Greetings: I'm interested in learning of other sites that may assist me in the preparation of talks, speeches and homilies centered around the Catholic faith. I will be taking a "Homiletics" course in the fall and would like to read up on some of the material available, particularly if it can be acquired on the Internet. I could also use a couple of good concordances that I could refer to when preparing such talks. Any help you can be will be greatly appreciated. Ed

-- Ed Lauzon Sr. (grader@accglobal.net), April 20, 2000

Answers

Welcome back, Ed!

I'm a bit unclear on what you are seeking at the beginning of your message. I don't know if you are looking for Internet sites that are specifically for helping priests and deacons prepare homilies -- or if you are just looking for sites that have solid Catholic information (apologetics, spirituality, reflections on revelation, etc.). Rather than wait for you to pin this down, I am going to give you and everyone else here the URL of the single most helpful "page" on the Internet -- in my opinion. It is one of the pages of the "Petersnet" apostolate (the latest "incarnation" of one of the very first Catholic electronic communications efforts, going back to 1990). Among other things, Petersnet evaluates new Catholic sites as they arise, and they have now rated hundreds.

By going to this page (http://www.petersnet.net/browser.cfm), you can quickly learn about their rating system, request to see "hyperlinks" to all the sites they have rated, or request to see links only to those sites that conform to certain characteristics that you specify. [Note: the "characteristics" are not in the area of subject matter, but rather degree of "fidelity" to the Magisterium, etc..]

If you would like to subscribe to a reliable and inexpensive periodical related to your new studies, I recommend the venerable "Homiletic and Pastoral Review" (founded many decades ago). It is available from Ignatius Press (at http://www.ignatius.com/magindex.htm), but you can look at parts of a lot of past issues on the Internet at http://www.catholic.net/RCC/Periodicals/Homiletic/index2.html
Happy hunting!

About concordances ...
Nowadays, large Internet sites are finding it not "optional," but "required," to have what is called a "search engine" -- a page on which there is a place for a person to enter a word or phrase to be sought throughout the multiple linked-together pages of the site. And this is the technique that is now used for finding words/phrases in the Bible, in the Catechism, etc., etc. -- if a person does not have a paper "concordance." Paper concordances are hard to find and very expensive. The last true concordance for a Catholic Bible was published in the 1970s and is out of print, I believe. You should be able to find one in a library's reference section, especially at a Catholic college.

For years now, I have been hearing that the most accurately translated, modern Catholic Bible version is the "Revised Standard Version - Catholic Edition" -- published by Ignatius Press as the "Ignatius Bible" (which I now own). The RSV was a 1940s/1950s effort by Protestant scholars -- the latest in a long series of revisions of the King James Version -- and it included, in an appendix mislabeled "apochrypha," the seven books of the Old Testament that Catholics and Eastern Orthodox revere as inspired by God but that Protestants do not. Catholic prelates of the 1960s found that the RSV was excellent and permitted it to be published in a "Catholic Edition" with a limited number of "re-wordings" plus the restoration of the seven "deuterocanonical" books to their rightful place. I'm going to all this trouble of explanation, because I am happy to say that the RSV, with "apochrypha/deuterocanonicals" and a "search engine," is available on the Internet. Please visit it by clicking here (http://etext.virginia.edu/rsv.browse.html).

A blessed Holy Thursday to you and all!
John

-- J. F. Gecik (jgecik@desc.dla.mil), April 20, 2000.

Thanks again John. Your posting will be a tremendous help to me. I'm looking for all of these things in preparation for my course. Thanks again!

-- Ed Lauzon Sr. (grader@accglobal.net), April 21, 2000.