Making it Personal with Bishop William Joensen

From Advertising to the Altar: A Homilist's Journey with Fr. Richard Veras - 06/27/2026

Episode Summary

Father Richard Veras, Director of Pastoral Formation and homiletics professor at Saint Joseph's Seminary in Dunwoodie, joins Bishop William Joensen and co-host Jean Thill to share how he forms future priests to preach with authenticity and conviction. A longtime Magnificat contributor and author of The Word Made Flesh, Father Veras traces his path from writing advertising copy for a toy company to the parish priesthood, ministry at Ground Zero after 9/11, and the lay movement Communion and Liberation that reshaped his vocation. He reflects on the art of preaching, the spiritual formation of the Diocese of Des Moines seminarians studying in New York, and recognizing the face of Christ in ordinary life. The art of preaching and helping seminarians "preach like themselves" From advertising copywriter to Catholic priest: an unexpected vocation Forming Des Moines seminarians through New York ministry and culture Priestly ministry at Ground Zero in the days after September 11 Finding Christ in ordinary people and everyday circumstances

Episode Notes

In this Full Show, Bishop William Joensen and co-host Jean Thill welcome Father Richard Veras, Director of Pastoral Formation and associate professor of homiletics at Saint Joseph's Seminary in Dunwoodie, New York. Father Veras was in the Diocese of Des Moines for the ordination to the transitional diaconate of Luke Moen, a seminarian he is helping to form, and he shares the spiritual depth behind decades of preaching, teaching, and writing.

Bishop Joensen's opening reflections:

• Recent ordinations across the diocese, including Deacon Luke Moen's transitional diaconate and the priestly ordination of Father Stan at the Cathedral of Saint Ambrose. Father Stan, warmly supported by his home Basilica Parish, begins his ministry at Saint Patrick's in Council Bluffs under first pastor Father Joel McNeil — greeted by a bus of fifty parishioners.
• The local Biking for Babies ride, starting from Saint Luke's and following the High Trestle Trail to Woodward and back, supporting InnerVisions, Martha's House of Hope, Ruth's Harbor, and Agape. To sponsor a rider or give to these central Iowa pregnancy resource centers, visit bikingforbabies.com.
• The close of confirmation season — including Saint Theresa's 75th anniversary Mass and confirmation at Saint Mary's in Hamburg — and the nation's upcoming 250th anniversary celebrations.

In conversation with Father Veras:

• The art of preaching: why a homilist must "preach like himself" and find an authentic voice rather than a formal "preaching voice," and how literature and the humanities give a preacher a human heart.
• An unexpected vocation: studying English at Hofstra, writing advertising copy for a toy company, and discovering — through the lay movement Communion and Liberation — that the parish priesthood was anything but "humdrum."
• Forming the Des Moines seminarians in New York, where assignments in prison ministry, hospice at Calvary Hospital, Memorial Sloan Kettering, and Hispanic ministry at Saint Brendan's in the Bronx stretch and strengthen them.
• Ministry at Ground Zero: Father Veras recalls September 11 from St. Joseph-St. Thomas on Staten Island and serving a shift at Ground Zero weeks later.
• Magnificat and mentorship: writing for Magnificat since 1999, succeeding Father Peter Cameron as homiletics professor, and his latest book, The Word Made Flesh: Foreshadowed, Fulfilled, Forever.

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