I think that the best speaker I have heard to this day was my dad’s cousin who is a deacon. At my aunts funeral he read the sermon and followed it with his homily and I must say it was one of the best homilies I have ever heard. He spoke with so much grace and eloquence that it was so hard not to listen. He started off by summarizing the sermon and explaining what it meant to him. He then proceeded to tell us a personal story of my aunt which tied into how we, as a family, should respect one another and all the problems that we have had should be resolved and buried in the past. This impacted me the most because the week leading up to her funeral, there was lots of bickering and fighting over the most insignificant things. The deacon, not knowing much about the bickering and fighting, really hit the nails on the head with his homily. I thought it was especially powerful because of the way he spoke. I felt as though it was more conversational rather than just being talk to. His non-verbal gestures, hand movements and facial expressions really tied into exactly what he was feeling at that moment. I have heard many priests and deacons preach before, but this one just blew me away. I could tell that he knew exactly what he was talking about and you could hear the confidence he had while he was speaking to a room full of people.
The worst speaker I have ever heard was during a meet and greet with the new director for the division I work for. Being a state worker, I have come across so many different people for different walks of life. Some only have a high school education and others have their PHDs. Well, you would think that being a director for a government organization he would know the proper way to give a speech. WRONG! His speech was not extemporaneous at all; he read directly from his paper and did not give eye contact until he was done reading. His voice was so monotone that it was hard to even stay awake. I was really expecting someone who knew what they were talking about and just exuded confidence, but I was totally wrong. The only thing that I really remember about his speech was his name; he did not keep me interested at all. Overall, it was just a bad experience.
Hey Jackie!
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your post about the speech your deacon gave, it reminded me of my Great Uncle who is a Priest. He lives in Maine, so I rarely get to see him give a sermon. However when I went to visit a few years ago, I was blown away with his poise and eloquence. He spoke to us in a manner that made us trust him, and want to listen. In much the same way as you wrote about, it almost felt like a conversation rather than a sermon. I can appreciate the difficulty of the profession, having to inspire and teach a congregation every week. Getting through to everyone on every subject is a high goal to aspire to, yet in both our cases, I think we were lucky enough to have experienced a moment in which the speeches given got through to us.
Thanks for sharing this story!