Short on Time: A Weekly Preparation Routine for Busy Preachers

Everyone is busy; schedules fill up quickly and priorities change for priests on a near-hourly basis. Sick calls, funerals, Pre-Cana preparation, school talks, meetings, meetings, and more meetings. Deacons and lay catechists are no different — for those with young children, the demands of work, family, school, and all sorts of activities can challenge even the most faithful.

Regardless of our status as clergy or laity, those who are entrusted to preach, teach, train, and instruct on a weekly basis find ourselves caught between our schedules and trying to draft the Sunday homily or the catechetical lesson from the Sunday readings. While the focus of this article will be on the Sunday homily, the principles can apply to anyone who delivers faith lessons — all of us truly understand the words of St. Paul: “The time is short” (1 Cor 7:29).

How can we be intentional about our preparation when time is condensed? How can we prepare and write an effective homily that draws forth the essence of the Gospel message? This article builds on the concepts advocated by Deacon Peter Lovrick in his article on “Homiletic Questions”¹ and proposes a simple routine that can be followed, adapted, revised, and added to. It also introduces a standard process each week to build an enduring methodology to guide the priest or catechist in their preparation for preaching or teaching.

Prepare to Receive the Message

Working in cooperation with the Holy Spirit, the preacher uses the week to listen for the core message that God wants to deliver through them. “The movement from prayerful attentiveness to the word to the reflection on its meaning” ultimately enables the preacher to employ words, concepts, and teachings to produce a message that resonates with the congregation.² The routine (Appendix I) is not a static, formulaic exercise, but rather a dynamic and prayerful experience of immersing oneself in the Word and listening to the Holy Spirit. It could be that the Holy Spirit could engage you on a Friday afternoon with a well-developed homily that was totally different from the one you had been working on, or the week could drag on without much inspiration. Either way, preachers must be open to the Holy Spirit.

The week starts on Monday. The Mass readings are reviewed at least once to familiarize yourself with them. This is not an in-depth examination, but to gain a first-impression of the topics at hand. The preacher then assembles resources that may be useful in helping to interpret the passages. These can include (but certainly are not limited to):

• Study Bibles and various translations of the Bible
• Dictionary of the Bible
• Papal writings, encyclicals, messages, and homilies
• Biblical commentaries
• Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC)
• Writings of the Church Fathers and Doctors of the Church
• Podcasts, websites, artwork, videos, or other multi-media³

On Tuesday, the preacher reads at least twice in a deliberate, prayerful manner. It can be read twice successively, or ideally, with a break of reflection, meditation, and more prayer. From this time, an overall theme emerges. Reading the Collect (opening prayer) can also illuminate the preacher during this time; he may even use it as his starting point.

By the middle of the week, the theme will have surfaced during prayer, reflection, and even interactions with parishioners and others. In addition, current events that are weighing on the minds of the congregation may be identified. The theme allows us to generate a basic outline, especially using the methodology in the next section. Wednesday also allows us to either read the passages out loud, have someone read them to us, or listen to them on a podcast.⁴

Sir Francis Bacon once penned that “reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.”⁵ By Thursday, a draft is essential. Whether you read a prepared text in its entirety or use bullet points, some measure of written form is important to proceed through the process. The week concludes with editing, revising, and practicing out loud to enhance the listening experience.

Editing and Revising

Many writers are familiar with the classic treatise The Elements of Style. It is a short and very useful book that describes the need for prose to be clear, succinct, and impactful. It need not be flowery, but must drive home the main point of the author. “Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences,” the authors note.⁶

It describes the need to remove needless or distracting words so that the powerful point is reinforced in a way that is understandable to the audience. Revising and editing is one of the most important parts of a homily; each word is valuable. The entirety of the homily should be cohesive and not rambling.

A passage from the 1982 USCCB document Fulfilled In Your Hearing notes that editing is essential: “to revise frequently is to cut: the good but extraneous material that surfaced . . . [in] preparation. . . .”⁷ While this may feel difficult, it should not be. And don’t worry, all of that “cutting room floor” material can be repurposed for other uses (including social media posts).

St. Augustine reminds us that the homily should be “like a golden thread which holds together the precious stones in an ornament but does not spoil the lines by making itself too obvious.”⁸ Precious artwork is not thrown together, but carefully planned and executed, practiced, reflected upon, revised, re-drawn, and practiced again. All of this work culminates in helping “lead the people to enter into [the Paschal] mystery”⁹ during the celebration of the Eucharist. A good homily will allow the congregation to be more open to Jesus, His Word, and the joy of the liturgy.

The Methodology: Beneficial for Busy Preachers

Consistently effective homilies are the goal of any preacher; after all, the homily is an integral part of our worship — it could be described as the bridge between the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist, helping bring people from ambo to altar. By employing a standard methodology, alongside a routine for preparation, the preacher will gain improvements in quality and efficiencies in time (for our busy schedules), and prevent last-minute rushes (which decrease effectiveness), all of which benefits everyone.

A methodology has an additional spiritual benefit: it drives us toward the mission of the Church. It gives us an anchor in the buffeting chaos that swirls around us. By focusing on what is most essential, we can better communicate that to others. Indeed, the methodology enables a preacher to consider three states as it relates to the Gospel passage: (1) where have we been? (2) where are we now? and (3) where are we going?

The Methodology: Starting Simple

The methodology is a straightforward, flexible, and easily adapted framework. It can be reproduced on a single sheet of paper or an index card for quick reference. By writing down and working through the methodology on a sheet, it allows for a “rough draft” of a homily to emerge (see this link for a graphical version of the worksheet).

It first consists of a single question to meditate and pray on:

• What is Jesus trying to tell us through this Gospel?

While there are a multitude of additional reflection questions that can be profitable (especially for catechists), [10] we must be able to distill the complexity and ancient world into a clear and well-understood message for our modern time. The homily must capture only one main idea; any more and you risk confusing the congregation. Again, like editing, that doesn’t mean the “rest” is unimportant; rather, it doesn’t cohesively advance the core Gospel message needed for that congregation that day. Keeping it simple is best for them — and for you. It is less overwhelming and stressful.

Diving Deeper on the Message

As you meditate on this question about the message, and continue to review the Gospel, there are additional ideas or threads that can be followed up on with further reading, research, or prayer. For example, in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25–37), the listeners of Jesus as he told the story would be in absolute shock because Jews and Samaritans were very different and separated. In our modern interpretation of this parable, preachers may need to explain the historical context or provide a parallel.

In this phase of the methodology, consider the following:

• identify the key images and illustrations
• any odd, interesting, or illuminating words for the listener
• whether any concept, person, or historical setting need explaining or additional context for the modern listener.

Making Connections

Jesus, in his preaching, held a deep tenderness toward the poor — in both funds and spirit. “The Gospels present his unfailing readiness to help the affiliated,”¹⁰ writes an early twentieth-century Scripture scholar. In this, he made deep and lasting unity with those who needed to hear the message of Salvation. Today, we must do the same.

In this part of the methodology, we explore opportunities to elevate the ancient and distant time, transporting the living and continuing Word to our time and place. In this, the homilist is expounding the Gospel passage in light of personal stories, experiences, or encounters that bolster or illustrate the words of Jesus. This can be the story of a parishioner, another priest or deacon, or experience drawn from recent local events. Care must be taken in this, however, that the homily does not subtly devolve into the preacher’s personal witness or self-centered focus.¹¹ Still, inserting a touch of self can be helpful in connecting with the congregation, but should be done with tact and humility.

Further connections can also be drawn from brief and on-target quotes from the saints, popes, or Doctors of the Church. The Catechism is helpful in identifying some of the best concepts and quotes, since they are often included in the book itself. Searching the Vatican website (Vatican.va) for the Holy Father’s own words can be quite fruitful; his homilies, general audiences, and other documents are replete with opportunities to remind the faithful of the Universal nature of our faith.

Finally, during this phase of the methodology, it is important to place the Gospel message into the context of the liturgical season, including the associations from First and Second Readings, Responsorial Psalm, and other Mass prayers (i.e., Collect or Eucharistic Prayer). These connections enable the listener to better appreciate the unity of the Christian faith, especially in the Catholic Mass. It can also draw the congregation closer toward the Eucharist, which will be celebrated shortly. Much like the Eucharist, “in the homily God’s holy Word is ‘distributed’ for the nourishment” of the people;¹² we should make direct correlations between the Blessed Sacrament and the Word.

The Living Gospel

A homily should draw the listener toward action, living and true. The key question here is “What do we need to keep doing, start doing, or stop doing as a result of this Gospel?” As an individual, family, parish, community, and society, how do we put the joy of the Good News into action? After all, James warns us that faith without works is dead (2:17).

The homily is not entertainment, nor an “intermission” between the two liturgies, but should be a compelling, edifying, and challenging statement of faith in Jesus Christ. By bringing together the other components of the methodology, we are better able to deliver a powerful message of what it means to be a Catholic Christian living today. The homily interprets the Divine Word across millennia — with a special meaning here, now, to us.

Go In Peace

Resist the haste to produce a rushed, half-baked, or overbearingly long homily because you don’t take the time to prepare or have an established routine. It need not be the one outlined here; indeed there are other methods that can be shared in this journal.

Proper preparation is a core idea in the many Church homily-related documents issued over the last forty years, many of them cited here. “Serious study . . . is important,” writes the late Jesuit Fr. Walter J. Burghardt; preparing for a homily is essential to “take [the Word] from wherever it is spoken, wrestle with it, feel its fire, and fling it out to live people with new life, fresh flame.” He concludes the preacher must have a personal and transformative relationship with Jesus: “I must know God.”¹³ Without this, we will fail to effectively convey that love of God to others. Let us resolve to keep a weekly routine and utilize a methodology to bring the Word of God to our communities with vigor, preparation, and love.

Appendix I: Proposed Routine for Homily Preparation