THE SACRED ORATOR: Natural and Supernatural Endowments. THE STRUCTURE OF THE SACRED ORATION: Importance of the Plan. The Classic Sevenfold Structure. Oratorical Theme. Oratorical Introduction. Oratorical Narrative. ORATORICAL STYLE: What it is. Its Relation to Personality. ORATORICAL RHETORIC: The Vital Questions of the Human Soul: Whence? What? Why? Whither? Modern Separation of Eloquence from Rhetoric. What Cardinal Newman and Saint Augustine have to say of Rhetoric in relation to Sacred Eloquence. The Value of Reflec- tive Reading of Models. The Teaching of the Ancients ORATORICAL GOOD ENGLISH: The Importance of the English Language as a means of delivering the Divine Mes- sage. The Sacred Orator's need to know Oratorical Good English, in the Art of Eloquence. Good English is the language of the present, the national, and repu- ORATORICAL DICTION: Distinction between Grammar and Rhetoric. Threefold Governing Principle in the Choice of Language in the Art of Eloquence. The Nature and Scope of Oratorical Diction: Fundamental Idea. Prop- ORATORICAL DELIVERY: Self Development in Soul Culture. The Artistic Culture of the Voice: Phonetics, Articula- tion, Pronunciation. Quintillian on Voice. Definition of Oratorical Delivery. Quintillian on Delivery. The Elo- quence of Bodily Action. A Poet's conception of De- livery. Oratorical Delivery in accord with the Mind MODERN AUDIENCES: The Sacred Orator should know his Audience, and should adapt his sermons to their needs. Such Knowledge is natural and supernatural. The Church_prepares the congregation for the Divine Mes- sage. The Preacher should select his themes from the Liturgical Year. The Catholic Congregation. Mixed Audiences. The Mission Audience. The Retreat Groups. The Children. Sermons for Sodalities and Societies. PREFACE Mussolini DURING several years past, the Catholic Press has given much space to the widespread inferiority of modern preaching. And Leo XIII declares "Grave abuses, for some time, have crept into the fashion of preaching the Divine Word, so that modern preaching has become either contemptible or barren and unprofitable." And in 1894 the Congregation of Bishops and Regulars pointed out those grave abuses as including the choice of "themes" Sei which bring them the reputations which satisfy their ambition, in pompous discourses, treating of speculative rather than practical arguments, discourses more secular than religious, more showy than fruitful, such as are perhaps not out of place in journalism or debating clubs, but are out of place in a sacred edifice." Such "preachers, relying on the persuasive words of human wisdom, care little or nothing for the Divine Word of Sacred Scripture which should be the well-spring of their eloquence. These preachers of novelties, instead of drawing their eloquence from the fountain of living waters turn, by an intolerable abuse, to the parched cisterns of human wisdom instead of using the inspired texts, or those of the Fathers and of the Councils." And in 1917, the Holy Father, Benedict XV reveals to us the dire effects of those long continued abuses in his Encyclical Letter on the Preaching of the Word of God as follows, "Looking round we find that the number of preachers is probably greater than it ever was before. When we inquire into the state of private and public manners and customs, there is to be observed among the common people a daily increasing contempt and forgetfulness of the supernatural; the standard of 1 སྙ་ བས་ཆུ་སོ Christian Virtue is lowered, and life is gradually sinking to pagan levels. The causes of these evils are many and various, yet no one would deny the lamentable fact that the Ministers of the Word do little to remedy the disease. Has the Word of God ceased to be what the Apostle said it was, living and efficacious and more piercing than a two-edged sword?" Appendices of Rev. W. B. O'Dowd "Preaching" (Longmans). The Seminarian who recognizes the holy vocation to which Christ has called him, and whose observation has verified the awful facts which the Holy See has called to our attention, will welcome a text book that seeks to point out to him the importance and the dignity of the Sacred Orator, and which is intended to be a guide in his development of Supernatural Eloquence. The student should recall that our Blessed Lord devoted three years in the personal training of His first Sacred Orators, that He taught them the doctrines and duties of the Catholic Religion, that He assured them of an endowment of an eloquence which would convince the intellects, mould the wills, and regulate the emotions of mankind; and that with the commission to preach they would have the twofold presence within them of Himself and of the Holy Spirit. Nor should the student fail in recognizing that the salvation of souls depended at first upon the preaching of the Apostles. It was the Supernatural Eloquence of the first Pope which brought three thousand souls to Baptism and Penance, it was the preaching of the Apostles that established the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in the midst of perishing nations; it was the persuasive power of the Word of God that built Churches and Cathedrals throughout the world; and it was the Sacred Orators in succeeding generations that fulfilled the prophecy of our Blessed Lord that the Gates of Hell should not prevail against the Catholic Church. |