Now do one mandating sermons no longer than ten minutes. In that, he and the Pope would be on the same page!
If Only
- 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.
Don- having read your blog now for a while now, I gather you do not like long sermons…
My Bride Ezabelle would note that I often get my best sleep of the week during them, despite my best efforts to stay attentive!
I’ve always though that the length of the homily should be in direct proportion to the skill of the orator. The rub, I suppose, is the self-awareness to know oneself and one’s skill. I think a good orator *can* be brief but is always *concise,* which is not always brief. Someone who is truly gifted and skilled can make 45 minutes feel like 10, and you almost feel like you are cheated if they go *too* short.
To be fair though, the number of orators who can pull this off is quite limited, so as a general rule I think it’s good for homilies to be on the short side.
Old rule of homiletic classes: “Tell them what you are going to tell them; tell it to them and then tell them what you told them. Ten minutes MAX.
What would you all do if you had to sit through one of St. John Chrysostom’s homilies? Some things require an explanation that takes longer than 10 minutes. That said, the overwhelming majority of Roman priests are incapable of speaking anything intelligent even within a 10 minute period of time. Whatever happened in presenting the Gospel in both Word and Sacrament?
What would you all do if you had to sit through one of St. John Chrysostom’s homilies?
Probably snore through most of it. I doubt he delivered the written homilies. The written homilies were probably expanded versions of briefer spoken homilies. Of course throughout most of Church history we had Low Masses where homilies were either extremely short or not given at all. Priests sometimes did not have the authority to give homilies, homilies being reserved for the High Masses with the most eloquent, or senior, priests.
I can think of several clergy who should not have the authority to deliver homilies, except that some of them are the ones who would be deciding which priests had the authority to give homilies!!