One of the most important opportunities priests have to communicate with their parishioners is through their homilies.

And with that graced opportunity comes the great challenge for priests to bring the Word of God to life for their people and in doing so, offer them practical ways of growing in Christian virtue.

At this year’s annual Convocation of Priests held Sept. 11-13 in the Golden Inn, Avalon, Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., and some 160 of his priests, explored their ministry of preaching, honed their preaching skills and learned new ways to make the Word of God come alive for the people in the pews.

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According to Msgr. Thomas Mullelly, diocesan vicar for clergy and consecrated life, the topic of preaching was chosen as the convocation focus because, “As we prepare to begin the Year of Faith, Bishop O’Connell has encouraged priests to be attentive to the significance of preaching, in particular to proclaiming the Word of God in liturgical settings as well as in the many other settings a priest experiences in the course of his ministry.”

Outside of the liturgy, a priest may be invited to speak to groups such as the Altar-Rosary society and Knights of Columbus council gatherings. In addition to the parish, a priest might be asked to preside at an ecumenical or interreligious service taking place within the community. Priests are often called upon to give presentations at events that are secular in nature, as well.

“The priest should be prepared to be effective in his communication as he carries out his mission,” said Msgr. Mullelly. The intent of the presentations at the convocation is to help priests “assess what the ministry (of preaching) is and to explore the responsibilities and goals that they have when they are preaching,” said Msgr. Mullelly.

During the convocation, presenters and homiletics experts, Father Edward Griswold and Msgr. Michael A. Becker, offered a refresher course on how to construct effective homilies through three presentations on “Our Ministry of Preaching Today,” “What Makes Preaching Effective?” and “Preparing the Homily.”

Father Griswold is a priest of the Diocese of Trenton, who currently serves as vice rector and director of pastoral formation in St. Mary Seminary and University, Baltimore. Msgr. Becker is a priest of the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, Pa., and lecturer in homiletics in St. Vincent Seminary, Latrobe, Pa.

“What we both tried to do was to get the priests talking about preaching and to share with each other some of the things that work well and make them effective preachers,” said Father Griswold.

The priests in attendance noted that while they receive training in homiletics as seminarians, they appreciated having periodic refresher courses to help them learn new and more effective ways of communicating their message to their flocks.

The key to giving an effective homily “is in preparing,” said Msgr. Casimir H. Ladzinski, who recently celebrated his 50th anniversary of priestly ordination.

And as a priest begins to prepare his homily, he should “pray about what he is going to say, read the Scriptures carefully and learn about what is going on in the world,” said Msgr. Ladzinski.

In a sense, the priest has “to have the Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other,” Msgr. Ladzinski said, “because he must be able to incorporate” world events and news that people are aware of into his message.

The “ideal” homily composing strategy that has worked best for Msgr. Ladzinski, especially when he was pastor of large parishes -- was to begin preparing the homily on Monday and have it completed by Thursday.

“Then I could fine-tune it on Friday and Saturday,” he said, although there were times when he had to change the focus of his homily if a major situation occurred in the world or within the community and was thought to be something that should be addressed by the Church.

Msgr. Richard Tofani, pastor of Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish, Hainesport, noted that he enjoyed the presentation/group discussion that Father Griswold led on “Lectio Divina,” which is a practice that seeks to know the heart of God through the Word of God.

“Father Griswold offered suggestions that would help preachers gain a deeper understanding of the Scriptural texts in preparation for delivering a homily,” said Msgr. Tofani.

When asked to share any homily preparing pointers with seminarians or newly-ordained priests, Msgr. Tofani said he would suggest that he “develop a genuine love for the sacred Scriptures.”

“Since the first and most important responsibility of a priest is to proclaim the Good News, a proper understanding of Sacred Scriptures should be a priority,” said Msgr. Tofani.

Conventual Franciscan Father David Stachurski, pastor of Resurrection Parish, Delran, and newly ordained Father Daniel Kirk both appreciated watching a video that was produced by the National Catholic Educational Association on what lay Catholics look for in preaching. In the video, a group of lay people were asked to participate in a survey and rate a homily based on a number of criteria.

Through the video, Father Stachurski was interested to learn about the things that “were not so important” to people, such as the use of humor when giving a homily.

 “It’s good that people don’t expect us to get up there and be entertaining,” he said.

Father Kirk, who has been assigned as parochial vicar of Ascension Parish, Bradley Beach, since his priestly ordination in June, said through the video, he appreciated hearing the emphasis that was placed on the relationship between the (priest) homilist and his congregation.

“The connection between the priest and the people is vitally important in a priest’s being able to communicate his message,” said Father Kirk.

Father John Bogacz, parochial vicar of St. Justin the Martyr Parish, Toms River, said he was once again reminded that the purpose of the homily is a way for priests to “convey the message that God wants everyone to hear through the Scriptures, the liturgy and the sacraments.”

“It’s not meant to be a show,” said Father Bogacz.”The homily is meant to be an opportunity to let God touch the lives of people through what we say and we have to learn to say it in a way that captures their attention, gets their interest and makes them want to do something.”

“The homily needs to live on in the person after Sunday,” Father Bogacz continued. “It needs to motivate and move them to action. Jesus did not want us to just hear the Word, but to live the Word and the priests (and deacons) have opportunities to do that in some way through their preaching.”

Father Bogacz said it is his hope and surely the hope of his brother priests, that through their homilies, “we can convey our passion for the faith through our words.”

“We want our people to know that a homily is about God speaking to them through us.”