The Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome—a feast about a building—can intimidate preachers. The temptation? Mention it briefly and move on to the readings. But Sylvester Tan, S.J. says this feast is worth the work of preaching well.

In this episode of “Preach,” Sylvester, a Jesuit theologian and local superior in Dallas shares his homily for one of the few feasts that actually replaces the regular Sunday liturgy when it falls on a Sunday. Then he joins host Ricardo da Silva, S.J. to reflect on three challenges: How can preachers use history without boring people? “Our faith is a historical faith,” he says, “and history is always messy. God doesn’t reject history; he works through history.”

They also discuss why we shouldn’t skip difficult feasts—“Where we get uncomfortable, there’s always an invitation to go deeper”—and how to preach about divine anger without losing sight of divine love. 

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Auxiliary Bishop Adam Parker of Baltimore has confirmed more than 10,000 young people—and he wants his brother bishops to know what a gift the sacrament can be. In this episode of “Preach,” he shares his confirmation homily built around Jesus’ question to Peter: “Who do you say that I am?” Then host Ricardo da Silva, S.J., asks him for a fervorino: If he were standing before his brother bishops, what brief, heartfelt exhortation would he offer about preaching for confirmation?

His answer: Remember that confirmation is a unique opportunity. Many in the pews aren’t regularly connected to the church—so preach the invitation to relationship with Jesus Christ. Make the gifts of the Holy Spirit practical and real, drawing from your own life. And “make our own humanity as bishops visible to the candidates.” Let them see you’re not just presiding ceremonially, but walking with them as their shepherd.

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“You are loved, warts and all.” Bishop Emeritus Patrick J. McGrath of San Jose said it at every confirmation—and liturgist Diana Macalintal never tired of hearing it. In this episode of “Preach,” she recalls a bishop’s confirmation homily that “quickly devolved into an exploration of sin and evil,” complete with exorcisms and damnation. Like composing music, this preacher “did not emphasize the right notes—the right message,” she says. “Confirmation is all about strengthening the goodness that is in there, giving us the grace to do the hard things, to do the beautiful things in the world.”

But don’t avoid reality either. “For those who are being confirmed, these are oftentimes teenagers where real life is life and death. Whether it is or not, it is drama all the time.” Name those struggles, she urges, “in the context of this gift of the Spirit and how they can do their part in the mission of Christ.”

Diana also challenges a common assumption: there's no obligation to choose a saint's name at confirmation. Church teaching honors our given names as "icons of a person." At St. Columba in Oakland, Calif., her historically Black parish, "for so many, their ancestors' names were taken away" during enslavement. "Honor the names that are given," she says, "because somebody loved that child enough to give them that gift."

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The parable of the persistent widow. Again. Scholar, poet, and preacher Cameron Bellm has heard it a hundred times—so she turned to Russian literature for help. Drawing on Viktor Shklovsky’s ostranenie, the art of making the familiar strange, she reveals how to jolt ancient parables back to life. “It is the goal of art to make the stone stony again,” she says. She also urges preachers to learn from Russian Masters Tolstoy—”a master of the narration of human consciousness”—and Dostoevsky, who “takes us into the deepest, darkest, grittiest underbelly of humanity and lights a single match.”

In her homily  for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, she layers voices across generations—her Presbyterian grandfather’s 1964 sermons, Oscar Romero, Etty Hillesum—creating “a double-exposed photograph.” Her provocation: “We identify as the persistent widow, but like it or not, we are also the judge.”

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“What does it mean to receive Jesus in Holy Communion? It’s like Jesus is giving us a big hug, saying, ‘I love you so much. I want you to be close to me always,’” says Russell Pollitt, S.J., pastor of Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Johannesburg and chaplain to Catholic elementary and middle schools, to the children preparing for their First Communion.

Russell uses vivid, everyday examples—birthdays, friends, hugs and gifts—to help children grasp God’s particular love for them. His First Communion homily avoids the often abstract sacramental and Eucharistic theology, inviting all in the parish community—children, parents, guardians and catechists—to “imagine Jesus giving you a big hug today” and encounter God’s love in the Eucharist.

Part of the Preaching for the Sacraments series, in this episode “Preach” host Ricardo da Silva, S.J., talks with Russell about how this accessible approach helps the entire community experience Jesus as a friend. By engaging the congregation as a whole in deepening their faith alongside the children, “we can together form future disciples whose hearts are on fire with the love of Jesus.”

00:00 Why First Communion is Really About God’s Love

01:30 Meet Father Russell Pollitt, Jesuit Priest in Johannesburg

03:39 Helping Kids Understand God’s Love for Them

07:12 Sacraments Are About Community, Not Checking Boxes

08:37 Preaching: Sacrament, Scripture, or Feast?

11:11 A First Communion Homily That Connects with Kids and Adults

19:53 Talking Directly to Kids: Why It Matters

25:21 Do We Celebrate Sacraments or Receive Them? Why It Matters

31:54 Preaching Sacraments in Schools vs. Parishes

35:00 A Message for Life: “You Are Special, God Loves You”

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“This isn’t just about the baby, this isn’t just about the parents and godparents. This is about all of us and it is about our faith.” This is the realization that came to Con O’Mahony, Vicar for Education in the Diocese of Hamilton, Ontario, and pastor at St. Margaret Mary Parish, while attending a Baptism at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles. Standing in a filled cathedral before John Nava’s magnificent tapestries depicting the communion of saints, he suddenly understood: “We are not doing this alone. We’re not doing this in isolation. We are doing this with the whole church—there’s something bigger than ourselves.”

Con explains that preaching doesn’t start at the ambo—it begins in personal encounters, especially when preparing for sacraments as personal as baptism. He connects with families before any paperwork is done, even if only for a few minutes before the ceremony, asking about the child’s name and listening to their stories. Often, his best homily material comes from these everyday conversations—like a second grader’s humorous definition of Baptism: “When the priest gives you a bath in church so that God will like you better.” Con sees truth in this—baptism is God washing us—but with one crucial correction: not to like us better, but to prove God’s unconditional love was there for us all along.

Con and host Ricardo da Silva, S.J., connect this love to not only the person being baptized but to the whole community and to the faith. The conversation moves from the practical—how Con prepares, what makes a good baptismal homily—to a deeper shift in how we approach these moments. As Ricardo reflects, too often “we tend to preach for people that we don’t think we’ll ever see again.” What if instead we “preach as though you want to see them again and you are going to see them again? This is not a once and for all—this is a once and then.”

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 That question, quietly planted at the start of the rite, can be the seed the homily helps take root and flourish in the hearts of the faithful. In this episode of "Preach," Christina Mines and Ricardo da Silva, S.J., explore how preaching at baptisms offers a unique opportunity—and challenge—to engage millennial parents, practice radical hospitality, and invite families into the full life of the parish and an experience of God's love that is inclusive and without judgment.

0:00 - “What Do You Ask?”: A Profound Baptismal Moment

2:30 - Embracing the Beloved Child: A Mother’s Perspective

8:01 - Connecting with Millennial Parents: A Search for Love

13:56 - New Approaches to Baptismal Formation and Encounter

19:37 - The Community’s Role in Radical Baptismal Hospitality

27:39 - Healing and Hope: Stories of Baptismal Welcome

35:28 - Practical Tips for a Welcoming Baptism Homily

41:48 - Proclaiming Hope and Humanity in Baptismal Preaching

48:19 - Fostering Ongoing Conversion After Baptism

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This week on Preach, we launch a new series: Preaching for the Sacraments—how homilists can bring depth and imagination to their preaching during some of the Catholic Church’s most meaningful rites.

To set the stage, host Ricardo da Silva, S.J., speaks with Anthony Ruff, O.S.B., Benedictine monk and professor of liturgy at Saint John’s School of Theology and Seminary in Minnesota. Together they unpack what sacraments truly are—and how to preach them with both depth and imagination.

“A sacrament is not a vending machine where we put the thing in our action and then the thing comes out automatically,” Anthony explains. “God acts through symbols such as water and oil and laying on hands and exchanging the peace with one another and singing together.” Grace is not dispensed mechanically, but unfolds through real human experience: “If I’m becoming more human and growing in community, I’m being divinized.”

Preaching at sacramental celebrations must therefore begin with the lives of those gathered, not abstract theology. “I really try to say, what’s the word that will be Christ for them, that will resonate with their experience?” Anthony reflects. “We really have to think about the whole life of this community—and then our homily is a part of that.”

In this episode:

00:00 – ‘A sacrament is not a vending machine’

01:10 – Introduction

02:40 – Meet Anthony Ruff: monk and teacher

04:00 – About the Compelling Preaching Grant

08:10 – What is a sacrament? Encounter, not simply ritual

08:48 – What is the core purpose of the sacrament?

13:20 – A sacrament as a sign of peace

15:50 – Mystery, not magic

17:38 – Becoming aware of the God's presence in your life

19:48 – Sacraments vs. sacramentals: what’s the difference?

21:40 – Sacraments for community and the individual

24:05 – A final word on sacraments

27:05 – What preaching is for?

28:45 – Homilies at sacramental Masses: rite or readings?

33:10 – Symbols as stage directions

36:40 – Challenges and pitfalls of preaching the sacraments

38:50 – How long does it take to prepare for a sacrament

40:50 – Keeping the mystery of the sacraments alive

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The third season of “Preach” begins with a fundamental reminder: What is preaching, and what is it for? To explore that question, host Ricardo da Silva, S.J., invites the Rev. Lynn Barger Elliott—a preacher who has inspired him to think about this question in recent months. As a fourth-generation Presbyterian pastor and consultant for the Compelling Preaching Initiative—the Lilly Endowment project that supports this podcast—Lynn brings the wisdom of that legacy to remind us that preaching takes root in lived experience.

“I personally needed a story to help interpret [Scripture] so that I could make [it] meaningful in my own life,” Lynn says, explaining her approach to good preaching. In this episode Lynn recalls how witnessing her mom undergo back surgery gave her new insight into a passage from Hebrews, where the word of God is likened to a two-edged sword, “piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow” (Hebrews 4:12).  “It gave me a new way to interpret words of Scripture,” Lynn says,  “that are double-edged and sharp in every direction.”

“Preach” is made possible through the generous support of the Compelling Preaching Initiative, a project of Lilly Endowment Inc. Get daily Scripture reflections and ⁠⁠⁠support⁠⁠⁠ “Preach” by becoming a digital subscriber to America Magazine

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Season two of “Preach” has wrapped. Before we pause until fall, please share what moved you this season, what you’d like more or less of, and any ideas for future episodes to shape next season's lineup.

In this bonus episode, Ricardo and Maggi Van Dorn – his co-producer on “Preach” and producer of America Media’s newest podcast – introduce “The Spiritual Life with Father James Martin, S.J.” They discuss what preachers can gain from the show and share the first episode featuring Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe.

Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe is a Dominican friar, former Master of the Dominican Order, and a widely respected author. Pope Francis chose him as retreat leader for the Synod on Synodality. In this episode, he shares insights on Dominican spirituality, friendship with God, and living with cancer.

“The Spiritual Life” is hosted by Father James Martin, S.J., a Jesuit priest, bestselling author, editor-at-large at America Media, and founder of Outreach. The show explores how people pray and find God in daily life. Each episode features listener questions answered by Father Martin and his guests in a relatable “Dear Abby of the soul” style. Guests include Stephen Colbert, Whoopi Goldberg, Pete Buttigieg, and Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe.

🎧 Take the “Preach” listener survey and follow “The Spiritual Life with Father James Martin, S.J.” every Tuesday wherever you get your podcasts.

“Preach” is made possible through the generous support of the Compelling Preaching Initiative, a project of Lilly Endowment Inc. Get daily Scripture reflections and ⁠⁠⁠⁠support⁠⁠⁠ “Preach” by becoming a digital subscriber to America Magazine

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