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Text Box: as well as that of his congregation. Very often when he reads his Sunday sermon he will think of what he is reading and saying and understand it is “some good stuff” which he is able to use for his own spiritual benefit. The practice of writing one’s sermon - and not the night before it is to be delivered - serves to further the Priest’s spiritual education, strengthen his Faith, firm up his Hope, and encourage him to pursue and attain Charity. This is one of the reasons even “retired” Priests should continue to write their Sunday sermons, and to actually preach their Sunday sermons during their Divine Liturgy even if they have retired to a lonely place where there is no one else and no one else attends their Divine Liturgy. Or even if their Matuska, who presumably knows them better than anyone else, is the only one who attends. Sermons should also be short. After about five minutes most people in a congregation are thinking about something, often anything, else. One typed sheet of letter sized paper (8 1/2 “ x 11”) front and back in twelve point (regular typewriter size) print should suffice. Occasionally a sermon must be longer, but as a general rule if you can not say it in five minutes, no one will be paying attention anyway. Use this fantastic tool God has provided to you to assist your congregation, and for your own edification. Teach. +

Text Box: past, for that sermon often is the only opportunity for proper religious instruction which the laity receives on a regular basis. Yet a Priest may only give sermons if authorized so to do by his bishop. Most Bishops, Orthodox and Roman, do give their Priests that authority, and most Priests do exercise that authority. How they exercise that authority is therefore critical to their function as a Priest. Often just as critical as their provision of the Sacraments. Even though a Priest may have studied the material for his Sunday sermon, may know the particular Epistle or Lesson and Gospel passages of that Sunday word for word, when he preaches extemporaneously (off the cuff, or as though receiving Divine inspiration at that moment) he will make mistakes and he may not, perhaps usually will not, be aware of those errors. Even speaking from notes does not assure the same accuracy as is provided when speaking from a completely written out sermon - reading it if you will. The Priest must, absolutely must, be sure that every word, sentence, and thought he utters in his sermon is dogmatically accurate, unequivocal, clear, spiritually informative to his parishioners, his students, applicable to their lives, of assistance in their eternal salvation, comprehensible to them without being in the least demeaning, and that is not even the beginning of the bare necessities. Obviously the foregoing are impossible to assure when one speaks extemporaneously. An impromptu sermon is much worse. One need but watch many of the television preachers flip through the Bible looking for a particular passage while they utter noises which sound like words and may even constitute complete thoughts to realize preparation is important. But when a person of logic hears much of what passes for learned teaching or learned preaching, without the preaching or teaching having first been written, even if that person does not believe Jesus Christ is God, that person

Text Box: of logic realizes most of what is being taught has nothing to do with Christianity, and often is directly opposed to the teachings of Christ. Most of such preaching is “feel good” slop. It may touch the emotions, but the emotions are not the soul. A charismatic speaker may be able to rouse the congregation, but has he edified the congregation? Has he assisted them in attaining eternal salvation? If he is a Protestant preacher, or one of the multitude who are not of Apostolic Succession and therefore do not pray the Divine Liturgy, then he has between an half hour and an hour of verbiage to fill, often with ann additional fifteen minutes to an half hour of music and other forms of entertainment to plan, provide, and execute. This leads to much prancing about on a stage, leaning over and screaming or shouting, often by an overweight person whose bouncing buttocks and jelly stomach are encased in a suit which is much too tight making the preacher appear to be a clown dressed up in his or her Sunday best. A sermon is much too important to be left to anything other than astute preparation and review. Very often, while writing a sermon, the Priest will realize he has gone “off target”. Sometimes he will find it beneficial and profitable to explore that tangent, use what he has written for some other purpose, and write another sermon for the coming Sunday or whatever purpose for which he was writing the sermon. The written sermon also serves to teach the Priest, to make dogmatic concepts, proper conduct, methods of avoiding sin, and methods of attaining holiness more clear to him, and more firmly established in his mind, character, personal behavior, personality, and person. It is one of the greatest teaching tools which a Priest possesses and may exercise for his own spiritual well being

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