On this Popewatch is as one with the Pope! Unlike a Protestant service, the sermon is not the centerpiece of the Mass. Lengthy homilies are often a sign of ill thought out remarks by the Priest. Brevity may or may not be the sole of wit, but it is almost always a sign that the speaker has boiled down what he wants to say to the essentials. Go much over ten minutes and the Priest is only speaking mostly to himself.
PopeWatch: Homilies
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
Toastmasters for priests. The 5-7 minute talk is the bread and butter for Toastmasters. Clear, concise, then sit down. TYVM.
As much as I agree with what the Pope is saying, why is he wasting time giving this kind of advice?
Usually, windy harangued homilies are substantively irrelevant to the faith and how it applies to normal life. It’s usually a bunch of SJW twaddle word salad with no calories. Maybe the Pope ought to take his own advice, especially when it comes to his own documents,
“Toastmasters for priests. The 5-7 minute talk is the bread and butter for Toastmasters. Clear, concise, then sit down. TYVM.“
There’s a saying I heard at a Toastmasters group I belonged to years ago, “The mind can only absorb what the butt can withstand!”
I once met a Carmelite, one Fr. Longinus Young, who could be oddly engaging with his rambles. I think at the time he was posted to some locus between Scranton and Binghamton. If you’re not Fr. Longinus, don’t try this at home.
The finest preacher I’ve ever met was an ancient Melkite priest who had a file of homilies for each Sunday of the liturgical year. He’d been building and updating his file since the 1940s (“when I find something in the Church Fathers, I grab it). They were precisely formatted, everyone beginning with the date of the scene in the Gospel (“according to the chronology of the Biblical School of Jerusalem”) and every one ending with an exhortation of something to do or remember in the coming week. I’ve never met his like anywhere else. He was forced by circumstance to enter a nursing home in 2010 and died about six months later at the age of 92.
Disagree. I’ve had the pleasure of listening to our Pastor, Fr. George Rutler’s homilies for nearly 20 years. His Sunday homilies go around 20 minutes plus and each is like a mini cathecism. His awesome homilies were one of the things that led my wife into the Church. Yes, there are many windbag priests that may drone one generally talking about themselves. That needs to stop.
Some priests have the gift of eloquence; most do not. Same thing with attorneys. Giving a riveting homily day after day is rough, and I am not surprised that many priests are simply not able to do it.
From what I read, PF spoke for 40 minutes and that “gem” was part of it. So he doesn’t follow his own advice. Surprise, surprise.
At my last parish, the priest would only speak for a maximum of 2 to 2 and half minutes. It was awful. He mentioned more than once his favorite TV show was Family Guy.
Some priests have the gift of eloquence; most do not.
You don’t need to be eloquent. You do need to know what you want to say and to be able to explain abstract notions.
Anglican vicars will run on for about 20 minutes and leave their congregations mystified as to what the point of it all was. All but a few of them went into the ministry for the wrong reasons, entertain notions on faith and morals which they cannot admit to or which are hopelessly vague, and read books on comparative religion by academics who are if anything worse than they are. Their sermons are odd, ruminative, obscure, and say nothing to the daily life of their parishioners.
It’s like everything else the clergy do. It isn’t all that taxing, but they stink at it anyway.
He mentioned more than once his favorite TV show was Family Guy.
If anything is mentioned other than the day’s readings (starting with the Gospel) and commentary from the Church Fathers, you’re doing it wrong. If you have something else to say, stick an insert in the bulletin or leave a pile of printed circulars in the narthex.
Family Guy is studded with sick jokes. If it doesn’t wear you down after a while, there’s something wrong with you.
I recall reading about an Anglican chaplain who regaled a British military unit on Church Parade with a sermon on the procedures to be followed for churching women after they gave birth. Some of the clergy definitely do not inhabit the same reality the rest of us live in.
Problem is not so much many priests lack the gift of eloquence, it’s those who lack such gift try to pretend they do have it. And they come off as fake.
Some of the best homilies I’ve heard were from priests who, although not being great orators, didn’t try to be. They spoke of what they knew, kept it brief, shut up and sat down.
In the mid 90s I used to go to a 12:10 pm Mass on Wednesdays. It was over by 12:30. It was often offered by Archbishop Pilarczyk. He would always give a 5 minute homily. They were usually good. Surprisingly.
(Some dioceses would have been better off if their bishop had instead stayed a simple priest.)
It’s looking like tomorrow’s PopeWatch column is going to be even more supportive. I haven’t seen the full story yet, but it looks like Francis made off-the-cuff comments on an airplane ride that were unambiguously orthodox.
Pinky:
Unfortunately not. As usual, they were a confusing combination of orthodoxy (killing an unborn child is homicide), heterodoxy (an unborn child is not a person, not giving holy Communion to abortist politicians is a politicization of the sacraments, because holy Communion is for sinners) and complete nonsense (dreams, a tasteless joke against cardinal Burke, ecology and chaos).
There are people who should never, ever speak off the cuff.
Long or short homilies, I don’t think it matters.
The way I see it the Holy Spirit inspires the words of the Priest during the Homily- a he is a mere mortal- and however he delivers it is however he delivers it.
If the homily is long then I tell my restless kids that of all the time we have in our week, the least we can do is give Our Lord a fraction of our time to engage and be present with him in his house. It’s character building sitting patiently and listening to a long Homily even though physically we are restless and what to get on with it. No minute of our life is a wasted minute if it’s spent in the house of God.
Ezabelle:
“The way I see it the Holy Spirit inspires the words of the Priest during the Homily”
No offense intended, but no, madam, I’m afraid that is not what we Catholics believe. That idea would make the homily equivalent to the readings of holy Scripture (which are inspired by the Holy Spirit) and would make the Holy Spirit responsible for the many heresies one unfortunately hears from some priests.
God offers his grace, but men, both priests and laymen, are free to accept it or not.
Ezabelle (II):
“No minute of our life is a wasted minute if it’s spent in the house of God.”
I couldn’t agree more with that.
Point taken. I didn’t say Holy Spirit controls the words of the Priest in Homily. I said he inspires them.
Not many of you would be able to sit through St. John Chrysostom’s homilies.
7 minute homilies and an inability of priests to be real preachers has done much to stupidify too msny among the laity.
My priest, Fr. Kirby, does 20 to 25 min homilies at Our Lady of Grace in Lancaster, SC. He is freaking great.
Ezabelle:
I am sure you meant something else (we are all Catholics here), but, in Catholic doctrine, the words “the Holy Spirit inspires someone” are used to mean that he preserves from error the words of those who wrote the Bible and made them write only what God wanted them to write. This is clearly not the case with homilies.
Anyway, even in a loose and imprecise way of speaking, the words of the priest when he preaches are certainly not always “inspired” (i.e., spoken following the suggestions or the Will of the Holy Spirit or even truth). Unfortunately, they are often a mix of cliches, empty blather and even heresies. We should not saddle the Holy Spirit with them.
I am really sorry if I have given offense. I have children too, and I also try to teach them to understand the Mass and behave well during it, and I was worried that a well-intentioned but wrong idea about homilies could at some point unintentionally lead them astray, making them think less of the Holy Spirit.
I hope you will forgive me if I spoke rashly or gave any other offense. This is not my native language and sometimes it is difficult to get the tone right.
No all good Bruno. No offense taken. Pardon my wording. I haven’t come across a priest who has given a homily with erroneous ideas or otherwise I would have picked up the kids and walked out. Maybe you have or others have. I’m only talking from my experience. But If the Priest is the only person permitted to give the Homily, ie explanation of scripture then it would mean that he is afforded special graces to touch the hearts of the parishioners. Yes he is human and may not deliver it very well. But the Holy Spirit guides him to do so. Otherwise he would be no different to any old person walking off the street and standing at the pulpit preaching to the congregation. By the way, my native language is Australian, so I’m sure I have mirrspresented the English language many a time. 😂😉