Preaching in a Time of Misdirecting Shepherds
Too many shepherds try to tempt us to accept the false teachings of our culture. How do we live when even our shepherds want to lead us astray?
The Beauty of Fr. Scalia’s Funeral Homily
Fr. Paul Scalia’s homily at the funeral of his father, Justice Antonin Scalia, was “remarkable in its moving profundity,” as one of my colleagues wrote. But why was the homily so good? Can we analyze it and understand why it was so perfectly appropriate and profound? Such reflections can be helpful to both pastors and … Read more
Advice for Preachers on Sin and Satan
I once knew a pastor whose homilies were so awful, so bone crushingly boring, that I’d swear he composed them in the time it took us to sit down after he’d finished reading the Gospel. In other words, three seconds flat. But while they may have been a tad bit thin theologically, they were always … Read more
On Pulling Punches from the Pulpit
Casting broad generalizations about the state of American Catholicism is a hazardous business. Yet from where I sit in the pew, pulpits are experiencing the phenomena of Sherlock Holmes’ hound that doesn’t bark. More specifically, I am getting a sinking feeling that in this age of ideological political partisanship, bishops and priests are succumbing to … Read more
The Fatherhood of God
In July and August of 1939, just before World War II began, Msgr. Ronald Knox gave five sermons on the “Our Father” — my edition of his Pastoral Sermons does not indicate where, probably at Oxford. Some 60 years later, Pope John Paul II asked us to devote the final year of the 20th century … Read more