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The Crisis of Bad Preaching is an audacious response to a long-simmering pastoral crisis: poorly prepared, often stale, and largely irrelevant homilies that are fueling the mass exodus of people from the Church. Echoing Popes Benedict and Francis, Rev. Joshua Whitfield confronts what is perhaps the most common complaint of Catholics around the world: hollow, vacuous preaching. A parish priest in Dallas, Whitfield encourages fellow preachers to profound renewal, reminding them that preaching is not just something they do, it is essential to who they are. Catholic preaching today often achieves the opposite of what it should, which is connecting the People of God with the Gospel of Christ in a...
God feeds his people. In the desert, God’s covenant with Israel was sealed through sacrifice and a meal. On the altars of our churches, God continues to feed us with the bread and wine of the new covenant—the food and drink that is Christ himself. In Eucharist, Bread of Life, Fr. Joshua J. Whitfield, priest and preacher, explores three Scripture passages and helps us rediscover this enduring mystery, from the heights of Sinai to the depths of our own hearts and lives.
As an explicitly christological witness, martyrdom offers a limited but vital description of the present within the various and unpredictable arenas of living, suffering, and dying. That is to say, martyrdom is not the tragic conclusion of some fatal ideological conflict but a momentary truthful glimpse of present circumstances. Martyrdom reveals, clarifies, and illumines what we take for the real. Martyrs are therefore significant for the church today because they exhibit the sort of truthful living that refuses the claims of history and power without Christ; they show the sort of living and dying that returns forgiveness upon murder, and patience beyond domination. Meditating primarily on the second-century martyrdoms in Lyons and Vienne, France, Pilgrim Holiness offers a view of Christian martyrdom that challenges prevalent misunderstandings about what martyrs are doing in sacrificing their lives. Joshua J. Whitfield argues that martyrdom is a moment of truthful disclosure and thus a moment of forgiveness and peace--gifts for which we are in desperate need.
For centuries Christians have gathered for worship and for rest on Sunday. But does that ancient practice still matter? Still deeply engrained in both the Christian and secular calendar, nonetheless, what Sunday is and why it matters is no longer clear. Why Sunday Matters explores the forgotten reasons why Sunday is essential to Christian life. It also uncovers some of the contemporary obstacles keeping people from living Sunday faithfully. From youth sports to our neglect of the poor to our addiction to technology, Why Sunday Matters takes a wide-ranging look at the importance of the Lord’s Day and why it’s urgent we recover the Christian practice of Sunday.
For centuries Christians have gathered for worship and for rest on Sunday. But does that ancient practice still matter? Still deeply engrained in both the Christian and secular calendar, nonetheless, what Sunday is and why it matters is no longer clear. Why Sunday Matters explores the forgotten reasons why Sunday is essential to Christian life. It also uncovers some of the contemporary obstacles keeping people from living Sunday faithfully. From youth sports to our neglect of the poor to our addiction to technology, Why Sunday Matters takes a wide-ranging look at the importance of the Lord’s Day and why it’s urgent we recover the Christian practice of Sunday.
This handy reference provides a compact overview of the most important canonical issues facing pastoral ministers today. Arranged by topic, this resource offers a thorough summary of church law along with helpful sections of frequently asked questions at the end of the chapters.
A compendium of wise and useful advice about preaching: what works and what doesn't.
Modern approaches to preaching today are largely fixated on "how-to's"--how to make preaching more relevant, more interesting, more entertaining. Michael Pasquarello suggests that this fixation may stem from a preaching imagination more beholden to technical, scientific reason than theological wisdom. Rather than devising new techniques or strategies for effective speaking, Pasquarello offers something more salutary--portraits of ten exemplary preachers from the Christian tradition.Included in Pasquarello's gallery are Augustine of Hippo, Gregory the Great, Benedict, Bernard of Clairvaux, Bonaventure, Thomas Aquinas, Erasmus, Hugh Latimer, Martin Luther, and John Calvin. These excellent preachers conceived of Christian speech as a unique theological practice learned through prayerful attention to the Bible and aimed at communion with God.Sacred Rhetoric invites readers to join an extended conversation with the past in order to become faithful preachers of the gospel in a post-Christian society. Preachers, seminarians, and students of Christian history will find much to learn from Pasquarello's fresh perspective and passion for the past.
“Authoritative and comprehensive—provides an up-to-date description of the tool box of methods for inventorying and monitoring the diverse spectrum of reptiles. All biodiversity scientists will want to have it during project planning and as study progresses. A must for field biologists, conservation planners, and biodiversity managers.”—Jay M. Savage, San Diego State University “Kudos to the editors and contributors to this book. From the perspective of a non-ecologist such as myself, who only occasionally needs to intensively sample a particular site or habitat, the quality and clarity of this book has been well worth the wait.”—Jack W. Sites, Jr.
Practical advice for preachers everywhere, written out of long experience and deep learning. Homilists will welcome its advice about language, the role of the imagination, preaching and prophecy, the liturgical setting of the preached word, and social justice. +