Fulfilled In Your Hearing

by United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

Ideal for priests, deacons, and those in formation for these ministries, this book offers a practical examination of the principal ingredients for effective homilies.

Genres: Religion, Theology

54 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1982

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

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This pamphlet provides a good basis for the preacher of a Sunday service to follow for developing his/her skills in effective preaching. The basic criteria required for a homily are easily identified in the texts as a preacher, the message or word from Scripture, and an audience. These criteria hardly qualify a homily as “excellent”, but they do provide the basis for a homily of any quality, and it is within the knowledge of these qualities that excellence can be sorted.

The first criterion of consideration should be the audience. Knowing your audience is essential to formulating a homily that will be effective and useful for its hearers. As the article states, it is by knowing what your audience wants to hear that you are capable of creating a homily that will meet the requirements of what your audience needs to hear. Our audiences are usually diverse, but they share a common unity of faith in Christ. Many members of the audience may not be able to express their faith in words, but it can be said that the job of the preacher is to provide the words for the faithful to express their faith. The good preacher, therefore, acts as a mediator between the faithful and their ability to express their faith in words and actions. How well they are able to do so reflects on how well the preacher knows his audience and their needs, and how well he appropriately responds to their needs in his homily. A good preacher is able to “make connections between the realities” of the lives of the people and the “realities of the Gospel.”

This brings us to the second criterion for excellence in preaching. The preacher must be a person who not only knows and understands the people, but a person who listens to them actively, just as the preacher must be an active listener for the voice of God in his life. Daily meditation on the Word of God and its words is necessary for the preacher and the Word to be in communion. This daily meditation, along with communion of the preacher with his congregation, is not superior to Biblical knowledge and exegetical skills, but is supported by the skills learned that allow the preacher to be actively engaged in the text and understand it to the depths required. Our knowledge cannot stop at the biblical texts, however, and must include cultural knowledge and pop culture, basically anything that the audience would be in tune with, without sounding like a “know-it-all.”

The third criterion for excellence is the homily, which must be remembered to be a continuation of the liturgical act already taking place. Its focus should be centered on the readings of the liturgy, and can include elements of catechesis and evangelization, etc, but it is not to be consumed by it. The main aspect of the audience of a Eucharistic assembly is their faith as believers already, even though non-believers may be included in the mix. The homily is centered on that pre-existing faith and is meant to help to propel the faithful into the world as ministers of the Gospel with tools that are used to strengthen their faith and in turn the faith of others. Its focus should not be the interpretation of Scripture but the implementation of Scripture into the lives of the people in a contemporary and meaningful way.

The preparation process for writing a homily, which includes all of the above, must also include time and attention devoted to space - space for the mind and spirit to roam in order for the intellect to gather all of the resources available to it. This can be accomplished by providing adequate time between reading a text multiple times on several occasions and the first draft. It also includes the draft or drafts themselves, as ideas flow from connected ideas that may seem random and disconnected at the time of writing. If the preacher waits until the last moment or even the last day to write the homily, the result will inevitably be rushed and shallow, and it will be seen as such by the audience. The more time a preacher is able to devote to his work, the more skilled he will become. Practice makes perfect, as it is commonly noted, and this is certainly true for the preacher.

A final note that is commonly not used by preachers is one of its most important ones, and one that requires humility and a desire to grow on the part of the preacher. A homiletic group, made up of parishioners or members of the general audience of the preacher, will help the preacher discover how his message is received and areas that are in need of improvement. This is essential for the cycle of effective preaching to continue, a cycle that requires time, devotion, study, prayer, and a homily that follows a logical and specific path. By following this cycle, we will become effective preachers that prepare, excite and engage the faithful for their work in the world.