24 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
    • 4.7 • 193 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.

    Preaching in Native American communities responding to generational trauma

    Preaching in Native American communities responding to generational trauma

    Despite his advanced studies in Scripture, it wasn’t until Victor Cancino, S.J., became the resident pastor at St. Ignatius Mission on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Western Montana that he properly grasped the Bible’s deep connections with Native American spirituality and practices. “The Bible is from a tribal world with a spirituality that is as old as the people that I’m living with,” Victor says. “We completely forget that and we think of this Roman-Greco society that looks like us, but the Bible looks a lot like tribal people.”
    On “Preach,” Victor delivers a homily for the Second Sunday of Advent, Year B, focusing on the image of the desert presented in the first reading from Isaiah. In the conversation that follows the homily, host Ricardo da Silva, S.J., and Victor explore how the preacher might respond to generational trauma in marginalized communities, such as the people he works with on the reservation.

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    • 36 min
    A preacher's guide to Advent

    A preacher's guide to Advent

    “How do we really enter into a season like Advent when the world around us is already celebrating Christmas?” This is the question host Ricardo da Silva, S.J., sets before his guests, Scripture scholars Barbara Reid, O.P., and Victor Cancino, S.J., at the start of this episode, which breaks the usual mold of the podcast.
    Instead of the usual show where we hear a homily for a given Sunday and then talk to a guest preacher, we’ve invited Sister Reid and Father Cancino to share ways into the Scriptures for Advent and offer us avenues for preaching in each of the four weeks of this time. What do preachers need to keep in mind as we move into a new liturgical year, from Year A to Year B, and season, from Ordinary Time to Advent? What are the key themes that preachers can draw inspiration from for their homilies?
    Listen to “Preach” this week to hear what wisdom Barbara and Victor have to share about the Scriptures and the art of preaching to retell the Scripture.
    Get daily Scripture reflections and support "Preach" by becoming a digital subscriber to America Magazine.
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    • 47 min
    A reminder for preachers: ‘Words can hurt; words can also heal’

    A reminder for preachers: ‘Words can hurt; words can also heal’

    The Scripture readings for the Solemnity of our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, invite us to interpret the Scriptures through a lens that is perhaps less common for this celebration. Agbonkhianmeghe Orobator, S.J, tries to imagine ways in which the readings for the last Sunday of the liturgical calendar, “can be perceived less as a hierarchical, patriarchal or monarchical depiction of who God is in Christ through the Spirit, and more about how God relates to us; in humility, in care, in tenderness.” 
    Father Orobator, a Jesuit of the North-West Africa Province, is an internationally acclaimed theologian and a convert to Catholicism from traditional African religion. This summer, he began his tenure as dean at the Jesuit School of Theology at Santa Clara University.
    On this week’s “Preach,” Orobator shares with host Ricardo da Silva, S.J., how thinking of the Gospels as stories can subvert hierarchical, monarchical, and even patriarchal readings of the Scriptures. 
    Read the full text of this week’s homily and Scripture readings.
    Get daily Scripture reflections and support "Preach" by becoming a digital subscriber to America Magazine.
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    • 31 min
    At funerals, preach for the living, not the dead

    At funerals, preach for the living, not the dead

    This November, as we remember our beloved dead and our liturgy begins to contemplate the end times, the stark reality of war is even more pronounced. In times, like these, “sometimes, the best thing you can do,” says Bruce Botha, S.J., “is acknowledge someone else’s pain and say, ‘I can’t imagine how you’re feeling.’”
    Father Botha, a priest of the Southern Africa province of the Jesuits, has been in parish ministry for the last 15 years. He serves as the pastor of Holy Trinity Catholic Church and chaplain for two universities in Johannesburg, South Africa. Previously, he worked at St. Martin de Porres, a Jesuit-run parish in Soweto, “a historic township,“ he says, which was “the epicenter of a lot of the anti-apartheid struggle.” The parish is a stone’s throw from the world-famous Vilakazi Street, which he reminds, has “the homes of two Nobel Peace Prize Laureates in it: Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela.”
    On “Preach” this week, host Ricardo da Silva, S.J., engages Bruce on the challenges of preaching in fearful, uncertain times of COVID and war, and at intimate moments of personal grief, like funerals.
    Read the full text of this week’s homily and Scripture readings.
    Get daily Scripture reflections and support "Preach" by becoming a digital subscriber to America Magazine.
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    • 27 min
    Preachers: The elders also need homilies that speak to them

    Preachers: The elders also need homilies that speak to them

    Preachers face a delicate balancing act: while crafting homilies to draw young people to the pews, they must also engage the elders, who make up the majority of the congregation. The also deserve homilies that resonate with the particular joys and challenges of their lives. “I try to read the scriptures through their eyes,” says Jack Rathschmidt, an 80-year-old Capuchin friar. “Older people have this wisdom and these gifts, and so I just try to honor them.”
    Jack has been a friar for 62 years and a priest for 54 years. He has preached in more than 60 dioceses and led over 100 retreats across the U.S. and the world. Despite holding four master’s degrees and a doctorate in theology, he hopes that his legacy extends beyond his academic achievements. “I come from a very lower middle class background; my father never made $100 a week until 1968,” he says. “I hope people catch from me, the essence of St. Francis; I am an everyday person who has been called to a particular vocation and role. I tried to live simply, I tried to identify, especially with the poor.” 
    Listen to Jack’s homily for the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A, on this week’s episode of “Preach.” After the homily, Jack shares with host Ricardo da Silva, S.J., how he keeps the fire for preaching alive.
    Read the full text of this week’s homily and Scripture readings.
    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

    • 37 min
    The power of vulnerability when preaching in a retreat or parish setting

    The power of vulnerability when preaching in a retreat or parish setting

    As an undergrad at Boston College, Sarah Hansman was a self-described “retreat addict.” Today, she is a retreat leader in Boston College’s Kairos program and is often invited to preach in various settings. “When it comes to preaching, and when it comes to sharing my voice, one of my goals is to be a role model for those who either don’t feel like their voices are heard or don’t feel like their voices are worthy to be heard,” Sarah says, when asked about her vocation as a preacher. “Every time I’m offered to reflect in any setting, I say, ‘Yes!”
    Sarah returned to her alma mater after a successful four-year career in tech sales and years of discernment during which she made the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius Loyola in daily life. Sarah is currently working towards an M.Div. degree at Boston College’s School of Theology and Ministry. In addition to her academic pursuits, she leads retreats, serves weekly in a men’s prison and embraces every preaching opportunity that comes her way.
    In this “Preach” episode, Sarah Hansman delivers a homily for the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A, and shares with host Ricardo da Silva, S.J., how her corporate experience prepared her to take risks and practice vulnerability in preaching.
    Read the full text of this week’s homily and Scripture readings.
    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

4.7 out of 5
193 Ratings

193 Ratings

OFM Runner ,

Enlightening and Deep

These interviews are heartfelt and searching as the preachers probe deep to uncover different facets of the Good News in creative and inspiring ways. This podcast both uplifts me and prepares me for the Sunday liturgy as a believer and offers me invaluable insights and techniques as an aspiring preacher. Thank you! Keep up the great work!

ABQ cook ,

Impactful

I’ve shared the link with our new parish deacon, who hopefully will also suggest this mentorship to our pastor! Each interview enlightens a different shadowy characteristic of unempowered preaching. May the yield be great!

Me39074 ,

The best catholic preaching podcast!

This podcast is such a gem! It’s a thoughtful, intimate concept about preaching techniques that makes priests more accessible. Excellent!

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