new homily, with some thoughts

You can read my homily for today here.

It is difficult, if not impossible to predict what the response to one's homily will be. Today a few people stopped me after Mass saying that they liked it. The reasons they gave were surprising to me. My predecessor, Prior Thomas-Benedict, used to say that the Holy Spirit is the one who really speaks if we are preaching well. He can speak right to the heart, and so our words will have effects that we can't know.

One comment that I was glad to get came from someone who has recently recovered from a very serious illness, and so has a certain perspective on health care. She understood me to be saying that if Catholic health care workers lose Christ, then they don't really practice charity as it should be practiced. Actually, since it was hot today, I had shortened my homily some and dropped some clarifying statements in this regard. She heard them anyway! Praise to the Holy Spirit.

Some days, of course, the preacher receives strong criticism. This probably is not a bad sign for the most part. I know that I have benefitted from criticism: it has made me more sensitive to the real life situations of our friends. Criticism (hopefully taken in a humble spriti!) keeps one in one's place.

Come Holy Spirit!