“Preach” host Ricardo da Silva, S.J., talks with Deacon Greg Kandra about the homily he wrote immediately after hearing the news of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pa., this past weekend.

On this episode of “Preach,” host Ricardo da Silva, S.J., talks with Shayla Elm, one of 24 young adults chosen to accompany the Eucharistic processions that started out across the country this past Pentecost Sunday.

“The Eucharist is the food that makes us hungry,” says Eucharistic Revival preacher Joe Laramie, S.J., so when he preaches, he hopes to stir his congregation “to deeper hunger for the Lord, to grow in deeper devotion to him.”

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.