So you want to preach...?

By now, I have been preaching almost every week for more than two years. And the task is not getting easier. Preparing and writing a sermon takes a lot of hard work. I thought I have done reasonably well... until I read this quote from Walter Burghardt:

'It takes me sixty or seventy hours to shape a fifteen-minute homily. But, I assure you, the results outstrip the price;

for your people, time and again fresh insight into the mind of Christ, often a burning yearning to listen to the Lord and say yes;

for yourself, a continuing education, ever-new experience of the risen Christ, constant conversion. Yes, conversion;

for you shall soon discover that in the first instance you are preaching to yourself. The people will listen more eagerly, to the Lord and his preacher, if the preacher has seen the Lord's face.'