Homily Building Based on Euchological Texts in the Light of Exhortations of the Homiletic Directory

Abstract

The author devoted the article to the preparation of homilies based on euchological texts. His inspiration was Homiletic Directory by the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments. His attention was due to the impression that the Directory gave too little consideration to them, especially the methods that can be used to preparing the homily. The Directory mentions that the spectrum that inspires homiletic work includes, apart from Bible, typically liturgical texts. Nonetheless, a more thorough reading provokes the impression that focus on biblical readings by far dominates. The method proposed by the Directory is lectio divina, which is growing out of the patristic exegesis of the spiritual sense of the Scripture. This method considers the biblical texts belonging to the canon recognised to be inspired. Euchological formulas, on the other hand, belong to an open catalogue, so they differ from the biblical texts. Hence the thesis in the article appears that the lectio divina method can be used as a model for prayer formulas and treated in an inspiring way, however, the methodology typical for liturgical hermeneutics should be employed. The paper proposes to use the historical-critical method, which allows for reading their diachronicity, and the linguistic (semiotic), which enables their synchronous richness to be explored. The juxtaposition of these methods makes it possible to see how they correspond to each other and thus confirm the rationality of the conducted argument and the validity of the thesis indicating the need to use adequate methods when preparing homilies based on euchological formulas.