Clergy Formation Day Preaching and Communication

Posted on 14 November 2012

Fr. Gerard McCarthy SVD was the facilitator for a special day of ongoing formation for the clergy of the Killaloe Diocese.

Drawing on his experience in the field of Biblical Ministry that he has been exercising over the last few years he explored the whole area of preaching and communicating God's Word. He reminded us that what we are offering is really Good News and that there is a great hunger among our people to hear that good news in a way that is relevant to them in their daily lives.

Fr. Gerard encouraged us to focus on the quality rather than on the quantity of what we had to share. Much time was spent in encouraging us to prepare well for our Sunday Homily. He offered us ways in which we could give our homilies focus that would be easy for people to understand and encouraged us to find ways that would capture the imagination of those who were listening to us. Our model of preaching and teaching should always be Jesus and what we had to share is the way in which the Gospel speaks to us. 

We were reminded that the homily is an integral part of the liturgy and how we celebrate the liturgy is as important as what we have to say in the homily. His own energy around the Word of God was an ispiration to those of us who were present.

The afternoon session included a look at the Gospel of Luke which is the gospel we will be using in the coming year. He highlighted some of the key themes from Luke and offered ways in which we might draw on those themes for our preaching. A key part of his message for the day was that we should allow ourselves to be inspired by the Word and to remember that the same Spirit who inspires us is at work in those who will hear us.