New Postings -- April 7 2014

The book is coming along!
The plan is for an introduction and six chapters: each chapter will describe a significant moment in my career as a homilist, and contain homilies which illustrate that point. Not all of them are my best; I hope the reader will be able to spot some defects and judge them on their merits.
I have posted the first chapter (in two parts, because of its length)
I have posted several sample homilies. The most recent ones are for weddings and funerals.  They are listed as "pages"  on this website.
Comments welcomed!

Chapter one = continued

So before I finished  high school, I learned by constant practice the elements of constructing a speech.  It sounds so elementary – the speech has a beginning, middle, and end –  and, most important of all, it has only one topic sentence.  Exactly the same rules apply as to writing an essay in English class.  (By now I can already hear the murmurs from readers:  Why didn’t MY pastor learn that?)

The introduction both gains the attention of the hearers, and announces the topic. The middle part broadens the topic, using standard techniques – examples, comparison and contrast, putting it in a context, etc. And the conclusion re-focuses the theme, leaving the hearers with one clear, easy to remember point. Simple, simple, simple – “tell them what you’re going to say, say it, then remind them what you said, and sit down.” It amazes me how so many preachers ignore that. While it sounds simple in theory to “stick to the topic,” it actually takes great discipline and practice.

oCath of sienar

intoro-  distracting;  jokes

omystery – long – is it good?

when  I was sitting down;   NO  when YOU were coming to church == examples

HOMILY

The role of repetition is a key one – how and when to repeat a point. Rarely do people pay attention to something until they have heard it repeated two or three times. Advertisers are totally aware of this. So it is important to CLEARLY state the theme AT LEAST three times. Don’t make the people work more than necessary! But timing is everything.  The most memorable parts of a sermon are the beginning and the end – that is why it is so important to clearly state the theme at the beginning and the end.

ojohn 6 – did I do it?

EXAMPLE??

“Begin at the beginning; go on  to the end, then stop”

I'm on my way

Hello !

I have now posted the draft copy of the outline for the book I am writing:  "The Bodacious Word."  You are invited to read it and to offer whatever reactions you have, either as comments on the web site itself or as e mails to me.  I would prefer any specific comments be put on the site itself, so that others can see and it becomes more interactive.

I have not yet found a way to let you know when  new posting is made, but I will soon find out.

As I understand this web site, there are three types of entries that can be made:  blog posts made by me, comments made by any of you, and  "pages" which are a separate category.  I will post parts of the book on the "Pages" section. At this point, I don't even know how you can comment on the pages themselves. This is a learning process !!

God willing, I might find another type of blog that will make further editing and comments easier and more helpful,  but I am just plunging ahead at this moment.
Thanks so much.
Love,
Tim

I'm back !

My new book is coming along!
When I decided that I actually would jump in and get a book published, I decided that the quickest way to do it was to EDIT a book that I have ALREADY written! For the last four years I have been writing out my homilies, and so I have over a hundred that are usable.
The challenge for me was to make it interesting, and personal.
So I decided to weave two themes together:
One, an autobiography of my life as a homilist, showing how significant moments in my life have affected my style of preaching;
Second, to illustrate for the reader the process by which a homily is written and developed.
In this way, I found a target audience for the book: people at the beginning of a ministry of preaching, in whatever form, and people who are interested in the quality (or lack of same) in Catholic and other churches.
Stay tuned!