2 Detroit actors help seminarians punch up sermons

[zz912]

Actually, they do. Courses in homiletics cover delivery, content, style, etc.

The challenge, though, is that it’s really difficult to write a tight, concise, impactful speech. It cuts across a variety of skill sets: mastery of Scripture, understanding of Catholic doctrine, grasp of current events (global, national, local), recognition of the needs of the parish community, ability to write an ‘essay’ in a form meant for oral delivery, and the ability to actually deliver the speech effectively. And, let’s not forget that public speaking isn’t everyone’s forte. Some priests are great public speakers; others awesome counselors or confessors; some are administrators and organizers. Not all have the gift of preaching effectively.

Then the courses in homiletics are insufficient or poorly done. VERY few people can’t be given the tools to be able to speak publicly. If you have passion for what you are doing, if you have love for something (in this case the Catholic faith), it is very easy to speak for 10-15 minutes about it. A good homily actually should be a set of bullet points of the main topics that the priest wants to hit on. If the priest loves the faith, they can speak for hours about it. 10-15 minutes is no problem.

They just need the tools given to them on how to actually do it. And if they already have instruction on homiletics now, then they are very poor because the results are awful.

The problem is that one man’s ‘fluff’ is another man’s ‘dynamic speaking style’.

I was talking content, not style. They need to throw out the warm up jokes that last 5 minutes. They need to throw out the long, pointless stories that ramble on. If you must have a warm up, it needs to be 20-30 seconds, tops. Get to the point. And teach the flock the basics. Most priests are preaching about how to live out the faith (physics), when the flock doesn’t even know the faith (addition and subtraction). It’s pointless.

A couple of decades ago, the USCCB published Fulfilled in your Hearing, a document on the Sunday homily. In it, they stated “the liturgical gathering is not primarily an educational assembly. Rather the homily is preached so that a community of believers who have gathered to celebrate the liturgy may do so more deeply and more fully.” More recent commentators have suggested that one goal of this document was to move Catholic preachers away from sermons that were primarily lectures (on theology or doctrine, for example) and toward homilies that were an integral part of the liturgical act of the Mass, bringing the context of the readings into people’s lives. However, it would seem that, for some, this suggestion was interpreted as “don’t catechize in your homilies.”

This is fine and laudable, if you congregation actually KNOWS the faith. They don’t. It is a waste of time if they don’t know the faith.

More recently, the USCCB published Preaching the Mystery of Faith. In it, they state: “[c]ertainly, doctrine is not meant to be propounded in a homily in the way that it might unfold in a theology classroom or a lecture for an academic audience or even a catechism lesson. The homily is integral to the liturgical act of the Eucharist, and the language and spirit of the homily should fit that context.”

Doctrine doesn’t have to be heavy and ivory-towered. Speak in a conversational style and speak to the point. You’ll find most people would enjoy the change.

I disagree. I think priests are generally aware of the lack of knowledge, and are very frustrated by it.

Well they have a lot of blame on themselves. The CCD courses for 50 years have been a collection of macaroni pictures and saint posterboards and little else. So they need to start turning around the ship in the homily and reforming the CCD courses.

But here’s the thing: imagine you’ve signed up for a class, because you really need to learn the subject matter. You get to the first class, and the teacher says, “welcome! Here’s what we’re going to do this semester: we’re only going to meet once a week. Oh, and when we do, I’m only going to teach for ten minutes or less. After all, I only want to give you two or three points, and then I need to stop – no need to go on for twenty minutes when ten will do! And, there’s no Q&A in this class – I teach and you listen, period! Oh, and by the way, please bring your young children to class – I’m sure your ability to listen and absorb the material will only be enhanced by the antics of your children and the children of your classmates!”

Let me ask you: how much do you really think you’re going to learn – in less than ten minutes, without the opportunity to ask questions for clarification, and with distractions (and often, with poor acoustics)?

Actually quite a bit. A forceful, impactful, and passionate 10-15 minutes can keep the attention and information retained much better than a dry classroom lecture. And you don’t need to lay out ALL of the faith in the homilies, but hammer home the BASICS.

 

[zz912]

Clearly, there are opportunities to teach – doctrine, Scriptural interpretation, morality – in a homily. However, it’s unrealistic to expect that attendance at Sunday Mass is the proper forum for learning one’s faith. Bolstering it? Sure. Reminding us of it and reviewing it? Absolutely. But teaching it, so that folks who do not know their faith will learn it from this context exclusively? No way.

You’ve got people who are walking comfortably right into hell because they don’t know the faith, even the basics. And you’ve got their attention for an hour each week. I don’t see a better time and place to tell them. They haven’t been learning it outside the Mass, obviously.

I absolutely agree! But, the homily is not the place for that kind of ‘course’. At the very least, it’s an absolutely impossible task. Imagine yourself as a teacher, and your class demographics cover every age range (children to teens to adults to seniors), every level of knowledge (from ‘none’ to ‘advanced’), and every level of interest in the subject (again, from ‘none’ to ‘passionate’). Can you imagine the difficulties in crafting a message that will cut across all these groups and provide each of them with at least one scrap of an idea that they can take home?

I’ve never found a person, even one who knows the faith backwards and forwards, who didn’t like a great homily on the basics of the faith. The ones who know the faith through and through would GLADLY listen to a homily on the basics of the faith, because they know the absolutely wretched condition of the catechesis for the congregation.

Catholics should go back to the basics and learn the WHAT of their faith. It doesn’t take a priest for a person to get on the internet, or buy a book, or listen to a lecture on-line or on DVD. And yes, when there are opportunities, priests who are talented teachers should offer catechetical classes. But, Catholics should – and must – take the initiative for learning the faith themselves, and in a context outside of Mass.

Well I’m not going to wait for them to do it on their own. I think priests should work with what they have and start to teach the faith where they have the opportunity, which is in the homily.

 

[Gorgias]

You’ve got people who are walking comfortably right into hell because they don’t know the faith, even the basics. And you’ve got their attention for an hour each week. I don’t see a better time and place to tell them. They haven’t been learning it outside the Mass, obviously.

No: you have their attention for 5-7 minutes. And, to tell the truth, you don’t even have their attention that long. Sit in the back of the church sometime and look around: people are reading their bulletins, staring off into space, dealing with fidgety children. You might reply that this is due to the (lack of) quality of the sermon, but it’s not – it happens in every Mass. Moreover, no matter where you direct the homily – toward younger folks, toward older folks, toward those with some knowledge, toward those with no knowledge – you’re going to connect with part of the congregation, while other part(s) will be simply disconnected from you.

The ones who know the faith through and through would GLADLY listen to a homily on the basics of the faith, because they know the absolutely wretched condition of the catechesis for the congregation.

That’s a nice thought, but it’s not really true. Maybe for one week, or two, but after that, the complaint will be “I wish Father would give us some real meat! He’s not really speaking to me…” :sad_yes:

I think priests should work with what they have and start to teach the faith where they have the opportunity, which is in the homily.

And again, you’re not hearing what’s being said. A homily is not a theology lecture or a CCD class. Priests are being trained to include catechesis in their homilies, but not to turn their Masses into classroom sessions. That’s appropriate outside the Liturgy.

(Go ahead and ask a new priest what he’s being trained to do in the homily. Better yet, take a look at the USCCB document that details the program of formation for seminarians:
PPF:

Pastoral formation needs to emphasize the proclamation of God’s Word, which indeed is the first task of the priest. This proclamation ministry is aimed at the conversion of sinners and is rooted in the seminarian/preacher’s ability to listen deeply to the lived experiences and realities of the faithful. This listening is followed by the preacher’s ability to interpret those lived experiences in the light of Sacred Scripture and the Church’s Tradition. Understanding this intersection of God’s Word and human experiences, the seminarian/preacher initiates a lifelong mission and ministry of bringing God’s Word to the world through preaching and teaching. This requires that the seminarian couple the deepest convictions of faith with the development of his communication skills so that God’s Word may be effectively expressed.

(Emphases mine.))

Even for good homilists, what they teach is not what their congregations hear. I like doing this with family and friends: after Mass, ask what Father talked about. Make sure you poll a variety of people, with different educational backgrounds and age ranges. (It could even be for a priest whose homilies you like!) Ask them what his main point was. (In fact, ask yourself what you thought his main point was.) Then, if you’re really daring, ask Father.

You’ll be surprised with the results: some hear only the story or anecdote that was told. Others will have picked out one sentence or meme (sometimes relevant to the main point, but sometimes not). Some will just shrug and say “I don’t know.” Some will have decided on the main point… but it wasn’t the point Father was getting at.

Now extrapolate: given these results, how effective will catechesis be in this context? I’m not saying “don’t try” or “give up”; rather, just “be realistic”, because the Mass isn’t a classroom, and five minutes (without questions or feedback) won’t get the job done. Catholics need to make a commitment to learning their faith, and to live out that commitment on a daily basis (not just while held captive in the pews).

 

[zz912]

No: you have their attention for 5-7 minutes. And, to tell the truth, you don’t even have their attention that long. Sit in the back of the church sometime and look around: people are reading their bulletins, staring off into space, dealing with fidgety children. You might reply that this is due to the (lack of) quality of the sermon, but it’s not – it happens in every Mass. Moreover, no matter where you direct the homily – toward younger folks, toward older folks, toward those with some knowledge, toward those with no knowledge – you’re going to connect with part of the congregation, while other part(s) will be simply disconnected from you.

A well done homily, with a priest speaking with passion can certainly hold the attention span of most people in the pews for 15 minutes. That doesn’t mean 100%, but you’ll hold the attention of most.

Boring, monotone homilies lose people in 30 seconds. Homilies preaching on rainbows and unicorns and being “nice” lose their attention even quicker. Homilies trying to convey how to live out the Christian faith are meaningless to those who don’t know the faith.

Even for good homilists, what they teach is not what their congregations hear. I like doing this with family and friends: after Mass, ask what Father talked about. Make sure you poll a variety of people, with different educational backgrounds and age ranges. (It could even be for a priest whose homilies you like!) Ask them what his main point was. (In fact, ask yourself what you thought his main point was.) Then, if you’re really daring, ask Father.

You’ll be surprised with the results: some hear only the story or anecdote that was told. Others will have picked out one sentence or meme (sometimes relevant to the main point, but sometimes not). Some will just shrug and say “I don’t know.” Some will have decided on the main point… but it wasn’t the point Father was getting at.

Now extrapolate: given these results, how effective will catechesis be in this context? I’m not saying “don’t try” or “give up”; rather, just “be realistic”, because the Mass isn’t a classroom, and five minutes (without questions or feedback) won’t get the job done. Catholics need to make a commitment to learning their faith, and to live out that commitment on a daily basis (not just while held captive in the pews).

So the reception of the message won’t be perfect. So what? Week after week, you keep educating people on the faith, and it will start to sink in.