Institute for Homiletics Launches New Cohort of Preachers
The Institute launched its newest 2024 Preaching for Encounter Program cohort of forty-six priests and deacons with a three-day introductory retreat on June 25-27, 2024 at Mundelein Seminary in Illinois.
Fr. Matthew Hegemann, O. Cist. a University of Dallas graduate (’15, BA in history, ’20, MA in theology) is participating in the new cohort. He said, “Our recent retreat at Mundelein seminary has me excited and ready to begin learning more about the craft of composing and delivering homilies. I hope to learn more about myself as a preacher and about the people to whom I’m speaking. In fact, the entire program revolves around making a connection between the preacher and those sitting in the pew, such that homilies are engaging and centered upon common experience.” Fr. Matthew is a former UD soccer student-athlete who entered Our Lady of Dallas Cistercian monastery in ‘2016. He joins Fr. Francis Gruber as the two Cistercian monks in the new cohort. Abbot Peter Verhalen and Fr. Christoper Kalan have been in the 2022 cohort and concluded their two-year preaching program in Notre Dame, IN on July 9-11, 2024.
The new preachers come from the dioceses of Dallas, Joliet, IL, and Gary IN, and the archdioceses of Chicago, Indianapolis, San Antonio, and Los Angeles.
Dr. Suzanne Nawrocki, one of the program’s coaches said that the retreat reminded her of “the feeling of a new semester in school when your pencils were sharpened and you were anxious to start classes. That’s how I felt as I greeted forty-six priests and deacons from around the country to start this program to invigorate their preaching. Joining these men in prayer, in the classroom, and at meals, the excitement was palpable.” On the first night of the retreat, retired professor of homiletics and another coach, Fr. Ed Griswold exhorted the newest preachers to throw their heart and soul into their upcoming study and preaching formation work.
The retreat at Mundelein introduced the preachers to the vocabulary of the “science of homiletics.” Sessions touched on the ways to lead people toward an encounter with the living God. Dr. Karla Bellinger, executive director of the Institute, presented the theology of preaching, how to listen and connect with listeners, principles of delivery, and how to focus a homily to make one point. Morning and evening prayer and daily Mass bonded the group together liturgically.
A highlight unique to this new cohort was joining in the Marian pilgrimage of the Eucharistic Revival. Fr. Matthew says, “During our retreat, we had the wonderful opportunity of joining in a Eucharistic procession on Mundelein’s beautiful campus, revealing the true power of the Eucharist to bring people together and calling for unity in a time of so much division.” As the swallows flitted overhead, the vested priests and deacons from the Institute more than doubled the number of clergy processing through the woods and around the lake in the breeze of a northern Midwestern evening.
Fr. Matthew is hopeful that the focus on homiletics will bring the Church together as we seek to renew the Eucharistic celebration: “I’m confident this program, in light of that message of unity, can help foster greater devotion and understanding of our liturgy, which helps us to meditate upon the Word of God before receiving Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.”
After the procession, coming into the evening session, a deacon from Joliet, IL was so inspired that he said to the retreat leader, “What can you possibly do to top that?” Dr. Bellinger replied, “I won’t even try!” At the end of that long Wednesday of processions and learning, at the social, the priests and deacons shouted and cheered (and booed) as Venezuela beat Mexico 1-0 in the Copa America 2024 tournament. One said afterwards, “The campus was beautiful. The weather was cooperative. And the new friendships were priceless.”
The Lord was with us. What could be better than that?