Sharing Restless Hearts: Preaching and St. Augustine’s Hospitality

Augustinian spirituality shone at Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology’s (ICSST) latest installment of its Many Faces of Hospitality series on March 18, 2026, sponsored by the Preaching as Hospitality Formation Program. 

The program, titled “Restless Heart Speaks to Restless Heart: St. Augustine and Preaching as a Sacramental Exchange,” was led by Reverend Father Douglas Milewski, S.T.D., associate professor of Undergraduate Theology and Father Nicholas Sertich, ’15, S.T.L., director of Campus Ministry. Pope Leo XIV’s Augustinian charism has taken center stage in the first year of his papacy and so it felt especially timely to devote an evening of reflection to St. Augustine. 

An Augustinian expert, Father Milewski skillfully integrated many of St. Augustine’s sermons and excerpts into his discussion. Citing various works, Father Milewski demonstrated how St. Augustine emphasized God’s hospitality toward us and enhanced preaching. “‘Human nature would have been abased if God appeared unwilling to reveal His word to humans through humans…’ (De Doctrina Christiana, preface 13). God, who could have revealed Himself any way He chose, chose this,” said Father Milewski. 

Hospitable preaching from an Augustinian perspective means recognizing that it is Christ, not the preacher, who speaks the Word and listening for Christ’s voice through the preacher. “The preacher explains the text; if he says what is true, it is Christ speaking…What we have to do is hear him – but with the ears of the heart” (Sermon 17.1). Father Milewski stressed that the preacher must first focus on prayer before concentrating on the words they proclaim: “As the hour of his address approaches, before he opens his thrusting lips, he should lift his thirsting soul to God so that he may utter what he has drunk in and pour out what has filled him” (De Doctrina Christiana, book IV.87-89). 

Reemphasizing that it is not the preacher’s word, St. Augustine hoped that preachers and listeners would share what they had learned and recognize these encounters with Christ. This meant holding each other “in common”—finding more believers to bond with and deepen their faith. “‘I feed you from the same table which feeds me,’ (Sermon 339.4) ... It wasn’t coming from my words, but it was coming from God working through that…Augustine wants the preacher to realize there is this mystical encounter,” Father Milewski stated. 

Father Sertich echoed this message in his reflection on Acts 4:32-37, drawing parallels between the early Christians and Seton Hall University’s founding: “The early Christian community, they’re just getting on their feet…and yet here they are with a vision similar to that of Bishop Bailey: a community of the faithful, brought together in faith in Christ, being of one mind, one heart and one spirit,” he emphasized. Just as the early Christians found a home in one another by holding one another in common, Seton Hall would become a home for a modern “community of the faithful” (Acts 4:32). 

Father Sertich concluded the evening by encouraging listeners to continue that Augustinian message and learn from each other as one mind and one heart. “That’s the Christian vocation, holding one another in common,” he said. “Heart speaking to the heart.” 

“We are one body in Christ, so whatever we experience and learn, we need to give it to others we meet to help them along their journey,” one participant remarked. 

The Preaching as Hospitality Formation program of Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology seeks to form seminarians, diaconal students and religious and lay graduate students of theology to be compelling preachers who will offer a hospitality of the heart as they break open the Word of God. The initiatives help to form preachers who will understand and embrace preaching as hospitality — a ministry of inviting, welcoming and offering compassion. The program also focuses on newly ordained priests and deacons and newly appointed pastors (less than five years) who are invited to re-imagine their preaching through the lens of Christian hospitality. 

To learn more about ICSST’s Preaching as Hospitality Formation Program, please contact Alyssa Carolan at alyssa.carolan@shu.edu.

Categories: Faith and Service