37 episodes

What makes a great Catholic homily, and what goes into the art of delivering it well? 
“Preach” is a new weekly podcast from America Media that features a diverse cast of the finest Catholic preachers. Each week, preachers open up their hearts and minds, sharing their spiritual lives, approaches to interpreting scripture and techniques for preparing the best homilies. 
On each episode, listeners will meet Catholic preachers, learn about their communities and hear their Sunday homilies, delivered with a podcast audience in mind. In the second part of the show, preachers will unpack the making of their homily with the show’s host, Ricardo da Silva, S.J., to offer a privileged peek into their lives as ministers of God’s Word, to enable all preachers to keep preaching the Good News.
Read the homilies featured on the podcast and get daily Scripture reflections from America Media by becoming a subscriber: www.americamagazine.org/subscribe
“Preach” is made possible through a generous grant from Lilly Endowment, Inc, as a contribution to its Compelling Preaching Initiative, funding the development of preachers across the United States.

Preach: The Catholic Homilies Podcast America Media

    • Religion & Spirituality
    • 4.5 • 12 Ratings

What makes a great Catholic homily, and what goes into the art of delivering it well? 
“Preach” is a new weekly podcast from America Media that features a diverse cast of the finest Catholic preachers. Each week, preachers open up their hearts and minds, sharing their spiritual lives, approaches to interpreting scripture and techniques for preparing the best homilies. 
On each episode, listeners will meet Catholic preachers, learn about their communities and hear their Sunday homilies, delivered with a podcast audience in mind. In the second part of the show, preachers will unpack the making of their homily with the show’s host, Ricardo da Silva, S.J., to offer a privileged peek into their lives as ministers of God’s Word, to enable all preachers to keep preaching the Good News.
Read the homilies featured on the podcast and get daily Scripture reflections from America Media by becoming a subscriber: www.americamagazine.org/subscribe
“Preach” is made possible through a generous grant from Lilly Endowment, Inc, as a contribution to its Compelling Preaching Initiative, funding the development of preachers across the United States.

    When preparing to preach, treat your homily like music

    When preparing to preach, treat your homily like music

    In the Judeo-Christian tradition, God often makes Godself known through sound: be it a voice from a burning bush, a resounding clap of thunder or the blast of a trumpet. “God is revealed through sound,” affirms Ed Foley, O.F.M. Cap. “I think of a homily as sound theology,” he adds, “it’s acoustic engagement.”
    When preparing to preach, Ed, the Duns Scotus Professor Emeritus of Spirituality and a retired professor from the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, first writes his homilies word for word in poetic form. Then, he meticulously annotates his manuscript, like a conductor’s score. “Where’s the crescendo?” he asks himself. “Where’s the pause? When do the trumpets come in?”
    Practice extends beyond the art of the homily, permeating life itself. It is, perhaps, a vital Christian practice as we enter the Easter season of Christ’s resurrection. “The followers of Jesus practiced resurrection,” Ed says in his homily on “Preach” for the Mass of the Day this Easter Sunday. “Their dogged commitment to living an Easter spirituality and pass it on from one generation to the next, usually at great cost, is why we stand missioned to practice resurrection again today,” 
    But, even though prudent preparation is necessary, there must always be enough room to veer from the script when you’re standing in front of a congregation.
    “Improvisation is not shooting from the hip. We learned this from people, from standup comics, improvisation is taking what somebody gives you and doing something with it. It’s preparation,” Ed says. “The text is not the performance, just like a script is not a play, a score is not music.”
    Read the Scripture readings for the Mass of the Day on Easter Sunday, The Resurrection of our Lord
    Get daily Scripture reflections and support “Preach” by becoming a digital subscriber to America Magazine
    “Preach” is made possible through the generous support of the Compelling Preaching Initiative, a project of Lilly Endowment Inc. 
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    • 35 min
    Ukraine military chaplain: Preaching hope to a world at war on Good Friday

    Ukraine military chaplain: Preaching hope to a world at war on Good Friday

    When reflecting on the life, death and resurrection of the Lord while living in a state of military invasion and active war, Andriy Zelinskyy, S.J., says that “everything becomes more authentic.” For this Jesuit priest, who serves as the chief military chaplain of the Ukrainian-Greek Catholic Church, the task of preaching to those suffering in Ukraine, “from the trenches to the President,” has brought the challenge and promise of preaching hope on Good Friday into stark relief.
    To authentically preach the hope of the resurrection in such dire circumstances, preachers must first find hope themselves. “It begins with your search for hope,” Andriy shares with “Preach” host Ricardo da Silva, S.J. “And this is already a result of your search for sense, to find God in everything that’s happening around you.” 
    Andriy tries not to rely too much on certain techniques to communicate God’s message. Instead, he actively searches for God in his experience. “I’m not against the techniques,” he says. “They’re important, but in their due time. When you are in front of a living human being, please be a living human and be in the here and now.”
    Listen to Andriy’s homily and his conversation with Ricardo to hear how he sustains himself to preach hope amid war. They discuss the common humanity that allows Andriy to preach to people of all stripes and how his experience informs his preaching.
    Read the Scripture readings for Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion
    Get daily Scripture reflections and support “Preach” by becoming a digital subscriber to America Magazine
    “Preach” is made possible through the generous support of the Compelling Preaching Initiative, a project of Lilly Endowment Inc. 
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    • 32 min
    A Preacher’s Guide to Holy Week: These are long liturgies. Be brief!

    A Preacher’s Guide to Holy Week: These are long liturgies. Be brief!

    The liturgies of Holy Week need to be seen as a unity. With two weeks remaining before the start of this summit of the Christian year, the “Preach” team sought the expertise of two esteemed liturgical scholars and practitioners to give preachers a whistle-stop tour of the readings and liturgies for this sacred week.
    In conversation with “Preach” host Ricardo da Silva, S.J., Kim Harris and John Baldovin, S.J., discuss the connection of present-day social issues like antisemitism and state-sanctioned violence to Christ’s Passion and Resurrection. They encourage preachers to weave these grim realities into their homilies for Holy Week.
    Amid the richness of words, actions, movement, and song in these liturgies, it’s essential to uphold the values of silence and brevity in preaching during Holy Week.
    “The missal recommends that the preacher preach briefly,” John stresses. “It takes a lot more time to prepare a brief homily than it does to prepare a long homily.”
    Read the Scripture readings for Holy Week, Year B.
    Get daily Scripture reflections and support "Preach" by becoming a digital subscriber to America Magazine.
    “Preach” is made possible through the generous support of the Compelling Preaching Initiative, a project of Lilly Endowment Inc. 
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    • 42 min
    Father Rob Galea’s preaching strategies for reaching disengaged youth

    Father Rob Galea’s preaching strategies for reaching disengaged youth

    “Explain the resurrection to me in two minutes without using any church language.” This is the challenge that Father Rob Galea sets for his staff to ensure they can easily relate to the young people they serve. “That takes practice, and that takes hanging out with the kids and understanding the way they speak, the way they reason.”
    Rob, originally from Malta, is now a priest in the Diocese of Sandhurst, Victoria, Australia. He has amassed a hundreds of thousands-strong following across social media platforms and is also a popular singer and songwriter who once auditioned for X-Factor Australia. Today, Rob leads Icon Ministry—formerly FRG Ministry, a global media and outreach apostolate that significantly expanded its reach over the pandemic years.
    On “Preach,” Rob delivers a homily for the Fourth Sunday in Lent, Year B, also known as Laetare, or Rejoicing Sunday.
    When asked about effective preaching strategies to use when ministering to young people, Rob suggests preachers allow themselves to become vulnerable and share current, real-life experiences. “Start with you, with your struggle, with someone, or something that happened within the school, something that they know,” he says, “And, for goodness’ sake, stop using church language.”
    Read the full text of this week’s homily and Scripture readings.
    Do you have a preacher to recommend for “Preach,” Let us know here.
    Get daily Scripture reflections and support "Preach" by becoming a digital subscriber to America Magazine.
    “Preach” is made possible through the generous support of the Compelling Preaching Initiative, a project of Lilly Endowment Inc. 
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    • 33 min
    How a deacon’s past as a taxi driver fuels his preaching

    How a deacon’s past as a taxi driver fuels his preaching

    The best formation Deacon Steve Kramer has ever received were the four summers he spent as a taxi and limo driver. “It really prepared me for pastoral counseling,” he says of his year’s shuttling people back and forth. “They sit, they open their heart, and pretty much they figure out that they’ll never see you again. So they open up in a different way.
    On “Preach,” Steve delivers a homily for the Third Sunday of Lent, initiating the Scrutinies for catechumens in the O.C.I.A. process. Departing from the usual Year C readings, Year A Scriptures are employed, better suited for those preparing for Baptism at the Easter Vigil. The Scrutinies prompt catechumens to confront their sinfulness and embrace God’s merciful love through reflection, repentance and exorcism.
    Listen to Steve’s homily on this week’s episode of “Preach.” In their conversation afterwards, Steve and host Ricardo da Silva, S.J., discuss preaching to the needs of the community, the importance of listening and balancing themes of sin and God’s merciful love when preaching.
    Read the full text of this week’s homily and Scripture readings.
    Do you have a preacher to recommend for “Preach,” Let us know here.
    Get daily Scripture reflections and support "Preach" by becoming a digital subscriber to America Magazine.
    “Preach” is made possible through the generous support of the Compelling Preaching Initiative, a project of Lilly Endowment Inc. 
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    • 43 min
    Meet a woman who teaches priests to preach

    Meet a woman who teaches priests to preach

    “Effective preaching is like good butter sinking into warm toast,” says Karla Bellinger. “You’ve gotta give the Holy Spirit a little bit of time to do some work.” As the founding executive director of the Institute for Homiletics at the University of Dallas and president of the Catholic Association of Teachers of Homiletics, Karla is filled with bits of wisdom like this for homilists. 
    “The God of the universe who is infinite also wants to be the God who is intimate and close,” Karla says in her homily for the Second Sunday of Lent. “God wants to dazzle us.” In many ways, this is the mission of the homilist: helping people in the pews draw closer to God and prompting a dazzling encounter. Karla would know; as a lay woman and homiletician, she coaches and trains preachers—mostly ordained Catholic men—to give effective homilies. Preaching is a “pastoral act,” she says. Through every homily, “you want your people to come closer to God.”
    Listen to Karla’s homily on this week’s episode of “Preach.” After delivering her homily, Karla explores with host Ricardo da Silva, S.J., some of the quick- and long-term fixes preachers can make to improve their homilies such that people in the pews can really hear what the preacher—and God—has to say.
    Read the full text of this week’s homily and Scripture readings.
    Do you have a preacher to recommend for “Preach,” Let us know here.
    Get daily Scripture reflections and support "Preach" by becoming a digital subscriber to America Magazine.
    “Preach” is made possible through the generous support of the Compelling Preaching Initiative, a project of Lilly Endowment Inc. 
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    • 35 min

Customer Reviews

4.5 out of 5
12 Ratings

12 Ratings

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Thank you

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