre n'és un exemple), comentades breument pel llibreter. És una lectura lleugera i entretinguda, que no pretén ser un text científic o rigorós, sinó aconseguir un somriure en el lector o, fins i tot, una riallada (en paraules de l'autor mateix).

Quant a mi, l'interès principal del llibre rau en el fet que la feina de llibreter i la de bibliotecari, malgrat tenir diferències importants (l'objectiu mateix d'una tasca i altra és diferent), tenen força punts en comú, relacionats amb el llibre i el lector, sobretot. Moltes de les anècdotes que explica Eduardo Fernández podrien haver passat en una biblioteca —i, de fet, hi passen: les confusions sobre autors i títols sovintegen, així com preguntes que molt sovint et porten a pensar si el lector sap on és realment. Hi ha fins i tot alguns fragments del text en què canviant només una paraula semblaria que els hagués escrit un bibliotecari. Per exemple, el paràgraf amb què comença el llibre:

Imaginemos un recinto mágico: un lugar donde impera el silencio, el recogimiento y los murmullos. Imaginemos paredes adornadas con toneladas de silencioso papel en cuyo interior habitan los más profundos secretos del conocimiento y el saber: la Librería [la Biblioteca]. Imaginemos, triste y sorpredentemente, que los profesionales que cuidan de ellos y los visitantes que desean acceder a tan codiciados objetos, con frecuencia, poco o nada comparten con el conocimiento que si extraordinario contenido alberga. [p. 15]

I és el mateix autor que emparenta llibreters i bibliotecaris: las librerías no son bibliotecas, aunque estas sean una de sus raíces, diu a la pàgina 16, i més endavant insisteix:

El librero puede parecer un ser extraño. Un personaje inclasificable que mutó en las bibliotecas en eras pasadas para reptar hasta la calle y convertirse hoy en día en una pieza más del engranaje del mercado. [p. 27]

No sense caure en alguns tòpics, malgrat tot:

Seguramente el sueño virtual de librero es poder llevar la seccion a su gusto, sin tener que atender constantemente a los clientes. En eso todavía arrastra los viejos genes de su antepasado, el bibliotecario. [p. 27]

És, com deia més amunt, una lectura entrentiguda, que almenys a mi m'ha fet somriure sovint i riure més d'una vegada, amb la qual cosa crec que l'autor ha aconseguit una de les finalitats del llibre:

La mejor noticia sería saber que han pasado ustedes un buen rato. Nos conformaríamos con que durante la lectura hayan esbozado alguna sonrisa, y si fue una carcajada, estarán colmados nuestros anhelos. De eso se trataba, no piense que de más. [p. 161]

I no vull acabar sense esmentar l'epíleg d'El Llibreter, que tanca el llibre arrodonint la reflexió inicial sobre la feina de llibreter, una feina amb molt de vocació i que requereix grans dosis de paciència (si fa no fa, com la feina de bibliotecari), i de la qual n'està força satisfet (com es pot deduir també de la lectura del seu blog).

La Sfer també l'ha llegit: «Grandezas y miserias».

El llibre:

• Eduardo Fernández. Soldados de cerca de un tal Salamina : Grandezas y miserias en la galaxia librería. Epílogo de El Llibreter. Barcelona: Comanegra, 2008. 171 p. ISBN 978-84-935566-5-5.

1. Presentation : "My New Year Resolution"
Each child was invited to stand before the class to present his/ her New Year Resolution. Resolutions ranging from wanting to study harder, spending less meaningless time surfing the internet, sending less meaningless smses to friends to save in handphone bills and trying to be more loving towards family members were made. Questions were posed to each presenter as to the why and how will the presenter carry out their resolutions. The purpose of this exercise was to give the lector an opportunity to speak in front of a group to gain confidence. Each child was asked as to what was their greatest fear when speaking in front of a group. Fear of making mistakes, being laughed at and not being able to answer the questions posed to them were cited. Drawing their attention to that of a lector, one must be adequately prepared in knowing the content so that the Word of God can be delivered convincingly and meaningfully.

2. Eye Contact
(a) Purpose of eye contact with the audience.
(b) Various feelings the audience will have when the presenter display different types of eye contact such as:- being shy, afraid, stern, loving, indifferent, stoic etc.
The eye plays an important part in establishing a relationship with the audience. Feel the emotions through the the eyes of a person.

3. Discussion : "The Painter"
A light-hearted discussion on the story of "The Painter". In this story, it tells of how a painter's first attempt to paint a pig was construed by his friend to be a dead pig. After much thought, the painter's second attempt was successful in protraying a lively pig where his friend exclaimed that he could have actually touch and smell the pig as though it was alive. For the lectors, do we paint the story of God's Word in a deadpan manner or are we able to bring the scripture alive to the listeners?

4. Written Exercise
A written exercise was given to the lectors to complete as part of their catechism and revision as follows:-
Qn 1: We are now in which liturgical year? Year A or B or C? Which of the four Gospels are presently use in the Mass? Why do we have liturgical years?
Qn 2: Which day marks the beginning of the Lenten season? Which liturgical colour is used during the Lenten season? Why?
Qn 3: Where does the ashes, used for the imposition of ashes during Ash Wednesday, come from?
Qn 4: Which area in the Church does the lector and celebrant proclaims the Word of God? Why?
Qn 5: What are some of the preparation exercises a lector can carry out to prepare himself/herself before reading?

5. A Reading from the first letter of St Paul to the Corinthians (for Children's Mass 3rd Feb 2008)
The children were encouraged to apply what they have learnt during the workshop to understand the scripture passage with a deeper meaning in the likes of:-
(a) How many character(s) are there in the text?
(b) Who is speaking to whom?
(c) Where can you locate the essence of the message in St Paul's letter?
(d) Why do you think St Paul delivered such a message to the Corinthians?
(e) In what manner do you think St Paul delivered the message to the people of Corinth assuming if you were standing beside him facing the crowd?

We hope that parents will take this opportunity to continue your journey with your child in this ministry by having a simple session of sharing at home to bring the Word of God to them.

The question is why I would want to be a lector in the first place. There are several reasons. First, I've always loved to read aloud. I spent many happy hours reading stories to my daughter when she was younger, putting on different voices for all the different characters. Second, I have terrible stage fright. I can walk into a classroom and teach, but strangers terrify me. I thought it might be good for me to get in front of a cathedral full of strangers now and again. Third, I want to know more about the Bible. Maybe reading it regularly will help me to learn about it. There's something about religion that gets my students fired up, and I find myself resisting the common academic stance that there's nothing for students to learn in religion. In fact, I think they need to study religion in college. Having teachers that are open to discussions of religion, and knowledgeable, and willing to accept that intellectual pursuits and spiritual ones are not mutually exclusive, these things might make all the difference to a highly religious student's experience in college (and I have a lot of them, in my conservative, fundamentalist town). And it might allow us to find some common ground from which to begin conversations about global warming and the Iraq war. Maybe I won't be seen as the enemy, the intellectual anti-religious Satan worshipper their mothers warned them about (and believe me, my students do get warned about us Satan-loving professors -- using those words, too!) If they sense a kinship in inquiry and spirituality, perhaps they'll be more willing to listen to the questions I ask and the viewpoints I present.

And finally, I just love the language of the Bible. It's majestic and powerful and cadenced... and oh, wait... that's the King James Version, which no one uses any more. Sigh. I have to settle for more modern translations, which might be more accessible and perhaps even more accurate, but which lack what I remember from my childhood -- that soaring language, a kind of poetry. Still, it's fun to read.

Eventually I was contacted for training, and after my lessons I was allowed to read at a daily mass in the little chapel. During the summer, I read on Thursday and Saturday mornings, to a scant dozen in the little chapel which I love so much. Then I was brought in for a Sunday service, along with my trainer, who had softened towards me by then, perhaps because I do enjoy it, when I've over being terrified, and because I do feel a kind of reverence in reading.

And now, now, I've been scheduled for Holy Thursday, one of the biggest masses of the year. Last year I sat up front with my fellow RCIA journeyers while the bishop washed our feet. Nada sat close by, participating too, and all I could remember was a story he told of being in India with his best friend. They'd been walking all day, and their feet were filthy. "And we went into a bathroom and he took off my shoes and washed my feet. I think that was one of the most moving moments of my life," Nada said when he told me the story, and his face was soft as he remembered.

As the bishop came closer to me, with his jug of water, and the catch basin, and the small white towel, I realized what Nada had meant, how the act of foot-washing symbolized so very much: humility, love, grace, compassion. Nada's friend's act was an act of love and reverence towards him. The bishop's action commemorated Christ's washing of his disciples' feet, as well as the words Jesus told the disciples at the time: "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." (KJV John 13:34). The bishop, an elderly man, sank to his knees before us, and washed our feet, and dried them gently, with words of compassion, and I was moved by it all, by the incense and organ music and choir, and the holy water sprinkled over us, and the prospect of being able to participate in the Eucharist in just two days. And by the bishop's "peace be with you," as he finished drying my feet, and stood carefully up to move to the next person, grimacing slightly, his knees paining him, and yet no word of complaint. Just a service to us on this eve of baptism and confirmation. It was grand.

In the end, perhaps reading on Sundays is a way of thanking them all, the RCIA team, the bishop and monseignor, the choir, everyone else, for that moment of understanding.

In a sense, I am anti-abortion. I couldn't imagine having an abortion, and it pains me when Zeke tells me that her friend has already, at the age of 15, had four. But I would never deny Sarah or any woman the right to choose. If I were a doctor, I probably wouldn't perform an abortion, but I'd never judge doctors who choose to do so. And I believe in the right to be taken off life-support, to death with dignity, to choice. None of these things are incompatible with a reverence for life. Still, I might not seem the natural choice for a lector. Certainly the head lector didn't think so last year, during the mystagogy portion of the RCIA experience, when we were asked in what way we might serve the church, and were given many options, one of which was lector, or reader, or ... here it comes ... Minister of the Word.

"I like reading," I said. "Maybe I could do that."

The woman in charge of lectors lifted her head. "You?" she asked, and I could swear she wrinkled her nose a bit. It's true I'm the one who always found every way possible to compare Catholicism to Buddhism, and who eventually chose Catholicism because the Dalai Lama suggested it was best to stick to one's heritage (I'm simplifying, you understand!). I'm the one who walked out on the man who insisted that "Go forth and be fruitful" meant that anyone who would ever think about not having 14 kids was a sinner. I'm the one with the atheist father and the Buddhist mother, the one who kept saying, the whole time, "Well, I'm probably not going to come back."

So when I said, rather flippantly, "I can read. How hard can it be?" the Woman in Charge of Lectors bridled.

"You do understand," she said, "that you are not just reading when you Proclaim the Word?"

Right. I forgot. I'm Proclaiming.

"But reading's part of it, right?" I said.

"It's far more than reading. Not just anyone can be a lector. You need to be Trained. And you need to Proclaim. It's a Serious Duty, an Honor, and must be treated with the Reverence it deserves."

There's that reverence thing again. I've never been particularly reverent when it comes to rules, to behaving right.

"I can try," I said. The WiCoL frowned.

"We'll see," she said, ominously.

To be continued...

Citing this situation as an example in relation to the ministry of lectors, how will you calibrate the tone of your voice in a fitting manner that the Word of God goes out to the listeners? Will it be a lofty, harsh with a holier-than-thou attitude or perhaps in a manner that is encouraging, compassionate with a well-intended and meaningful delivery?

Joe Moreira, our Junior Lectors trainer, contributed his personal sharing in the website www.lectorprep.org. Perhaps, you may want to take this opportunity to ponder on how you can feel the scripture before actually vocalising the message as you read his sharing on the topic of Lectors' Training

El tímid, el perdonavides, l'agressiu, l'educat, l'impertinent, el que baixa d'Arbeca, l'insolent, el que no sap què vol i el que no sap que no sap què vol, el que crida massa i el que parla amb un fil de veu, el dubitatiu, el que xerra pels descosits i el que has d'obligar a parlar, el que se sent superior a tu i el que et fa tres reverències per donar-te les gràcies... o te les faria si s'atrevís, el pesat, l'impacient, el que es meravella amb tot i el que tot ho troba escàs, el que demana i el que exigeix, l'antipàtic, el que sempre somriu, el paranoic de les conspiracions, el que sent molestar-te i el que t'interromp sempre que pot, el que li falta un bull, el que menja a la sala, el que no silencia el mòbil, el que corre per la sala per respondre una trucada, l'expert informàtic que no sap guardar un document en un disquet i el que no en sap però no li fa vergonya preguntar i aprendre, el que ve per primera vegada, el que mai no ha utilitzat un ordinador, el simpàtic, l'enginyós, el que fa broma i el que no té sentit de l'humor...