"Preach What You Believe: Timeless Homilies for Deacons," Deacon Michael E. Bulson, Paulist Press, 18.95 soft cover, 218 pages.
The Diocese of Salt Lake City is blessed with a number of very good homilists. I’m sure I’m not alone in saying there have been many times I’ve walked out of a church wishing I had a copy of the day’s homily in my pocket for future reference.
Deacon Michael E. Bulson, currently serving St. Joseph Parish, Ogden, has done us one better. Last year he published his homilies for Cycle B - a full liturgical year. In "Preach What You Believe: Timeless Homilies for Deacons," Deacon Bulson spreads the messages of the Scriptures in words everyone can understand, and at the end of each homily, he asks pointed questions that further call readers to plant those messages deep in the heart.
In his homily for the Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle B), Deacon Bulson draws from the writings of Amos, St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, and St. Mark’s Gospel. Dwelling on the prophet Amos, sent out to preach repentance, he compares the social situation in the time of Amos to that in which we live now. Deacon Bulson reminds us that God has not changed, and that he still sends prophetic voices to remind us that the self-centered attitudes of today and the conditions in which the poor and marginalized are forced to live need to be challenged openly.
Each chapter, each homily, is filled with familiar names and people and serves to remind us that Jesus speaks to us today through those around us and through situations we face today. Deacon Bulson challenges each one of us to go out, as the first disciples did, and change the world.
My only criticism of the book is its title. Browsers in Catholic or Christian book stores might assume the book is only for deacons, which is not true. There is something here for everyone to learn, to ponder, to pray with, and to make our own.
Will we see more of Deacon Bulson’s homilies based on the A and C liturgical cycles? I certainly hope so.
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