This weeks homilies were interesting. You can find them on http://www.youtube.com/romcathhomilies

First, I am sorry that our friend from Malaysia did not post this week. I hope that does not become a trend.

My own homily was put together using the most basic of production techniques. I used Imovie off a Mac and just talked on a personal level. I did this for two reasons: one as I say in the video to enhance the personal nature of the homily and the other was because I am an insomniac and my not sleeping made me intensely tired, so I did not have the energy to do a full production.

Father Michael Stalla at St. Joseph Parish of Avon Lake (Somewhere in the US) did an outstanding job in content and delivery. The production values were also outstanding.

I would nominate this homily as one that is textbook on how to do a homily and how to do one for youtube. One of the aspects of this homily I noticed was that Fr. Joseph speaks without notes.  Sometime watch Saturday Night Live and notice how all the actors are reading cue cards. Fr. Joseph does not use notes and with content and delivery gives such a great message. I would highly recommend this homily and homilist for classes in seminaries

A rising tide rises all boats. The more we try to outdo each other, the better our preaching will be.

Fr. Joshua John Wagner hits his homily out of the park. Again, he does an audio homily with video pictures. If I would suggest anything to Fr. Wagner on production values, it is to use the Ken Burns’ Effect which is to show the pictures in a manner in which the camera is moving, so there is constant movement. Video works with movement. Hence, why you see this when I do my own videos. Marcio Lovato of Canção Nova taught me this.

Yet, aside from this, again Fr. Wagner’s delivery and content is excellent. He has a style of a good story teller with telling points and using humor in a way that really is also a textbook style of homiletics.

Fr. “Stevensorf” does a different homily style similar to my own: that is he does his homily specifically for the Youtube Audience. (This may be because he does prison ministry which would preclude a videotaped homily.) He uses similar production values to my own by standing in front of a green screen and we learn in his homily that he does his weeks in advance. (I do mine on Saturdays.)

He does a great job in discussing basic catechesis on the difference between a so-called Bible Based Faith and Catholicism. His style is different but his message is apropos and an important one for out time. I loved the message where he brings out that Jesus’ own words teach that the Church is the authority. Father is a convert to Catholicism and has a history in the so-called bible based churches that reject Catholicism. So his words really deepen the apologetics base of his viewers.

Finally Fr. Carmel gives a three video homily talking about the readings. If there is one issue that needs to be addresses is to see if the camera person can take an audio feed and use that to replace the camera mic based soundtrack. This is because Fr. Carmel is understood unless he turns from the camera and then he is hardto understand. Fr. Carmel has an excellent grasp of English, but does speak with a slight accent. The camera mic makes it a little harder to hear him, especially when he turns away. (For the record, all our parish video productions are audio recorded on Garage band on a mac and then the camera soundtrack is replaced with the Garage band sound track is replaced.)

Fr. Carmel speaks in the traditional style of preaching with a focus on personal sin and its impact on society among his foci is the sin of omission. The theme is correcting others and to act in a way that we correct ourselves and others.