Deacon Homiletics Conference 2025

Presented by Jeff Cavins and Deacon Joe Michalak

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Jeff Cavins will be connecting the Word of God to the homiletic task, leading the deacons through a deeper approach to Sacred Scripture with a view to developing the homily. The ability to communicate the sense of Scripture is a learned talent; the ability to apply it to the common man is a desire! A good Homily starts with a love for people and a desire to understand what modern man is facing. The measure of success is whether the Word of God becomes doable to those who face fears, challenges, temptations, suffering, and other issues of faith. Cavins will give suggestions on how to bridge the gap between the Word of God and the multiple opportunities for application. Using Jesus as the master teacher, Deacons can emulate the Lord by using everything available to them to communicate the truth. Finally, Cavins will emphasize that the Homily is designed for the laity as a portal to understanding, freedom, faithfulness, and joy. Jeff Cavins comes from a pastoral background before returning to the Church nearly thirty years ago. He brings experience in Bible study and application as he is the creator of the Great Adventure Bible Study and the “Bible in a Year” Podcast with Fr. Mike Schmitz.”

Based on his many years of evangelistic and teaching experience, Deacon Michalak will provide practical tools and methods in mystagogical preaching and the divinizing task of preaching as distinct from “moralistic” preaching (i.e., examples to live up to). The Church is adamant: the homily is more than an instruction, it is an act of worship meant not only to sanctify the people but to glorify God; it is a supremely liturgical act. As the Vatican Council put it: the purpose of the homily is “the proclamation of God’s wonderful works in the history of salvation, the mystery of Christ, ever made present and active within us, especially in the celebration of the liturgy.” Knowing how to preach liturgically (as worship), mystagogically (walking people into the Mysteries), and Eucharistically (as thanksgiving for what God is doing and in a way that impels us to become Eucharist)—all without sounding like a seminary professor (!)—is an art indeed. This is not a lecture; it is an Encounter that helps us see and do. From his forty years of evangelistic and teaching experience, Dn Joe Michalak will offer an overview of God’s divinizing plan, how that plan is experienced in our preaching, and some practical helps toward composing (as distinct from writing) such a potent liturgical homily.