Idea 1: Homily Helper Newsletter.
This idea will consist of a newsletter email to be customized and sent out to the priests early in the week (Monday or Tuesday) in order to begin preparing early for Sunday’s homily. The newsletter will contain a copy of The Observer, giving priests an idea of what sports teams are winning and what students on campus are talking about this week. Next, the newsletter will relay two different types of feedback from the priests’ previous homily; first, short responses to a question asking about the priest’s homily, as well as film of the priest giving the homily, so he can watch and pick up on things he may not be cognizant of while giving the homily. Lastly, the newsletter will give the Scriptures for Sunday’s Mass in order to aid preparation of the next homily.
Entice: Priests would be enticed by given the opportunity to receive anonymous feedback of their homilies, for many priests that we interviewed said they would like to get more feedback. Furthermore, the priests would get all the information in one, succinct location for easy access to feedback and information on what students are pondering this week. The most difficult part of this step is enticing the students to give anonymous feedback, but because many students voiced that priests should improve their homilies and had opinions on how they could, it is clear that students have considered this idea and would be willing to help with short feedback surveys after Mass.
Enter: We would enter this idea by compiling the data from the feedback surveys as a team, filming the homilies during Mass, getting access to The Observer and Scripture readings online, and facilitating the newsletter to priests who want it.
Engage: Priests would engage with the newsletter throughout the week, seeing the information and praying/reflecting on the material. They would use the information to see how they could improve from the previous week, and bear that information and The Observer stories in mind when designing their next homily.
Exit: We would then speak with the priests after the Sunday Mass to see if/to what extent the Homily Helper Newsletter helped them prepare and deliver the homily.
Extend: Based on the priests’ feedback, we would then adjust the Newsletter according to their interests, customizing the Newsletters to each priest in order to be as helpful as possible.
Idea 2: Feedback panel
This idea will consist of priests giving their homilies to a panel of laypeople (undergraduates and/or MDiv students for example) before Sunday’s Mass (Thursday or Friday), and receiving feedback and analysis on the delivery and content from the panel.
Entice: The priests would be enticed because they would instant feedback and put themselves in a position for open dialogue with their audiences, which they often do not have. Furthermore, this idea would force the priests to prepare their homilies early in the week, for several priests expressed concern that they often do not get to prepare their homilies until Friday or even Saturday evening before Sunday’s Mass. Students could be enticed to participate in these panels by potentially creating a type of club on campus for students to help priests improve their homilies–Notre Dame students love to get involved and put more clubs on their resumes.
Enter: The priests would enter by designing their homilies and going to the set location (such as a dorm’s chapel on campus) and delivering the homily to the panel.
Engage: The priests would engage by delivering the homily and receiving feedback from the panel. The priest could then respond to the feedback and have an open dialogue with the panel. The priests could also choose to stay and listen to other priests’ homilies, potentially offering their own feedback to others.
Exit: Priests would receive this feedback and pray/reflect on it in preparation for how they can improve for Sunday’s Mass. We would then speak with the priests after Sunday’s Mass to see if/to what extent the Feedback Panel helped them prepare and deliver the homily.
Extend: Based on the priests’ feedback, we would then adjust the Panel according to what worked and what didn’t work, adjusting the panel to be as helpful as possible.
Idea 3: “So you think you can preach?”
This idea would consist of a student competition in which students would be tasked to prepare and deliver their own homily based on the Scripture readings, and the priests would be judges of the competition. This idea would work in two ways: first, giving the priests a different perspective on the readings, showing them how their audience sees as the important takeaways from the readings; second, giving the students an understanding and appreciation of how difficult the process of preparing and delivering a homily.
Entice: The priests would be enticed by the opportunity to hear the perspectives of students on the readings, which would be both fun/interesting to hear and could give the priests ideas for preparing their homilies. The students would be enticed because of their competitive nature, the unique opportunity to learn about the Mass in a new way and work on public speaking skills, and the incentive of a prize for the best homily (for instance, a Starbucks giftcard).
Enter: The students would enter by reading and preparing a homily to give to the panel of priests to judge on a Thursday or Friday in one of the dorms’ chapels. The priests would go about their week the same way, preparing their homily for Sunday as they usually would, leaving room for adjustments based on what they will hear from the competition.
Engage: The students will deliver their homilies to the priests, and the priests will judge them.
Exit: Priests would receive these ideas and pray/reflect on them in preparation for how they can improve for Sunday’s Mass to be more relatable to their audience. We would then speak with the priests after Sunday’s Mass to see if/to what extent the competition helped them prepare and deliver the homily.
Extend: Based on the priests’ feedback, we would then adjust the competition according to what worked and what didn’t work, adjusting the competition to be as helpful as possible.