While theatrical and beautiful, I have come to understand that the Mass is not a show. It is a miracle.

The lessons we teach in some parishes are not coming from God.

U.S. bishops met for a plenary assembly to discuss various topics including mental health, poverty and youth ministry, as well as hearing proposals from the National Review Board on how to combat sex abuse in the church.

Scott VanDerveer writes his homilies in a coffee shop, where he is surrounded by strangers. “Would what I have to say speak to their life at all,” he asks himself. “Or would they say, ‘Ugh, that’s so churchy?’”

A surefire way to lose your congregation is to start a homily with “In today’s Gospel reading,” says Thomas Groome. “The purpose of good preaching,” he says, “is to bring our lives to God and God to our lives.” A homilist’s job, then, is to facilitate a meaningful conversation between the two.

Though Jesus preached in parables that still captivate us, not every story told in a homily has a similarly lasting impact. The Rev. Christopher Clohessy shares how preachers can craft stories that linger long after Mass is over.