Preach: The Catholic Homilies Podcast

“I’m not trying to convey concepts. What I’m trying to convey is my own reliance on God and my own hope in God,” Sam Sawyer, S.J., says when asked to describe his approach to delivering a homily. “The best thing I have to offer someone else is the invitation to deeper love and trust in God.”Sam is a Jesuit of the U.S.A. East province of the Jesuits and the 15th editor in chief of America Media.In his conversation with host Ricardo da Silva, S.J., after the homily, Sam shares how ancient monastic wisdom has inspired him to lean into the more difficult lines in the Scriptures.Read the full text of this week’s homily and Scripture readings.Do you have a preacher to recommend for Preach? Let us know here.Get daily Scripture reflections and support "Preach" by becoming a digital subscriber to America Magazine.“Preach” is made possible through the generous support of the Compelling Preaching Initiative, a project of Lilly Endowment Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“I have discovered over the years that if you save your big point for the end, people have often tuned you out,” Deacon Fritz Bauerschmidt says, “You really have to give them something in that first minute.”Fritz is a permanent deacon in the Archdiocese of Baltimore assigned to the Cathedral of Mary, Our Queen. He is also a professor of theology at Loyola Maryland University, the Jesuit university in Baltimore, an author, a husband and a father of three. After the homily, Fritz explains to host Ricardo da Silva, S.J., why the rapper Post Malone provided the perfect hook for his homily.Read the full text of this week’s homily, and Scripture readings.Do you have a preacher to recommend for Preach? Let us know here.Get daily Scripture reflections and support "Preach" by becoming a digital subscriber to America Magazine.“Preach” is made possible through the generous support of the Compelling Preaching Initiative, a project of Lilly Endowment Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“The most important thing for me when I enter into preparing a homily is just being able to authentically give witness to who I am and where I am in my relationship with Christ,” says John Gribowich. “If I can’t do that, then not only is it inauthentic, but it also just doesn’t really grab anyone.”John Gribowich is a priest of the Diocese of Brooklyn. Today, he lives in San Francisco, Calif., where he serves as the religious studies teacher at Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory High School. Along with theology and art history, his personal interests include meditating, reading, running and listening to Bob Dylan. After the homily, John shares with host Ricardo da Silva, S.J., how he thought to connect baseball to the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.Links from the showRead Scripture readings for the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, Year ARead a transcript of John Gribowich’s homilyDo you have a preacher to recommend for Preach? Let us know here.Receive daily Scripture reflections from America Media by becoming a subscriber“Preach” is made possible through the generous support of the Compelling Preaching Initiative, a project of Lilly Endowment Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The best advice Greg Chisholm, S.J., received about preaching a homily was not taught in the seminary. “I was helped as a young priest by a woman in a church that I served in Detroit, Michigan,” he said. “She came to me and she said, ‘When I go to church, I want to hear about Jesus, and you didn’t have a lot about Jesus in that sermon.’ I have never forgotten that.”Greg Chisholm, S.J., the superior of the Jesuit community in Maryland and a former pastor of St. Charles Borromeo in Harlem, is the premiere preacher on “Preach,” our new podcast where we take you into the minds and hearts of some of the finest preachers in the Catholic Church today. The show is hosted by Ricardo da Silva, S.J., a Jesuit priest from South Africa, associate editor at America and associate pastor at the Church of St. Francis Xavier in Manhattan.“On this show, you won’t only hear and learn from Jesuits about preaching,” says Ricardo. “I will talk with lay liturgical preachers, women and men who ordinarily exercise a preaching ministry in their respective communities. I’ll talk with deacons, priests, bishops and maybe even a cardinal or two.”“Preach” will usually be released on Mondays. But we could not pass on the significance of launching a podcast about preaching on Pentecost Sunday—when the church celebrates the descent of the Holy Spirit on the disciples in the upper room—which the Scriptures tell us “enabled them to proclaim” God’s word to all nations.Links from the showRead Scripture readings for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, Year ARead a full transcript of Greg's homily.Do you have a preacher to recommend for Preach? Let us know here.Receive daily Scripture reflections from America Media by becoming a subscriber“Preach” is made possible through the generous support of the Compelling Preaching Initiative, a project of Lilly Endowment Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What makes a great Catholic homily? And what goes into the art of delivering it well?“Preach” is a new weekly podcast from America Media that features a diverse cast of the finest Catholic preachers. Each week, preachers open up their hearts and minds, sharing their spiritual lives, approaches to interpreting scripture and techniques for preparing the best homilies. Launching on the Solemnity of Pentecost May 28, 2023, “Preach” follows the liturgical calendar.On each episode, listeners will first hear an inspiring homily, especially delivered for the podcast, and then take a privileged peek into the heart and mind of the preacher in a conversation with host Ricardo da Silva, S.J., a Jesuit priest and an associate editor at America Media.Get daily Scripture reflections and support "Preach" by becoming a digital subscriber to America Magazine.“Preach” is made possible through the generous support of the Compelling Preaching Initiative, a project of Lilly Endowment Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices