PARISH MISSIONS: PREACHING THAT AIMS ONLY AT INSTRUCTING

According to Eugene’s Rule of 1818, the missionaries had to seek “only to instruct the faithful” and not dazzle them with eloquent speech. They had to be content not only “to break the bread of the Word for them, but to chew it for them”, so that the listeners would “rather return to their homes edified, touched, instructed and able to repeat in their families what they have learned from our lips.

It should be understood that it is in direct opposition to the spirit of our Rule to aim at elegance of style in preaching, rather than solidity of doctrine.
Too many preachers strive to be admired because of the sublimity of their eloquence and by the brilliance of their carefully prepared diction; we must follow a totally different route. We must seek only to instruct the faithful, to be attentive to the needs of the greater part of the audience,
and we must not be content to break the bread of the Word of God for them, but also to chew it for them.
We should see to it that, when our sermons are over, they, instead of presuming to bestow foolish admiration on what they have not understood, will rather return to their homes instructed and well disposed, instructed, and able to repeat in their families what they have learned from our lips.

1818 Rule Part 1, Chapter 3, §1

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