The necessary practices that prepare a person to speak true and meaningful words, and certainly the words of God in a liturgical homily, are prayer, fasting, acts of mercy to others, silence, and ascetical striving for virtue and holiness. The Scriptures and the saints clearly witness that persons who do not pray and fast, who do not intentionally practice silence, both exterior and interior, and who do not strive to do merciful acts and to struggle in spiritual warfare with their passions and sins must never speak because they will have nothing godly and worthwhile to say. They must surely never speak the Word of God in a liturgical sermon.
Fr. Thomas Hopko, from
Speaking the Truth in Love, On Preaching in Church.
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