Dominican preparation starts with our simple profession and ends at the end of our earthly life.
In the fourth part, I develop the following points: general suggestions om preparation; parts of a sermon, and how to deliver a sermon or homily.
- GENERAL SUGGESTIONS
All speakers, orators and preachers - and the audiences - give much importance to the preparation of speeches, sermons, and homilies.
(1) There is remote, proximate and most proximate preparation.
Remote: reading, studying, meditating, and being alert to the reality of the world, to the signs of the times. Remember what Vincent de Couesnongle, then Master of the Order, said: “A Dominican has to read two things everyday: the Bible and the newspaper.” (Theologian Karl Barth was the first to use this often- quoted saying).
Proximate preparation answers the following questions: What is my goal? What am I going to say? To whom am I going to speak? What is the occasion? Your sermon or homily is a religious sermon, the sermon of one appointed by the Church through Ordination to preach the Good News. No to preaching politics, but yes to face reality and defend human and Christian values: human dignity and tights, justice, peace, nonviolence, freedom, truth, forgiveness, solidarity, and compassion. To denounce injustice and other social sins and problems like the prophets, because prophets we are.
Most immediate preparation. Be sure that before preaching, you gather your thoughts, invoke the Holy Spirit, offer yourself to God, like St. Joan of Arc: “Here I am Lord, use me.”
(2) Method of preaching, in general. Elements: “Determine goal or aim, gather the material; arrange the material, and communicate the material” selected (Pettry, 131).
Goal or aim: What is your concrete purpose? One does remember the purpose throughout the speech or sermon. A sermon may be like a journey: first decide on your goal, aim or end. Only then can you elect the means to arrive at your destination. In deciding the goal of your sermon, you have to take into account your audience, their common and specific needs: Why did they come to this religious or liturgical activity or retreat? What do they expect from me? What do I preach to meet the need? Remember that you are not alone, that the Holy Spirit is with you waiting to be invoked and to help you - with the Sacred Scriptures. Again, what is our aim, what do you wish to achieve through your sermon? To whom are you talking? To Christians? To Children or youth or elderly, or a mixture of all?
Gathering material. “What the Bible say? Generally, interpret it literally and also spiritually. “St. Paul’s assurance that ‘not even a hair of your heads will be lost’ (Acts 27:34) is not intended as a solution to baldness” (Pettry, 135). Citing the Bible gives authority to your preaching. “In your search for what the Bible says on any matter, avoid twisting or forcing a text to say something it does not say. Consider the specific text in its context. And also ask yourself, how does the text touch me and could touch my audience? Stories and illustrations give flesh and emotion to your preaching.
Arrange the material. I remember the lesson I learned when I took up research: include first, what is necessary; second, what is useful, and in the third place, what is ornamental. Be able to pinpoint what is the heart of your message, put it in a sentence. Do not let accidental or secondary ideas distract you and your audience.
We try to convince the mind, move the will with the help of the emotions: to convince (intellect), to move (emotions) and to act or do good deeds (will). Plan your sermon well and in orderly manner 1, 2, 3. Develop not too many points, at most three perhaps. Be focused. Always keep your texts for possible future use: not to repeat them but to keep improving them by removing some points or statements, adding some more, and make them better!
Words to ponder: “A sermon is like a bridge that helps you take people from where they are to where they need to be…. And the Spirit will help us to apply the truth of the Word to our lives. … Preach messages that are interesting, easy to understand, and easy to remember” … “The first virtue of eloquence is clarity” (Quintilian, [rhetorician from Hispania, fist century], Institutio Oratoria; quoted by Santiago Lopez Navia, in Servidores de la palabra, 20). If the message is not clear to you, it will not be clear to your listeners (Pretty, 138). If it is too long it will also be usually tiresome.
- PARTS OF A SERMON
The advice of an expert on public speaking: Don’t speak until you are sure you have something to say, and know just what it is, and then say it, and sit down (Dale Carnegie, Public Speaking, 9).
Make an outline of your sermon. “The outline is to a sermon like the skeleton is to the body, like the framework is to the house and steel girders - beams - to skyscraper. It is vital, indispensable!” (Pretty, 140). Making an outline is always helpful. It puts borders on your sermon or homily, or retreat conference. Outline: determine the kind of introduction, the main points of the development (the body), and a suitable conclusion.
The three essential parts of a paper, an essay, a thesis, a speech: Introduction, Body and Conclusion. Introduction: What am I going to talk about (subject matter)? Body: I talk about it, develop the main idea. Conclusion: I conclude by saying I did what I promised you I would do - add a closing touch.
Experts tell us repeatedly that the most important parts of a speech or a sermon existentially (for speaker and listeners) are the introduction and the conclusion: a suggestive introduction and an impacting conclusion. In both, there is a need to care more for the external aspects: pace and rhythm, volume of voice, emphasis, silences, looks, and gestures, cadences…” (Angel Ignacio Lafuente Zorrilla,
(1) Introduction. Plato says that “the beginning is very important in every process” (Republic, 2, 377b; quoted by Burgos, in Valero, 111). At the beginning you get or miss the interest of your audience. “The main purpose of the preacher as he begins is to interest the people in his subject – and to interest them immediately” (MacNutt, 34). He must interest the audience with an interesting subject, or line, or story, or quote. When the theme of a sermon is part of a wider theme, try to present your concrete theme within and connected with the wider theme.
in Valero’s, 46).
Types of introductions: quotation, original or startling statement, anecdote or narrative opening, statement of the topic, rhetorical question, plan of development (main points).
Some critics add that, within the introduction, one presents the central proposition of the talk, the proposition you wish to prove that should be well prepared, written and learned by heart. Words to ponder: I would go to the length of recommending a preacher to place a distinct categorical proposition before him, such as he can write down in a form of words, and to guide and limit his preparation by it, and to aim in all he says to bring it out, and nothing else” (John Henry Newman, “University Preaching,” The Idea of a University, 1912, 412; quoted by S. MacNutt, 11).
The introduction is the exordium. It is said that it is in a real sense the most important part (psychologically, for the audience). A good introduction captures the attention of the audience. It attempts to present a beautiful and even seductive horizon to look at. A bird’s eye view of what is to come. Be sure your subject matter interests you and the audience. “The basic purpose of an introduction is to gain attention and create interest… Prepare the introduction carefully and write it out… Keep the introduction short” (Pettry, 140-141).
(2) Body of the talk (proof) is like the meat as in a sandwich. In the body of your talk, you convince your auditors, not only in their minds but also in their hearts – intellect and emotions. The proposition may be the title of the talk. Stick to argue your proposition and do not mix it with other arguments and other things. Use reasonable arguments and above all faith arguments (like St. Paul: what God or Christ or the Hotly Spirit say); give examples and illustrations that move; appropriate quotations; apply doctrine to life.
Essentially, the most important part is the body of the sermon. (The sermon stands up or falls mainly by the body and its well-ordered and development points – no more than three; best, perhaps, just one point). However, really, the most important existentially are the introduction and the conclusion. A perfect sermon: the Discourse of Christ on the Mountain: Introduction; the Beatitudes. Conclusion, the Parable of the Foundations. The audiences then and always remember well the introduction and the conclusion – and the best meat in-between! (cf. Sermon on the Mount, Mt Chapters 5-7).
I remember the words of a great Dominican preacher, Fr. Sylvester MacNutt: “Far from suffering from lack of ideas, most sermons suffer from a lack of idea development… A single idea amplified is far stronger than ten ideas added together but undeveloped” (Sylvester F. MacNUTT OP, Gauging Sermon Effectiveness, Dublin: Clonmore & Reynolds Ltd., and London: Burns & Oates Ltd., 1963, pp. 42-43).
The preacher develops in an orderly manner his ideas. Moreover, he uses a simple language, understood by all, by the most uneducated in the audience. The preacher has to answer the questions he may have posed at the beginning. “If I pose questions at the beginning of my talk, I have to be sure at its end that I have answered them.”
What is the matter of your speech or sermon? Focus on a main point. “Not only must there be a definite subject matter (unity), but something definite must be said about that subject to put it in focus” (S. MacNutt, 30). Do not be scattered and talk of everything. Cardinal Newman: “Nothing is as fatal to the effect of a sermon as the habit of preaching of three or four subjects at once… Even though we only preach on one at a time…it… is in a matter of fact nothing short of three sermons in succession without a break between them” (Henry Newman, The Idea of a University, London: Longmans, Green & Co. 1912, 412. In MacNutt, 28).
A good body of a speech convinces minds, sways emotions and bends wills. The truth shines, and without it the speech or sermon is boneless. Too much doctrine without feelings, emotions become bony, dry, and dead. Present your ideas and arguments in an orderly manner, but not like in a classroom; no to digression; no to too much material. Against sweeping generalizations and inaccurate statements. Scriptural.
Types of body of sermon: organization of materials and possible arrangements or order: from least to greatest (climactic), from known to unknown, from simple to complex, deductive, inductive; narrative, analytical…
(3) Conclusion. In a spiritual lecture or long sermon, the conclusion is a brief summary of the main ideas developed in body. In a short speech, or sermon or homily it is “the last and best chance to bring the truths of the message to the hearts of the listeners…”
The conclusion should be written out and not be longer than the introduction. The last words must be effective! An appropriate illustration, a brief statement of the major truth, a verse of a hymn, any of these might be used to capture the total weight of the message. Aim the conclusion like an arrow to the heart of the listeners. Let the people depart determined to be not only hearers but doers of the truth” (Mt 7:24-27; Pettry, 142-143).
Types of conclusions: The conclusion closes your talk with a phrase, a quote, a thought, a prayer – something easily remembered by your audience. “Ideally the Conclusion should be a climax, stronger than anything that has gone before” (S. MacNutt, 45). Strong. Compact. A moving final line. (Cf. Sertillanges, El orador sagrado). Main question to answer: “What shall we do, brothers?” (Acts 2:37).
- HOW TO DELIVER A SERMON?
Someone says: “It is not so much what you say as how you say it.” It is not enough to have good materials but that the materials sound good. A piece of music played technically well but without emotion loses its soul, its moving beauty. Listen to good music. It uplifts the soul and moves our passions – we are body-soul.
The way we communicate our message our sermon to our listeners is truly important. We give a message to be received. Our body talks, too: our eyes, our voice, our movements… all may contribute to the reception of our message. Sobriety: the attention of the listeners ought to be on our message not on our voice or hands or breathing…
Go the point. Always have in mind the aim or goal of your message. You want to lead people to conversion, to Jesus. Avoid meaningless statements. So do not repeat often the same words. Say what is needed to be understood. Use simple not obscure language. Use some illustrations and examples, but not many. And your sermon should not consist of an endless string of illustrations, which may indeed amuse and entertain, but leave your people spiritually hungry and empty” (Pettry, 145).
To deliver a sermon well, we have to have a sense of communication. We do not imitate others: we are not these others. Each one of us has its own personality and style. We have to be natural; we learn to be natural, “and the only way under high heaven by which you can get the knack of this enlarged naturalness is by practice.” “Sincerity and enthusiasm and high earnestness will help you, too.” Put your heart in your talk (Dale Carnegie, Public Speaking, 92-93). Advices from experts: stress important words and subordinate unimportant ones; change your pitch; vary your speed; pause before and after important sentences, etc. Know and follow basic principles of rhetoric and eloquence: “simplicity, clarity, quality, adequate ornament, appropriate terminology, convenient rhythm, and brevity” (José Ramos Domingo, in Valero, Servidores de la palabra, 170, 175).
We deliver a talk, a sermon not to our own selves - like in a soliloquy. We deliver the sermon to a concrete audience with its needs and problems and joys. When you deliver a letter, a book, or give a ball pen, or… you do not throw it to him/her but gently give it to the person receiving it.
Pondering words: Before feeding them [the listeners] spiritual food, he must first make them hungry (S. MacNutt, 23).
To read or not to read? Most speakers I have heard and listen to their prepared and read speech word by word are usually boring. Reading with remarks off the cuff here and there is better. The example of Cardinal Jaime Sin of Manila: he read his written talk, but from time to time he spoke extemporaneously - and his audience loved this! Objectively, it is usually better not to read. This way, the preacher may have a better connection with his listeners. Story. I remember the words of an old lady after a bishop read his sermon: “If he does not know it, how can he expect that we learn it?” (Heard the story from Fulton Sheen)
However, for those of us who have to speak not in his or her native language, to read might be fine, and certainly understandable. But even in these cases, the sermons ought not be read, perhaps, in its entirety: it may entail - as I have often noticed - not looking to the audience at all. A helpful advice: have eye contact with your audience. Memorize at least a phrase at the beginning, a paragraph in the middle and phrase at the end. Perhaps!
I am convinced that it is better not to read the whole talk. I have done that most of my life. Now, in old age, at times I read a homily in part, because I might forget an important point I wish to underline. How about learning the text by heart and then give it? It may be very much OK: as a young Dominican priest, I - almost always - did that. Generally, it is better to prepare well and know the ideas and their order, like great speakers usually do. Let us remember that, generally, reading preaching is not preaching but reading.
If one decides to read a sermon, how should this be done? Be sure you have prepared well and previously read a few times your text – until you feel comfortable. Then, read it: look to your text, look to your audience, speak. By the way, the text you wrote you wrote it to be read. It is not the same to write and to talk. (Write it in double space so you will not have to use your finger to point the line or word; lay be, one side only; loose pages; do not hold it in your hands).
CONCLUSION
And to conclude! Be sure you prepare well your talks. Feed constantly your needed remote preparation. Be alert to new biblical and theological developments. Be aware of the flow of the news and events in our word and in our place of mission. Then, prepare your sermon: a doctrinal, spiritual, pastoral and human sermon – with one aspect predominating a bit more. Try to convince, inspire and move people to action, to perform good deeds. If we do what we can, the Holy Spirit will always do his part and fill our hearts and the hearts of our patient listeners.
A story on St. Augustine. One of the main biblical texts that guided the primitive Christian community is Acts 4: 32. Once, Bishop Augustine was in the Church with his congregation. He wants to tell his people about the common and poor life of his clerics. He sat in the midst of the congregation and ask Deacon Lazarus to come forward and read the text from Acts, chapter 4, verse 32: “Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common.” When Lazarus finished reading, St. Augustine took the book and said: “Now I wish to read it; it gives me greater joy to read these words to you than to speak any of my own.” After reading the brief text from Acts, Augustine adds: “This is the way we should like to live; pray for us that we may do so” (Augustine, Sermo de vita et moribus clericorum suorum; quoted by Pierre Mandonnet OP, St. Domininc and His Work [London: Herder Book Company, 1948], 263). That was the shortest homily from the Bishop of Hippo, although most probably he did something similar, if not often, at least some times. Should we preachers not do that at times, and always when we have not properly prepared the homily? (FGB).