If You Preach It They Will Come

The 1st part is a manual to help one organize one's thoughts so that the homily / sermon /lesson is moving and effective, that is, reaching the hearts of the listeners as they like to hear it delivered. He used the principles in the manual, while teaching Homiletics at St. Patrick's Seminary in Menlo Park, CA. He has given Preaching Better workshops to priests and/or deacons in the Diocese of San Jose, Stockton, Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and San Diego, as well as for the Food for the Poor organization.

Parts 2, 3, and 4 form a collection of my best homilies from the time I was pastor of Christ the King (CTK) Parish in San Diego, California, and Most Holy Trinity (MHT). I spent 12 years at Christ the King, a bi-lingual, tri-cultural parish (Black, Hispanic, & Caucasian), and 10 years as pastor of Most Holy Trinity Church in San Jose, CA, a parish with 5 cultures (Vietnamese, Filipino, Hispanic, Samoan, and Caucasian) and 4 languages (Vietnamese, Tagalog, Spanish, and English) where 7200 attended Mass every weekend.

This Book contains a collection of 186 homilies for the entire 3-year Church cycle (A, B, and C) in the Catholic Lectionary. The book also contains an exhaustive bibliography of preaching resources for further study and preparation.

A Jesuit since 1980, Fr. Eddie spent most of his 32 years in Ordained Ministry in parish work, 18 years as pastor of Christ the King San Diego and Most Holy Trinity San Jose. He holds a Masters in Divinity and Theology from the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley. His preaching has been effective in parishes in Spain, Mexico, and Uruguay. When his words are translated into Tagalog and Vietnamese, and when the homilies are delivered in English, with the translations given out, they are just as effective in those cultures as his own Hispanic Culture and his American English Culture. He sends out his weekly homilies to over 1500 people in both languages each week.

Presently, he is the Director of the Permanent Diaconate in the Diocese of San Diego, after spending 4 years with the Loyola Institute for Spirituality in Orange, working with the Aspirants and Candidates for the Diaconate in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the Diocese of Orange, CA.