I was struggling to title this post - which might become a series.
So I think I'll call it "stuff that bothers me," though at this point in my life, I am willing to just put up with it and keep my head down.
The latest thing to jump out at me is the way lay "readers" read at the Mass.
I'm not sure if they're told to do this or they just like to do it, but they portend to be public speakers instead of readers.
I say this because these "readers" feel they must look up from the reading and directly look at the congregation at the end of each sentence - or close to it.
It is not the reader who is "proclaiming" - but the Word of God that is being proclaimed.
In fact, the reader who looks up from the reading and attempts to directly engage the congregation by looking at us distracts from the Word of God and makes him or herself the focus.
Just read the Word of God and sit down.
In fact, it would do all of us well to revisit the venerable Catholic practice of CUSTODY OF THE EYES.