The bibliography and web resources for preaching the liturgical year are virtually endless. Listed below are select items that people have found helpful. These are in addition to those listed in the notes to my chapter above. Least helpful are canned homilies, and even reflections on specific readings are best consulted after the homilist grapples personally with the text.
On Preparing Homilies:
Burghardt, Walter J. Preaching: The Art and the Craft. New York/Mahwah: Paulist, 1987. A wealth of insight and information for students who are learning to preach and for ministers who have been preaching for years. Contains excellent annotated bibliography. Burghardt has published with Paulist Press over 10 collections of eloquent homilies that contain insights that individual homilists can develop.
Maloney, Robert P. “Echoing the Lord’s Voice: Seven keys to successful preaching.” America Magazine, 181, no. 12, (1999): 16–20.
Skudlarek, William. The Word in Worship: Preaching in a Liturgical Context.
Abingdon Preacher’s Library. Nashville: Abingdon, 1981. Skudlarek is one of the premier guides to good preaching and was influential in the composition of Fulfilled in Your Hearing.
Waznak, Robert. An Introduction to the Homily. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1998.
Study Bibles: Very helpful for general essays, introductions of biblical books, and notes on individual passages.
The Catholic Study Bible. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. (New American Bible)
The College Study Bible. Winona, MN: St. Mary’s Press, 2006. A work containing helpful learning tools. (New American Bible)
The New Interpreter’s Study Bible. Nashville: Abingdon, 2003. Based on The New Revised Standard Version of the Bible.
The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha. Augmented Third Edition, College Edition. The New Revised Standard Version (Paperback). Oxford University Press, 2007.
One-Volume Commentaries on Scripture
Barton, John, and John Muddiman, eds. Oxford Bible Commentary. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Bergant, Dianne, and Robert J. Karris, eds. The Collegeville Bible Commentary. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1989. Published originally as a collection of individual volumes, now gathered into one volume. Very helpful and readable. Totally new commentaries of the New Testament by new authors have appeared as separate small volumes in the New Collegeville Bible Commentary series, and the Old Testament volumes are forthcoming.
Brown, Raymond E., Joseph A. Fitzmyer, and Roland E. Murphy, eds. New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1990. Excellent resource for all aspects of biblical study.
Dunn, James D. G., ed. Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003. Very useful basic commentary.
Farmer, William R., ed. The International Bible Commentary: A Catholic and Ecumenical Commentary for the Twenty-first Century. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1998. Very helpful and readable with an international group of authors.
Mays, James L., ed. The HarperCollins Bible Commentary. Rev. ed. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1988.
Newsom, Carol A., and Sharon H. Ringe, eds. Women’s Bible Commentary. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1998.
Commentaries on the Lectionary
Bergant, Dianne, with Richard Fragomeni. Preaching the New Lectionary. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1999–2001. Covers the three-year cycle.
Days of the Lord. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1991–1994. A seven-volume series covering the whole year that contains great insights into the readings in their liturgical settings.
Fuller, Reginald H., and Daniel Westburg. Preaching the Lectionary: The Word of God in the Church Today. 3rd ed. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2006. Reissue of a work that Walter Burghardt called perhaps the most useful resource for preaching biblical homilies.
Gregory, Andrew, ed. New Proclamation Commentary on the Gospels. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2006.
Irwin, Kevin W. A Guide to the Eucharist and Hours. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1990. A three-volume set covering Advent and Christmas, Lent, and Easter.
Lott, David, ed. New Proclamation Commentaries on Feasts, Holy Days, and Other Celebrations. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2007. The proclamation series has been a fine resource since the early 1970s, frequently updated with new volumes and contributors.
Nocent, Adrian. The Liturgical Year. 4 vols. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1977. Very helpful in showing how the scriptural readings fit into the liturgical cycle.
Sloyan, Gerard. Preaching from the Lectionary: An Exegetical Commentary. Minneapolis: Fortress/Northam: Roundhouse, 2003. An often-used and well-respected work accompanied by a CD ROM.
Homily Services: A vast but varied number of services are available both in printed form and on the web. Only a few, widely used and recommended, are listed. Many diocesan web sites contain good resources, and the daily readings are listed by the U.S. Bishops’ Conference: www.usccb.org.
Celebration: A Comprehensive Worship Resource. Published monthly by the National Catholic Reporter; contact Celebration, 115 E. Armour Blvd., Kansas City, MO, 64111-1203, or www.celebrationpubs.org. Contains helpful reflections on both Sunday and weekday readings.
Homily Helps. St. Anthony Messenger Press; contact St. Anthony Messenger Press, 28 W. Liberty Street, Cincinnati, OH, 45202-6498.
Catholic Resources: http://Catholic-Resources.org. An excellent web site maintained by New Testament scholar Felix Just; contains excellent resources on the lectionary.
Dominican Preaching: http://www.domcentral.org/preach/. Very helpful suggestions and “first impressions” by Rev. Jude Siciliano, former professor of homiletics.
Liturgy Preparation: http://www.smnz.org.nz/liturgy/. A fine site from New Zealand that contains multiple links to many other helpful resources.
The Text This Week, www.textweek.com. This is an excellent site with multiple resources and commentaries on the Sunday readings ranging from Patristic and classical theologians to numerous contemporary sites.