Liturgy

Scott VanDerveer writes his homilies in a coffee shop, where he is surrounded by strangers. “Would what I have to say speak to their life at all,” he asks himself. “Or would they say, ‘Ugh, that’s so churchy?’”

A surefire way to lose your congregation is to start a homily with “In today’s Gospel reading,” says Thomas Groome. “The purpose of good preaching,” he says, “is to bring our lives to God and God to our lives.” A homilist’s job, then, is to facilitate a meaningful conversation between the two.

Though Jesus preached in parables that still captivate us, not every story told in a homily has a similarly lasting impact. The Rev. Christopher Clohessy shares how preachers can craft stories that linger long after Mass is over.