Seton Hall ICSST’s “Preaching as Hospitality” Program Enters Year Two

At Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology (ICSST), a preaching formation program with hospitality at its heart is steadily taking shape. The work began in 2023 with a $1.25 million grant from the Lilly Endowment through its Compelling Preaching Initiative, launched to foster preaching that inspires, encourages and guides people to know and love God more fully. As a house of formation and a school of theology, ICSST provided the institutional soil and missionary zeal in which this program could take root and flourish. 

“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,” says Dianne Traflet, J.D., S.T.D., Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Administration and Assistant Professor of Pastoral Theology who wrote the grant proposal that launched this program. Her words describe more than a set of events, but a mission of spreading the Good News.

Associate Dean Traflet adds, “The initiatives help to form preachers who will understand and embrace preaching as hospitality, a ministry of inviting, welcoming, sharing and offering compassion.” Among the many offerings are the Wisdom Figures of Preaching videos that feature priests and deacons ordained at least 30 years this year the focus was on former Rectors/Deans of ICSST.  Events and projects also include the Many Faces of Hospitality Evenings of Recollection, an annual University Parish Mission, Advent and Lent daily reflections, graduate courses on Scripture and Hospitality and Pauline Preaching Clinics. 

A planning year in 2024 laid the groundwork for this program during which time Fr. Dominic Ciriaco, D.Min., was hired as director and worked with Associate Dean Traflet to create a team who have been instrumental in helping the vision to unfold through courses, seasonal reflections, public gatherings, and a new website that invites the wider community to join the Seminary community in this new endeavor. According to Fr. Dominic, the website is more than just a landing page, but an inspiring way that the public can see and participate in the goals of Preaching as Hospitality.  “The website outlines our programs, highlights our latest news articles about our preaching programs and features YouTube Videos of our Wisdom Figures series. The website acts as a go-to resource where our videos and Advent/Lent reflections will be archived for future reference and use.”

Fr. Dominic is pleased to share the many events that have taken place at ICSST, including Evenings of Recollection where local bishops present on the topic of hospitable preaching, including Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli, S.T.D., S.S.L., D.D., Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Paterson, N.J. and former faculty member of ICSST. Fr. Ciriaco recalls. “The Evening of Reflection took place on September 17, 2025, in the Seminary’s Chapel of Christ the Good Shepherd. Part of our series, The Many Faces of Hospitality, the bishop’s talk was entitled “The Life and Preaching of St. Paul” and he focused on the hospitable preaching of the apostle Paul. It was exceptionally well received and well attended.” 

Fr. Dominic explains that interest and enthusiasm are growing as the First Annual University Parish Mission is slated to begin on November 17, 2025.  The entire University as well as the general public is invited to attend the three-day mission that includes Mass, an inspiring presentation and fellowship.  In year 3 of the grant, the Pauline Preaching Clinics will be launched, focusing on how to be hospitable preachers engaging the Word in the example of St. Paul the Apostle.  

Associate Dean Traflet’s first line returns as a guide. The aim is “to be compelling preachers who will offer a hospitality of the heart as they break open the Word of God.” In that spirit, the website becomes a threshold, the events become rooms of conversation and prayer and the upcoming years become seasons of welcome that invites many people to come closer to Christ and to one another.

Categories: Faith and Service