Preaching the Mystery of Faith: The Sunday Homily

by United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

Preaching is evangelizing, making the Word come alive for the People of God. This task is central to the New Evangelization and the Church's renewal.
The bishops' statement Preaching the Mystery of Faith: The Sunday Homily, is directed toward priests, deacons, and seminary educators who prepare them to preach the Sunday homily in these times of confusion and relativism. The statement gives special attention to the biblical and theological foundations for effective liturgical preaching and considers the proper connection between the Sunday homily and the Church's liturgy and catechesis. Preaching the Mystery of Faith emphasizes the particular pastoral needs of our time that have prompted the call for a renewed evangelization.

Genres: Theology

60 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 1, 2013

About the author

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is the episcopal conference of the Catholic Church in the United States. Founded in 1966 as the joint National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) and United States Catholic Conference (USCC), it is composed of all active and retired members of the Catholic hierarchy (i.e., diocesan, coadjutor, and auxiliary bishops and the ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter) in the United States and the Territory of the U.S. Virgin Islands. In the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the bishops in the six dioceses form their own episcopal conference, the Puerto Rican Episcopal Conference (Spanish, Conferencia Episcopal Puertorriqueña). The bishops in U.S. insular areas in the Pacific Ocean – the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Territory of American Samoa, and the Territory of Guam – are members of the Episcopal Conference of the Pacific (Latin, Conferentia Episcopalis Pacifici).

The USCCB adopted its current name in July 2001. The organization is a registered corporation based in Washington, D.C. As with all bishops' conferences, certain decisions and acts of the USCCB must receive the recognitio, or approval of the Roman dicasteries, which are subject to the immediate and absolute authority of the Pope.

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

OVERALL REACTION:
This is a nice instruction from the US Bishops on their vision for homilies in the context of contemporary America. Towards the beginning, there's a powerful reflection on the Road to Emmaus as the model for preaching which is very edifying. Later on it gets into more particulars of how to prepare for preaching and what to be conscious of in the current American context.

OPINION BEFORE YOU READ:
If you're not a Catholic priest, deacon, or seminarian I would not recommend reading it since this group is definitely the target audience and outside of that audience I think a reader would spend his or her time better by reading other spiritual writings on Scripture.

[Rob O'Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not so much of a manual on how to design and deliver sermons, this update of Fulfilled in Your Hearing (1982) reassesses the place of preaching within the 21st-century. While it discusses the importance for crafting sermons (homilies) that are creative and engaging, it stresses the need to remain true to the biblical text and doctrinal tradition of the Church. Additionally, it offers a chapter on the importance of the preacher continuing to grow spiritually, something that is often missing from Protestant homiletics texts.