ANNOUNCEMENTS

On March 4, 2023, more than a hundred deacons and their wives gathered for the annual Deacon Congress for the diocese of Dallas, TX. Dr. Karla Bellinger, executive director of the Institute for Homiletics presented “Practicing and Preaching the Presence of God.”

In keeping with the institute’s focus, “renewing preachers to renew preaching,” Bellinger gave two ninety-minute presentations. The first addressed the deacon’s personal connection with God. In the second, the deacons and their wives worked with the upcoing Sunday’s readings to determine, how do we “preach Presence”? How can we put that closeness that we experience into words that inspire others?

The conundrum that Bellinger brought up arises from the disconnect between preaching Real Presence in the Eucharistic Revival and the denuminization of the current world. Numinous means a sense of the Spirit, the spiritual. De-numinous is an absense of the sense of the Spirit, a loss of the sense of the Divine as surrounding us, enfolding us, and supporting us. How do we preach Presence in the midst of a pervading emptiness? In the United Staes and western Europe, we are not speaking the same language. (In some parts of the world, the sense of the Divine is much more real.) People hearing of Real Presence have no underlying sense of Presence, therefore, what we are saying makes no sense; what difference does it make? God calls preachers to be full of the Spirit and learn to be translators from one language to the other. Bernard of Clairveaux, in Song of Songs says,

The man who is wise, therefore, will see his life as more like a reservoir than a canal. The canal simultaneously pours out what it receives. The reservoir retains the water until it is filled, then discharges the overflow without loss to itself. Today there are many in the Church who act like canals; the reservoirs are fare too rare.

Can the liturgical homily lead to a more robust understanding of the Table? Deacons are to practice the Presence of God until it oozes out of their pores, then preach the Presence of God because they cannot hold it in. God is here. God is with us.

Their hearts were burning within them as they headed to lunch together.

One of the deacons shared this experience about preaching his homily differently: “I took a step back tonight and realized…..God, through me, brought people to encounter Him today!! So COOL and so humbling!! I never had that sense or reaction before until today.”

Deacon John J. O’Leary, Associate Director of the Institute for Homiletics, is pleased to accept a grant from The Catholic Foundation to support start-up costs for the institute.

Read more…

We are beginning to recruit the next cohort of the Preaching for Encounter program. Are you a preacher who is eager to learn and grow? Do you passionately want your homilies to bring your people into an encounter with the living God? If so, please contact your bishop or whoever is in charge of ongoing formation for your diocese and ask them to get your diocese involved.

The current 2022 cohort for the Preaching for Encounter Program has nearly 50 preachers. They come from the dioceses of Dallas, TX, Victoria, TX, and Green Bay, WI.

For the 2024 cohort, we will enroll six peer learning groups with 8-10 preachers each. If you are a bishop or a vicar for clergy and you would like for your diocese to be part of this, please contact us directly. We would love to hear from you!

When we have reached the capacity of six groups, we will begin a waiting list for the next cohort.

What is the timeline for participation in the 2024 cohort?

• October, 2023, give us your “yes” to your diocese being part of the two-year program
• January, 2024, get a “yes” from 8-10 humble and willing preachers who will commit themselves to the two-year process of homiletic growth; have them fill out and send in their application; please contact us for recruiting suggestions and guidelines
• February 2024, we will interview your recommended preachers to get to know them and to determine their level of interest (admission is not automatic).
• March – May, 2024, the program kicks off with an orientation in your home diocese
• June, 2024, Summer introductory retreat for all participants
• July-August, 2024, Pre-coaching interviews
• September-October, 2024, peer learning groups begin to meet, personal coaching begins

For more information about the Preaching for Encounter Program, click here.

Louisville, KY – December 1, 2022: The Institute for Homiletics is pleased to announce the recent election of executive director Dr. Karla J. Bellinger to the position of President of The Catholic Association of Teachers of Homiletics!

This appointment follows the annual Catholic Association of Teachers of Homiletics’ meeting in Louisville, KY, on Thursday, December 1st, 2022. At the meeting, Dr. Bellinger was elected to a two-year term as President, following her two year term as vice-president. Her term will end in December of 2024.

Dr. Karla J. Bellinger has been the executive director of the Institute for Homiletics since its founding in the fall of 2021. She is the author of Connecting Pulpit and Pew: Breaking Open the Conversation about Catholic Preaching (Liturgical Press, 2014) and co-author with Fr. Michael Connors, CSC of the recently published Remembering Why We Preach from Ave Maria Press (2022). She is also the co-author of three volumes of Living the Word, cycles A, B, and C (2019 – 2022). Bellinger is the former associate director of the John S. Marten Program in Homiletics and Liturgics at the University of Notre Dame.

The Institute for Homiletics was recently featured in The Texas Catholic’s story, ‘Preaching for an encounter with God’:

If the word homiletician isn’t in your personal vocabulary, maybe it should be. A homiletician could make a significant impact on your parish.

The Institute for Homiletics was established at the University of Dallas last fall through a unique collaboration with the Diocese of Dallas and The Catholic Foundation. Its mission is to strengthen the preaching done by priests and deacons across the diocese and beyond.

“Here in the Diocese of Dallas, we have wonderful and amazing priests and deacons. They truly love to serve and nourish the faithful in our parishes,” Bishop Edward J. Burns said. “With the Institute of Homiletics, we want to help our priests and deacons to enhance their preaching in ways that will positively transform lives and create deep-rooted encounters with God.”

Read more…

The Institute was also highlighted in The Cor Catholic:

The Homiletics Institute, headed by Executive Director Karla Bellinger, has been added to the University of Dallas. According to University President Dr. Jonathan Sanford’s announcement letter, the institute was started in March.

The program will have three collaborators: the University of Dallas, the Catholic Foundation, and the Diocese of Dallas. Bellinger said that she hopes “the people in the pulpit and the people in the pew will start to talk to each other and help each other grow together to get closer to God.”

Read more…

The Dallas Morning News covered the Institute in their recent article At this Preaching Institute, A Woman Teaches Priests.  You can read the full article here.