Homilies should strengthen the faith and encourage conversion, says Vatican official

Rome, Italy, Nov 27, 2008 / 18:30 pm

The secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, Archbishop Nikola Eterovic, has announced the publication next year of a Directory of Homilies, an important tool that will help pastors prepare their homilies, which are supposed to “strengthen the faith, call to conversion and help people live out the paschal mystery in their daily lives.”

 

Commenting on the recent Synod on the Word of God which took place at the Vatican October 5-26, Archbishop Eterovic explained that the one who gives a homily is the first one who should heed it. “For this reason, everything possible should be done to ensure adequate formation, which should begin in the seminaries,” he added.

 

In an interview with the L’Osservatore Romano, the archbishop underscored that the Directory of Homilies is a tool that was “requested at the Synod of 2005 on the Eucharist and again in the post-synodal apostolic exhortation Sacramentum caritatis” and added that it “will be an important aid in addressing all of the essentials themes of the Catholic faith during the liturgical cycle.”

 

“Obviously,” he said, “it will not contain prepared homilies, but rather some ideas. It is being prepared by a team of experts and I think it will be published in 2009.”

 

Archbishop Eterovic also pointed to “the frequent reading of the Word of God and lectio divina” as other important aids in preparing homilies.