{"id":2731,"date":"2008-10-07T14:47:00","date_gmt":"2008-10-07T14:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2008\/10\/on-preaching-through-grace-it-changes-lives.html"},"modified":"2008-10-07T14:47:00","modified_gmt":"2008-10-07T14:47:00","slug":"on-preaching-through-grace-it-changes-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/10\/on-preaching-through-grace-it-changes-lives.html","title":{"rendered":"On preaching: “Through grace, it changes lives”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over at the biblical Synod<\/a>, they’re getting an earful about — of all things — preaching. <\/p>\n

From CNS<\/a>: <\/p>\n

After the current church year dedicated to St. Paul, the Catholic Church should dedicate a year to the art of preaching, Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of Tucson, Ariz., told the world Synod of Bishops on the Bible.<\/p>\n

<\/a>“Unfortunately, preaching in our day can lose its savor, become formulaic and uninspired, leaving the hearer empty,” Bishop Kicanas, vice president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, told synod members meeting to discuss “The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church.”<\/p>\n

Bishop Kicanas and Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago, USCCB president, were among the 23 synod members to address the assembly Oct. 7.<\/p>\n

Each member submitted a summary of his talk, which was released to the press, and a synod briefing officer provided further details to reporters.<\/p>\n

Pointing to an account in Chapter 20 of the Acts of the Apostles, Bishop Kicanas told the synod members that even St. Paul “on occasion was known to talk on and on.”<\/p>\n

“We are told that Paul was preaching in Troas on the first day of the week and one of his listeners — the young lad Eutychus — was sitting on the windowsill listening. He became drowsier and drowsier and finally fell asleep,” the bishop said.<\/p>\n

“He fell from the third-story window to his death,” he said. “God, through Paul, brought the young boy back to life.”<\/p>\n

The bishop said that while people still tend to nod off during a boring homily no one usually dies.<\/p>\n

But the liturgy is supposed to build people up, he said. Preaching is supposed to comfort, heal, bring hope, inspire, challenge, teach and confront.<\/p>\n

“Through grace, it changes lives,” he said.<\/p>\n

Bishop Kicanas said preaching in the Catholic Church must improve, and he asked what would happen if the church dedicated a year to improve preaching.<\/p>\n

Bishops and priests, working together, should study what makes a homily effective in “this distracted world,” he said. They should ask laypeople what matters to them and what they would suggest to improve homilies.<\/p>\n

With a global, concerted effort to improve preaching, “the new springtime for Christianity, about which the Holy Father speaks, could burst forth and bloom throughout our church,” Bishop Kicanas said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s unfortunate that he doesn’t seem to have mentioned that other branch of Holy Orders that preaches: deacons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over at the biblical Synod, they’re getting an earful about — of all things — preaching. From CNS: After the current church year dedicated to St. Paul, the Catholic Church should dedicate a year to the art of preaching, Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of Tucson, Ariz., told the world Synod of Bishops on the Bible.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-art-of-preaching"],"yoast_head":"\nOn preaching: "Through grace, it changes lives" - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/10\/on-preaching-through-grace-it-changes-lives.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"On preaching: "Through grace, it changes lives" - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Over at the biblical Synod, they’re getting an earful about — of all things — preaching. 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Prior to that, Deacon Greg worked for 26 years as a writer and producer for CBS News, where he contributed to \"The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric,\" \"60 Minutes II,\" \"48 Hours,\" (Emmy Award, Writers Guild of America Award) and \"Sunday Morning.\" He was co-writer for the acclaimed documentary \"9\/11,\" hosted by Robert DeNiro. (Emmy Award, Christopher Award, Peabody Award, Writers Guild of America Award.) His radio essays were featured in the bestselling book \"Deadlines and Datelines\" by Dan Rather. He's also a two-time winner of the Catholic Press Association Award. Other places you may find him: AMERICA, U.S. CATHOLIC, CATHOLIC DIGEST, REALITY (Redemptorist Communications) and THE BROOKLYN TABLET. He also contributes homiletic reflections to the parish resource CONNECT!, published by Liturgical Publications. In November 2009, he began serving a three-year term as a consultant to the Communications Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Deacon Greg grew up in Maryland (Go Terps!) but he and his wife today live in the beautiful borough of Queens, New York. You can contact Deacon Greg at dcngreg@gmail.com.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/author\/gkandra"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2731\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}