Preaching aid

By Tony Staley
Compass Editor

Norbertine Fr. Al McBride has written another splendid book, How to Make Homilies Better, Briefer and Bolder (Our Sunday Visitor, Huntington, Ind., 2007; $15.95).

The book is subtitled, "Tips from a Master Homilist," making anyone who knows him suspect that someone in the marketing department came up with that designation.

In the book's preface, Milwaukee Abp. Timothy Dolan notes that he has "yet to meet a brother bishop, priest or deacon who is not searching for help in his preaching. Start with Fr. Alfred McBride's book. It is simple, succinct, short - come to think of it, all necessary elements of an effective homily."

Fr. McBride, a priest of St. Norbert Abbey, De Pere, is a theologian, catechist, and the author of many books. In How to Make Homilies Better, Briefer and Bolder, he focuses each chapter on a theme and a prominent person from church history - usually a saint - to illustrate that theme.

While, as Fr. McBride notes in the introduction, women do not give homilies, "they illustrate qualities and talents that benefit preachers." So five of the 24 chapters focus on women - Ss. Catherine of Siena, Teresa of Avila, Elizabeth Seton and Therese of Lisieux, plus Sr. Thea Bowman. The men include Ss. Paul, Augustine, Ambrose, Thomas Aquinas, Francis de Sales and Norbert, as well as Isaiah, Card. Joseph Benardin, Pope John Paul II and Abp. Fulton J. Sheen.

While lay people - since we do not give homilies - won't find the same use for the book as the clergy, each chapter has tips that could prove useful in prayer or which could be adapted for making other sorts of presentations.

Where the laity might find it most useful is as a gift to their favorite priest or deacon to help them preach better, much as we might give them a book to improve their golf or gain new appreciation of a favorite composer.

A well used copy of How to Make Homilies Better, Briefer and Bolder deserves a spot on every cleric's book shelf alongside late Saginaw Bp. Ken Untener's Preaching Better, Practical Suggestions for Homilists (Paulist Press, 1999).