In 1982 the US Bishops published a document on homiletics and preaching called Fulfilled in Your Hearing, The Homily in the Sunday Assembly. It provided a solid, practical, scriptural guidebook for preaching. Personally I have used it myself (it’s pretty worn out actually) and gave copies to my homily group as some background material when we started two years ago.

As in any vocation or profession, one needs to be constantly updating the skill set. Thus I find myself this week at the land of the “Fighting Irish” for a three day seminar, “We Preach Christ Crucified, A Conference on Catholic Preaching.” With 30 teachers, preachers, lay leaders, bishops, priests on deck to hone our skills and offer food for thought, the conference looks to be a rewarding experience.

‘Tonight is the a keynote address from Bishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller, M.Sp.S (Archbishop of San Antonio) on “We Preach a Living Word.” Tomorrow morning I’m going to visit a panel discussion on “Issues on Preaching Today” (Deb Organ, Moderator (Director Pastoral Minstry - St. Catherine University - St, Paul), Greg Heille, O.P. (Academic Dean, Teacher of Homiletics, Aquinas Institute - St.Louis) , Fr. Joel Henson (Assistant Professor Homiletics - St. John Seminary - Camarillo, CA), Fr. Tom Margevicius (Instructor of Homiletics - St. Paul Seminary) and Susan McGurgan

I’ll keep you all posted as the conference progresses.