A woman’s preaching advice for a young priest

The best advice Greg Chisholm, S.J., received about preaching a homily was not taught in the seminary. “I was helped as a young priest by a woman in a church that I served in Detroit, Michigan,” he said. “She came to me and she said, ‘When I go to church, I want to hear about Jesus, and you didn’t have a lot about Jesus in that sermon.’ I have never forgotten that.”

Greg Chisholm, S.J., the superior of the Jesuit community in Maryland and a former pastor of St. Charles Borromeo in Harlem, is the premiere preacher on “Preach,” our new podcast where we take you into the minds and hearts of some of the finest preachers in the Catholic Church today. 

The show is hosted by Ricardo da Silva, S.J., a Jesuit priest from South Africa, associate editor at America and associate pastor at the Church of St. Francis Xavier in Manhattan.

“On this show, you won’t only hear and learn from Jesuits about preaching,” says Ricardo. “I will talk with lay liturgical preachers, women and men who ordinarily exercise a preaching ministry in their respective communities. I’ll talk with deacons, priests, bishops and maybe even a cardinal or two.”

“Preach” will usually be released on Mondays. But we could not pass on the significance of launching a podcast about preaching on Pentecost Sunday—when the church celebrates the descent of the Holy Spirit on the disciples in the upper room—which the Scriptures tell us “enabled them to proclaim” God’s word to all nations.

Links from the show

Read Scripture readings for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, Year A

Read a full transcript of Greg's homily.

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“Preach” is made possible through the generous support of the Compelling Preaching Initiative, a project of Lilly Endowment Inc.

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