My First Practice Homily

By: Mark R. Searles

Seminarian, First Theology

After almost a whole year in 1st theology, my classmates and I passed another milestone this past week, our first practice homily! Starting this Spring semester, we have had our first class in homiletics. The first half of the semester was a typical class with lectures and discussions on public speaking in general and some helpful specific insights on giving a homily. Now in the second half we get our first chance to prepare and deliver several homilies.

Mark Searles with his Mom and Dad



My first assignment was a Sunday homily for the 3rd Week of Lent, just this past Sunday. At first I was nervous about the length of this Gospel as John tells the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:4-41), but the sequence of readings for this Sunday have a beautiful theme regarding water and thirst as the Israelites wander in the desert seeking water from Moses in the 1st reading and the Samaritan woman finds living water in Jesus. So after carefully reading through the selected passages, I began to pray with them in a Lectio Divina-style, meditating on God’s Word, and noticing what pops out. I also read a few commentaries and quickly saw how very many awesome themes and images there were to choose from as the Holy Spirit led me to a very specific focus: the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

As I began to sit and write, I felt drawn to speak about Reconciliation as I noticed how the woman at the well talks to Jesus and despite her troubled past, she admits to her struggles and Jesus is not harsh or criticizing, but loves her and offers her mercy in the waters of eternal life, something much greater than the well water she originally came to find.

In my own experiences with this great sacrament, I was drawn to speak about a story from the 2nd grade as I stood in line for my 1st confession. I remember the night vividly going over the sins in my head that I practiced at home with my parents and standing behind some of the CCD kids I did not know while my other friends were in shorter, faster-moving lines! So I got nervous and then a few tears started to fall as I thought this was a pretty intimidating sacrament and hopefully 1st Communion won’t be so bad! But one of the nuns came over to me and brought me to a kind, young priest who cheered me up, calmed me down, and then I experienced the beauty of God’s love in a unique and new way through the Sacrament of Reconciliation for the first time. It wasn’t hard or scary after all, I even enjoyed it. It was really myself and Jesus sitting there as I opened my heart up a little bit and Jesus spread out His arms wide to embrace me, pouring out His infinite love and mercy upon me, a little kid about 7 years old.

After writing my first homily I was especially glad that the Holy Spirit put this comical experience from the 2nd grade on my heart. Despite some nerves standing before my class delivering this first practice homily, I thought back to my days growing up and thinking to myself, maybe I’ll be a priest some day, but I bet giving a homily will be hard and intimidating. My initial anxiety, just like I was standing in line again for my 1st Confession, quickly went away when I realized how much grace and love God pours out upon me and I began to feel that I can do all things through and in Christ. In the end, it wasn’t scary at all and all of my classmates enjoyed listening to each other and hearing the various ways God inspired each one of us. Now we’re on to tackle our next big assignment in homiletics, the Easter homily!