Deacon Victor Puscas is the director of diaconate formation for the Diocese of Joliet in Illinois. He holds a Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) degree from the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.

Albert King was an American guitarist and singer who is often regarded as one of the greatest and most influential blues guitarists of all time. Nicknamed “The Velvet Bulldozer,” King once wrote a song called “Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven (But Nobody Wants to Die).” Now you may be thinking, “This is mildly interesting, but why is he telling me this?”

Here’s why: It dawned on me that every clergyman wants to be a better preacher, but (almost) nobody wants to put in the work that’s required. I admit that’s a tortured analogy, but the fact remains that getting better at anything requires work. Where does one even begin to become a better preacher?

Well, here’s a thought: Consider the two-year formation program offered by the Institute for Homiletics at the University of Dallas, which has been strengthening the preaching of bishops, priests and deacons since it opened in 2021.

The Institute was established after a 2018 survey found that more than 85% of parishioners in the Diocese of Dallas viewed quality preaching from the pulpit as either very or extremely important — and the collective grade they gave to the preaching they received was a C+.

Those findings spurred a collaboration among the diocese, the University of Dallas and the Catholic Foundation to help priests and deacons “enhance their preaching in ways that will positively transform lives and create deep-rooted encounters with God,” as Bishop Edward J. Burns explained in the Texas Catholic in 2022.

Dr. Karla Bellinger, formerly of the John S. Marten Program for Homiletics and Liturgics at the University of Notre Dame, was hired as the institute’s founding executive director. “The purpose of the program is to renew the preachers in order to renew preaching,” Bellinger told Texas Catholic.

“The purpose of preaching is to encounter God; preaching that raises their hearts, minds and souls to God.”

An OSV publication: Click for full article

Mary and Hector Garcia, Saint Joseph group leaders at St. Ann’s Parish.

Hearing a homily is no longer passive for people in the pews.

… How can they hear without someone to preach? – Romans 10:14

Hector and Mary Garcia of St. Ann’s Church have been walking closely with Deacon Jim Wainer as he participates in a Preaching for Encounter program. “Deacon Jim has always had charisma and a natural way of connecting with people,” Hector Garcia explained. “But since he has been learning through the Institute for Homiletics in this Preaching program, he now connects us deeply with the Word in a way that feels personal to each of us.”

Mary has witnessed the impact firsthand. “I record deacon’s homilies, and when we watch them later, we notice people’s faces — how they listen, how they respond in the moment. You can see the difference his preaching makes.” In addition to the preaching for clergy, the Institute for Homiletics at the University of Dallas also provides learning and formation for groups laity called Saint Joseph’s Preachers.

Each of these groups meets monthly to pray for their priest or deacon. They also study how to pray the Mass and listen carefully to the homily. Together, Hector and Mary lead a team of 12 parishioners who have been learning to provide ongoing feedback to help Deacon Jim grow as a preacher.

If you want to read the full article. Link here and go to page 15.

On this feast day of the newly canonized saint Carlo Acutis, another young saint-in-the-making named Logan Edwards, 24, asks the Church, how does Catholic preaching connect with young people? His three-part series, “Young People on the Road,” arises from his summer of research at the Institute for Homiletics, working with a thousand transcribed pages of Lilly Endowed young adult conversations.

Using the metaphor of the road to Emmaus, Edwards offers three masterful reflections to aid the Church in its preaching with young adults:

Part One:    Questioning and Listening

Part Two:     Exploration and Accompaniment

Part Three:  Identification and Proclamation

As we focus on youth on this feast day, Pope Leo describes Acutis’ life as an invitation to all of us, especially young people, “not to squander our lives, but to direct them upwards and make them masterpieces”.  This series of articles offers concrete advice to help that to happen.

The Catholic Church cannot grow without meaningful preaching. Yet even most homilists admit, preachers often leave us wanting more. Many priests and deacons receive very little training in homiletics, Homily preparation can get lost amid the many demands of parish life. That reality moved Jim Moroney to act. In 2021, partnering with the University of Dallas and The Catholic Foundation and then hiring Dr. Karla Bellinger as executive director, Moroney was instrumental in launching the Institute for Homiletics. With the help of Kris Kramer, fundraising efforts have created a $7.5M endowment fund to provide operational support for years to come.

Moroney is known for taking action, especially where it can create a better future for young people and for those who live on the margins of our society. Like his father Jim Moroney II and Abbot Denis Farkasfalvy, O. Cist. who was Moroney’s Cistercian Catholic School form master and mentor in his life for decades, he will be recognized as an outstanding member of the Dallas Catholic Community for his distinguished service and support. If you are in the Dallas area, we hope you can attend the annual Catholic Foundation Dinner on Feb. 7, 2026, to celebrate Moroney and his outstanding efforts that include the inspiration to launch the Institute for Homiletics.

Jim recently appeared on the local Good News Show sharing his journey. You can listen to the full interview here: Podcast

St. Francis of Assisi preached with his words and his life. Because of this one man’s preaching, the faith of 13th-century Europe was revived. What can we learn from him about how to preach to our day? In this third article of our Homiletic Scholar Series, “Francis and Francis: Preaching and the Sacramentality of Creation,” Dr. Karla Bellinger unpacks the brown-robed saint’s view of the created world in conversation with Pope Francis’ Ignatian view of God in all things, especially from his 2015 encyclical Laudato Si ‘. The Good News of our faith is that God of the Universe is here, with us in all that we see and smell and touch and hear and do.

Read the article: Francis and Francis – Preaching and the Sacramentality of Creation