Russell Pollitt, S.J., approaches his homilies in a manner unlike any other preacher the “Preach” team has yet seen. While some rely on verbatim manuscripts, detailed linear plans, or simply loose notes, when this South African Jesuit priest sits down to write his homily after praying on the Scriptures, the first thing he does is produce an org chart (or organogram, as it’s better known outside the U.S.).” But, by the time Russell stands in front of the congregation to deliver his homily, the organogram has served its purpose and is nowhere to be seen.

“I get a picture of that organogram in my head,” he says, “so that on a Sunday, I can stand up and I can preach without notes,”

Russell is the superior of the Jesuits in Johannesburg and the director of the Jesuit Institute South Africa. For the First Sunday of Lent, Year B, Russell chooses to center his homily on a seemingly straightforward question: “What is Lent?” He offers three central lenses through which to consider the question. Think of Lent, he says, as a new start, a reminder and our desert.

In his conversation with Ricardo after the homily, Russell elaborates on his organizational methods for preaching and reveals how his brother’s suicide and presiding over the funeral of a toddler who drowned, compelled him to rethink his “​own ​style” of preaching and even his “own ​theological ​framework,” he says. “It’s ​really ​heightened ​my ​own ​sensitivity ​to ​being ​with ​people ​who ​are ​bereaved, ​and ​preaching ​at ​a ​funeral.”

Read the full text of this week’s homily and Scripture readings.

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