by Claire Mathieu
Most Catholics only hear the Word of God broken open during homilies. How can homilies have more impact? The faithful could easily prepare better to receive it, but most do not; and the Holy Spirit, in my opinion, could easily do a better job (!), but somehow chooses not to: given that reality, what can homilists do to preach more effectively? How can their message be better heard, understood, remembered, and acted upon? Expectations are high, yet parishioners rarely give feedback about homilies, and what little they do give is seldom specific and almost never constructive.
A few years ago, lay people in France formed an organization called “SOH” (as in “Service for Optimizing Homilies”), to help priests, deacons, seminarians, and lay leaders of funeral services, improve their style so as to be more effective. I joined it last year. It has the support of the CEF (the French equivalent of the USCCB) via the SNLPS (National Service for Liturgy and Sacramental Practice), as well as the approval of the bishop in each of the 8 dioceses where it is active, in France and in Belgium.
Priests and deacons who wish to become better homilists sign up for a free series of four half-day training sessions, during which we study some concrete, specific points. Those are separate from actual content, which is the sole realm of the preacher.
- How does one prevent people’s attention from drifting right away? The first sentence is key, and we study the art of finding a catchy opening;
- How can the assembly better follow the preacher’s line of reasoning? We study techniques to select and present arguments to make a convincing case;
- Does the homilist merely present an intellectual argument, or is it more of a matter of “deep calling to deep”? We practice how clues in one’s appearance, attitude, and voice, can help a heart-to-heart communication;
- After the Mass, do the people merely say: “It was a good homily!” without being able to remember what it was about, or can they reconstruct the key points? We go over a few techniques that help memorization;
- Is the homily merely something thoughtful and touching to admire, or does it spur some action on the part of the listeners? We study the translation of the main message of the homily into some simple, concrete suggestion for the parishioners.
The work is focused on practice. In every session, the three participants each give a homily, followed by a collective analysis, then they watch a videotape of their own homily. It can be a shocking revelation of one’s weak points, resulting in almost instantaneous, spectacular improvements.
Since its beginning in 2007, the association has branched out. Its activities now include visits of seminaries (with 52 seminarians trained so far, from four seminaries), on-site visits of former participants to hear them in context and provide them with a refresher, and individual coaching of people who are too busy to come to the regular sessions. The proportions of participants is correlated with the strength of the local bishop’s support, and varies from one sixth to one quarter of the priests and from one third to one half of the deacons.
What motivates the priests and deacons who sign up for training? They may have a feeling that they are not as effective as they’d like to be, but are not able to pin down the precise issues or to know what to do about them, and so they swallow their pride and ask for help. It is a difficult step that takes a lot of humility. Actually, the men who sign up for training sessions care about their homilies and spend much time preparing them, so they tend to be already much better than average, and it is gratifying to see how sometimes breaking a single bad habit can transform their delivery. Evaluations reveal that 90% of participants say that they benefitted from the sessions.
There are also bonuses for us, the lay members. First, we are all interested in homilies, and it’s a pleasure to hear some from various sources. Second, I also learn from the other members of the association (for example one of them is a teacher of theater), and in my own profession I can try to use the methods I hear about. Third, we have a free lunch at the chancery after the morning’s work, complete with a white tablecloth, cloth napkins, and a close-up view of Notre Dame de Paris cathedral from the hallway window (and similar rewards in other dioceses, I am told.) Fourth, since we are neither parishioners nor in a situation of competition or of hierarchical relations, the priests often open up about the joys and the challenges of their work in general, and I must say that it’s been an eye-opener. Being a parish priest is not easy…
Thus, we hope to be of service to the church by helping preachers learn a little about the art of oratory in practice. It’s fun, and rewarding, and the thanks we get from some of the participants make it all worthwhile!
Website (in French:) http://www.sohcatho.org
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