When I say holy homily, I mean it respectfully. Given after the gospel passage is read, you might think of the homily (sermon to some) as one of the special parts of the service. But of all the presentations I’ve given or live shots I’ve wrapped, speaking in front of the congregation at five different masses during that holy time was nothing I’d imagined.
But there I was with my homily partner Ed. We were selected to help ignite the big marketing push for two upcoming adult retreats. When I agreed to do it back in September, I thought ‘no problem, you’ve spoken in front of people countless times.’ I wanted to make it upbeat, insightful, and inspirational.
As January 20th approached, the hugeness of this endeavor took its own journey through my body and mind. Ed and I had planned to chat and outline our talks together. That chat never happened by the time we were in church one night for a meeting, and our head priest wanted a preview. Ed had written his already…even had it all typed up. I had just gotten off a plane before this meeting. I wasn’t as prepared. I decided to live in the NOW and wing it.
Ed went first. While he gave his talk, I took notes on his remarks and outlined mine. I prefer bullet points anyway when speaking in front of people. Soon it was my turn. We were at the podium where we’d actually give the homily. It didn’t go too badly. With some advising remarks from the priest, Ed and I planned to work separately on our talks and meet Saturday afternoon to rehearse. The first homily would be at 5:15 mass Saturday.
At rehearsal, Ed had streamlined his remarks down to bullet points. Good for him! I had a copy of my bullet points for him to peruse. We walked into church and went for it. Because we decided to start at the podium together, we had a little choreography to figure out off the top. It involved making sure we had our opening interaction with the audience down pat. Unlike most homilies, we decided to involve the crowd. This was beyond rhetorical questions or jokes. We actually asked questions to which people had to stand or sit.
I’d say I felt the most butterflies before the first service. By the last one at 6pm Sunday, I just had to keep my energy up and not get bored with my own talk. I had to remember each crowd was hearing our homily for the “first” time. To our delight, we heard the retreat table got lots of checker-outers. Several people even signed up on the spot.
Ed and I felt good about our performance. And the motivation to act, which our talks hopefully inspired, was awesome! We even had people tell us they went to the table specifically because of our talks. Even though this talk was special and required a certain kind of preparation, I realized basic presentation skills also applied.
Always analyze your audience–prior to and during the talk. Have a purpose or intent with your message. Make people laugh as a way to help them remember. Structure your talk to leave them wanting more. Less actually can be more because it means you’ve had to do quite a bit of preparation to streamline your thoughts and internalize your message. No one needed to see Ed’s first version or my scribbled bullet points from the previous week. All that mattered was we became our talks for that moment in time, and we knew what we were talking about. With that confidence, we could even throw in customized comments based on the particular crowd. I’m certainly glad I got to experience what speaking during a holy agenda entails. The experience brings me added insight for all future presentations.
