Lay Eucharistic Preaching in a Synodal Catholic Church

While qualified lay people can currently preach in the Church, they are prohibited from offering the homily at Mass. Heille and his colleagues, in the spirit of the Synod on Synodality, authored this proposal on lay Eucharistic preaching. Informative and grounded in Church teaching, this treatise is an indispensable resource to those committed to understanding the canonical, theological and pastoral considerations. In response to this proposal, the Vatican has acknowledged the issue and the need for deliberations. As the authors urge, the current gap should not be pitched as competition between laity and clergy. The treatises invite us, more importantly, to reflect on who we are as Church, how our baptism imparts responsibilities and charisms to all the faithful to proclaim the kingdom of God, and how we serve and help each other on this journey. Such reflections foster our imagination of the synodal Eucharistic pulpit as a community in a context of adaptation of the liturgy over time.

Guided by Pope Francis’s vision of the future synodal Church, Dominican Gregory Heille has gathered a veritable symphony of expert voices on lay preaching. In this important and timely topic, these preachers and teachers leave no stone unturned for an interrogation of the present state of Christian proclamation, while constructing an artful path forward: from a theology of ministry for lay Eucharistic preaching, to a New Testament basis for such homiletics, towards an exploration of genuine, charismatic witness of the prophetic for the twenty-first century. Be ready to take a long awaited, deep breath into the labor of the Spirit! This text will set the gold standard on a long-awaited exploration of lay preaching for years to come.