This is the text of a letter I sent on New Year’s Day to a Jesuit abroad who seemed to be confused on preaching homilies effectively. He declared he is not a holy man and his faith is not without lots of doubts.

As a young priest, he did make a promise to himself that he would never use words in a homily that did not make sense to himself. As a result, he usually avoids phrases like “saving souls,” “God’s grace” and “transubstantiation” because he is not sure what those words mean. My letter is the following:

“Dear Father,

In homilies be short. Remember that God’s grace along with your words can bring about conversions. Without grace, there cannot be any conversion.

Remember that preaching does not give grace ex opere operato but ex opere operantis. So, the more you let God draw you nearer to himself, the more effective and fruitful your preaching will be.

On the celebration of his First Mass in Turin, Don Bosco asked God to give him the grace of the “efficacia della parola”, i.e. the efficacy of his word, intending whenever he would preach, advise and direct souls on their way to heaven. On his death-bed, on January 31, 1888, he could say to those around him: “It seems that God has heard my prayer I asked him at my First Mass.”

I cannot fail to suggest to you the importance of living in close and continuous union with God, according to all the teaching of the Catholic Church, denying yourself continuously, winning, by God’s all-powerful help, all temptations and living in grace all your life.

God makes use especially of his close friends to convert others.”

Happy New Year in the love and peace of Baby Jesus.