Bishops as modern magi: from Pope Benedict’s homily for Epiphany

From the Holy See’s website today: Following a tradition begun by Pope John Paul II, we celebrate the feast of the Epiphany of the Lord also as the day when episcopal ordination will be conferred on four priests who will now cooperate in different ways in the ministry of the Pope for the unity of [...]

Secrets the preacher can’t share from the pulpit

From Connecticut comes this candid bit of spleen-venting from a Protestant pastor:  Eleven in the evening is well past my bedtime, which is to confess that I don’t have a particularly glamorous social life. A single man in late middle-age on a tight budget, I try to limit my trips to Monte Carlo to once-a-month [...]

“Come, then, let us observe the Feast”: the first known Christmas sermon

It comes to us from the great St. John Chrysostom, from 386.  (Source).  Stuck for something to say on Christmas?   Try this on for size: BEHOLD a new and wondrous mystery. My ears resound to the Shepherd’s song, piping no soft melody, but chanting full forth a heavenly hymn.  The Angels sing.  The Archangels blend [...]

Do microphones muffle good preaching?

Writer Leroy Huizenga thinks so.  From First Things: I think microphones might very well injure preaching, for in preaching the microphone functions as both obstacle and crutch. The microphone is an obstacle, one more piece of complexity that can go wrong. It makes preachers tentative; the microphone is like a snake that might bite if [...]

The Catholic Church’s push to make better preachers

From Religion News Service: As Drew Burkemper got up to preach, the weight of his task was evident. His classmate at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary, Adam Maus, had just pretty much killed it. Like Burkemper, Maus and other Catholic seminarians were told to prepare and deliver to his class a homily for an imaginary event. Maus’ scenario [...]

A deacon who preached his wife’s words

Bob Keeler in Long Island’s Newsday writes about an unusual deacon-and-wife combo: There is the average ghostwriter, and then there is Patty Buchenberger. Call her the Holy Ghost Writer. For two decades, from her husband Tom’s 1981 ordination as a permanent deacon in the Catholic Church until vocal cord cancer put an end to his [...]

Here it is: final draft of bishops’ document on preaching

H/T to my blogging comrade and neighbor Fr. Michael Duffy for finding this. Read it all here. 

Bishops approve document on preaching

From CNS:  The U.S. bishops approved their first new document in 30 years on preaching Nov. 13, the second day of their annual fall general assembly in Baltimore. The document, “Preaching the Mystery of Faith: The Sunday Homily,” encourages preachers to connect the Sunday homily with people’s daily lives. The vote was 227-11, with four [...]

“Hungry and You Fed Me”: homilists for the homeless

Looking for preaching ideas for next year?  Look no further. I’m honored and humbled to be a part of this new book,  “Hungry and You Fed Me: Homilies and Reflections for Cycle C,” which collects sermons from a wide range of sources and puts them between covers for the first time, with sales going to [...]

“All people have a right to know Jesus Christ and his Gospel…”

From the Holy Father’s homily today, marking the close of the Synod on the New Evangelization: The new evangelization applies to the whole of the Church’s life. It applies, in the first instance, to the ordinary pastoral ministry that must be more animated by the fire of the Spirit, so as to inflame the hearts [...]