
About twenty years ago, a group of Catholic students at the Sydney University Law School would invite speakers to give a talk on some topic touching on the faith of the Catholic Church. These weekly talks would sometimes attract fifty or more people. A usual crowd was fifteen to twenty.
On one occasion, a bishop was the speaker, and was invited to speak on the New Evangelisation. With other events being on in the same lunchtime slot, and a flurry of assessments due that week, instead of the usual number only a handful of students were present.
We were mortified and apologetic. The bishop was unfazed, and graciously suggested we sit in a circle to speak about the Gospel, why it remained fresh and good news, and what we could do to share it.
Far more than anything that he said, I went away with a lasting impression of the grace of preaching. This successor to the apostles was, for a grateful few, happily doing what he had been ordained to do: handing on the faith, preaching the word of God with all patience, encouraging the church. It made an impact.
Since then, I have been at many more events of that kind, sometimes as the speaker, sometimes in the audience. There might be bad weather, a clash with the State of Origin, or another talk just as worth attending. When numbers are high, the event can seem like a success. When numbers are low, it can seem like a failure.
That is not a Gospel calculus for success. Preaching in season and out of season, to big numbers or small, confident that God is working all the while—that is how Christians from apostolic times have handed on the faith.
Another thing that I recall about the bishop’s talk was the difference that personal presence makes. Although this was before YouTube, we could even then have listened to recordings of similar talks or read the text instead. But we were in the same room, next to each other, looking at each other and responding to each other, for an hour or so of our lives which was not recorded and can never be revisited.
Since then, we have seen an explosion of preaching and teaching available online. We can now watch outstanding preachers and speakers who are particularly gifted at communicating through that medium. For people who cannot easily access such teaching in person, or who are not yet involved in the church, it is an invaluable gift.
There is a different quality, though, to a talk that is for a gathering of people and that gathering alone. For the speaker, there is the freedom of aiming the talk at that group of people and not the whole world. There is the difference that the listeners’ body language makes to the speaker, their eye contact, mood, their nods and looks of comprehension as they grasp the point the speaker is making.
For the audience, the experience is no less different. Even chatting with others afterwards about the talk, meeting new faces and sharing impressions with them, all helps us better to receive the grace of preaching.
On 1 October, the Dominican Friars in collaboration with the Dominican Sisters of St Cecilia will hold our first “Grace and Truth” evening of prayer and preaching at St Mary’s Cathedral. The inspiration for the theme is twofold. First, it is what St John the Evangelist tells us in his Prologue that Jesus brought to the world: “grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”
Secondly, in an early antiphon to St Dominic called the O Lumen, we address St Dominic as “doctor veritatis” and “praedicator gratiae”—teacher of truth and preacher of grace. These evenings are an opportunity to explore together how to live deeper lives of grace and truth, from within the Dominican tradition.
We hope that many more such evenings and retreats will follow. Why are we doing them? Because four hours of prayer and preaching in the presence of others is always time well spent. We hope for many people to come. Possibly they won’t. The important thing is that, to big numbers or small, the grace and truth of Christ is preached.
Men and women (18 years and older) are invited to this evening of prayer, formation, and fellowship with the Dominican Friars and Sisters on Tuesday, 1st October. It will consist of Eucharistic Adoration, preached Vespers and Benediction, a light dinner, and talks. From 5-9PM, starting in the St Mary’s Cathedral Crypt and moving to the Cathedral Hall. Cost: $35. For more information, contact the Dominican Sisters at [email protected].