Eugene’s biographer, Rey, describes the 1826 jubilee preaching at the Calvaire in Marseilles, which lasted twenty one days (REY, Histoire I, p. 419-420).
Eugene preached on the Our Father each morning in Provencal, and then later in the day in French, on the principal articles of Christian doctrine, dogmas and the sacraments. Rey tells how Eugene handed the French conferences over to the well-known preacher, Father Enfantin, and the attendance numbers started to drop each day. When Eugene took over again, the numbers rose.
The people preferred his method of preaching to the elegant theological eloquence of Enfantin. This is why Eugene was able to write to Honorat at Laus, regarding the daily preaching in the church:
Do not lose from sight that it is not a question in this exercise, of preaching but of furnishing matter for meditation [for the faithful].
Letter to Jean-Baptiste Honorat, 26 August 1826, O.W. VII n. 252.
“Furnishing matters for meditation.”
This quot from the founder give me/us a style of preaching with allows for thought to take place after the service. What questions do we leave people with to “chew on”? Do I/we give enough time for silence?
Maybe the best complement we hear ought to be, “we shared and spoke about the sermon at table as a family.”