ANNOUNCEMENTS

By Karla Bellinger – Reading: Ephesians 4:1-7, 11-13 ;

Brothers and sisters,

I, a prisoner for the Lord,

Urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received

With all humility and gentleness, with patience,

Bearing with one another through love,

Striving to preserve the unity of the Spirit

Through the bond of peace:

One Body and one Spirit,

As you were also called to the one hope of your call:

One Lord, one faith, one baptism;

One God and Father of all,

Who is over all and through all and in all.

But grace was given to each of us

According to the measure of the Christ’s gift.

And he gave some as Apostles, others as prophets,

Others as evangelists, others as pastors and teachers

To equip the holy ones for the work of ministry,

For building up that Body of Christ

Until we all attain to the unity of faith

And knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood,

To the extent of the full stature of Christ.

And he gave some as Apostles, prophets, evangelist, pastors, and teachers: which one are you? What’s your role in building up the kingdom of God?

Today is the feast of St. Matthew. We name him apostle. We name him evangelist.

But did he name himself apostle and evangelist?

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Executive Summary: 

Catholic preaching can improve. At the Institute for Homiletics, we have witnessed homiletic growth anecdotally and we have measured it statistically.

The 2024 cohort of the Preaching for Encounter Program worked on their preaching from the orientation sessions in April 2024 through the capstone retreat in February 2026. Forty-three priests and deacons came from these (arch)dioceses: Chicago, IL; Joliet, IL; Dallas, TX; San Antonio, TX; Gary, IN; and Los Angeles, CA (see group photo on page 27). Supporting their clergy were 429 lay people, the St. Joseph’s Preachers, who learned to be homiletically-trained conversation partners. We are grateful to all of them, as well as to the large support system of bishops, abbot, directors of ongoing formation, donors, coaches, and staff who were the foundation for the 2024 cohort.

Catholic congregations in these represented dioceses are huge; we estimate that the words of these homiletic leaders impact at least 65,000 parishioners daily, weekly, and monthly, with more at funerals, weddings, quinceañera, Christmas and Easter. Incremental improvement in Catholic preaching has the potential to result in exponential renewal for the Church.

We have solid statistical evidence of that improvement from three sources of data: 1) coaches’ pre- and post-evaluations; 2) preachers’ pre- and post-self-evaluations; and 3) parish pre- and post-surveys. See the survey instruments in the Appendix, beginning on page 28.

This report reveals that the quality of Catholic preaching can improve. How to do that is not based on guesswork. Preaching quality is not simply that some are “talented” and some are not. There are standards to effectiveness. How to connect the gospel with the lives of our people can be learned. This is good news. It takes time, financial investment, energy and a commitment from church leadership. But it can be done. This report is evidence for that hope.

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By Dr. Karla Bellinger – 1 Corinthians 1: 26-31

Consider your own calling, brothers and sisters. Not many of you were side by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong, and God chose the lowly and despised of the world , those who count for nothing to reduce to nothing those who are something, so that no human being might boast before God. It is due to him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, as well as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, so thus, as it is written, “Whoever boasts, should boast in the Lord.”

The Word of the Lord

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