Can a Sunday homily be too long?

[JimG]

Not extending the Mass too long is the main consideration. You can’t have overlapping congregations. We have Sunday Mass times at 7:00, 8:30, 10:00, 11:30, and 1pm. Mass lasts about an hour, so the last Mass on a Sunday ends about 2pm.

By the time the parking lot is cleared from one Mass, people are arriving for the next.

Now, we could extend Mass times to say, 2 hour intervals rather than 1 and a half hour intervals, but that would extend the last Mass well into the afternoon. And often there are Baptisms and other functions happening after the last Mass of the day.

 

[felsguy]

On average, homily tend to last 5-10 minutes.

Is this at an earthly parish or have you already died and gone to heaven?

Well, I guess I was a bit off. I don’t recall a Sunday homily lasting only 5 minutes. If I had to put a good average time on all Sunday homilies I’ve heard (in LA), I would say 7-12min.

From where I sit every Sunday, I would still consider that “heavenly.” :sad_yes:

Seriously though, as others here have alluded, a homiliy’s appropriateness is really more a question of content and delivery than length. Our pastor has been quoted as saying he was taught that it’s necessary to state something EIGHT TIMES for it to sink in. Apparently his homiletics professor must have repeated that advice eight times in class because it sure sank into him. I find it very hard not to drift away after about his third go round.

 

[Boulder257]

Kind of what i was thinking. All i’ve heard for the most part is homilies should be shorter so it doesn’t infringe on mine or my kids’ schedules. Really and quite shocked by some of the responses. Especially the one joking about the homily length.

I’ll be working all day tomorrow and have been at times this week and probably Saturday for the three Masses I am preaching at this weekend. I have a feeling it will be 25 or 30 minutes this week.

Thanks for all the posts confirming what I thought, we need more time in Church in Mass!!!

I wouldn’t take it personally Deacon. Everyone is different. I don’t think judging people’s intentions or state of mind is a productive exercise. I also don’t think it is helpful or even accurate to paint everyone with the same brush.

 

[Boulder257]

Well, are teachers helping kids by keeping them in class for half an hour or more? Some would squirm even if the class or homily were 2 minutes.

Point being, a maths or literature teacher cannot teach a reasonable chunk of the maths or literature that a person needs to know in just five minutes.

We have two thousand years of faith that our priests need to teach. 5 minutes a week does not even begin to cover the basics and essential dogmas and doctrines. People simply aren’t learning elsewhere - and they are woefully ignorant as a result. Let them squirm. Learning will always make some squirm. That’s no reason for teachers to neglect their duty of presenting solid and sizeable chunks of substantial teaching.

When was the last time you heard a homily on the duty to attend Mass every single Sunday unless grave circumstances prevent? Or the duty to take mortal sins to the confessional and abstain from communion until you do so - along with reminders that things like supportive pro-abort politicians, divorce and remarriage without annulment, marriage outside the Church without dispensation and so on are grave and therefore potentially mortal sin that need confession?

Or the duty (except arguably in the US) to do an act of penance or charity of some kind every single Friday? On the evils of contraception?

When was the last time you heard a sermon on the devil - the fact that Satan and evil are very real and very active in our world? Or hell - that it is real and that Our Lord taught that few follow the path that avoids it and leads to eternal life?

Along with decent and detailed explanations as to WHY these things are taught by the Church?

Lots of people simply don’t know - because they never get told - because five or ten minutes is not (except for very skilled homilists) enough time to recap the readings and get beyond the ‘Jesus loves you, so love each other’ level of banality and platitude.

But isn’t this the very problem - that some people’s only encounter with their faith is for an hour every Sunday? I can’t help what choices some people make about their religious education, but I don’t think Mass should be our only source of education and if we try and treat it as such, we do people a disservice by allowing them to think it’s all they need. Dare I say that the Mass is about much more and should be focused on much more than the homily.If we make the homily the focus point of the largest portion of the alloted time than we miss the entire point of the Mass!

 

[Cat]

Children get bored therefore homilies should be short? I presume their school classes and exams also last only 10-15 minues tops. Same with their favourite movies or TV shows or the concerts of their favourite bands

And I guess the same applies for the adults too.

No. Like school classes, homilies should be as long as they need to be to ensure that you learn what you need to know. And priests should not applogise or feel even slightly bad for taking time to teach people, any more than teachers apologise for the length of their classes.

Homilies are almost the only, certainly the biggest, opportunity most priests have to catechise their flock, as well as forming the bulk of the catechesis most parishioners receive. Clearly, given the abysmal state of catechesis of the average Catholic in the west, we need priests who will teach us a whole lot more than they currently do, rather than pandering to the lowest attention span in the flock.

AMEN!!! :dancing:

I nominate this post as the BEST of the week, and possibly the best of the year! Such practical wisdom!

Get this poster on staff with CAF!!!

 

[Cat]

No, we need more homilists who can get to the point in a timely manner and not purposely drag things out just because they have a captive audience.

Do you really think you are helping your flock by keeping them squirming in their seats for half an hour? After 15 minutes or so you have lost 90 % of them. Rather than listening to you they are going to be thinking, “When is he going to wrap this up?”

Where do all of you work if you have such short attention spans?!! Do your jobs really give you a break every 15 minutes?!

Wow! I must be a genius, since I am able to sit at my bench for two-three hours at a stretch, with no break, and read plates (I’m a microbiologist in a hospital lab). Woo hoo!

And when I go to seminars and workshops, I sit for more than an hour listening to doctors and professors lecture about various bacteria, and I pay attention.

Wow, I’m so special! Maybe it’s all that sugar I eat. It helps me to focus for more than 15 minutes.

 

[Cat]

What we really need are homework assignments for the following week.

We kind of do have homework assignments.

I’ve heard many priests and lay teachers say that we should be reading the Scriptures used in the Mass during the week

Also, before we come to Mass, we should review those Scriptures and be prepared to learn more about them from not only the homily, but from the music and other portions of the liturgy.

And AFTER Mass, we are supposed to spend 15 minutes or so discussing the homily and the Scriptures with our family, or with friends.

The Catholic Church has really designed things well, to make it easy for us to learn. The problem is, most of us don’t bother to do any of this. I confess that I don’t, and I should.

There are various devotional books available to Catholics to help us read the Mass readings at home and study them. (eg. The Word Among Us). I will try to pick one up at church this week and study more.

 

[Indifferently]

: Sony really like sermons at Mass. I think I would prefer if the sermon was delivered at the end of Sunday morning Matins and lasted a good half hour. At Communion it seems too much to take in, and with the horrible new lectionary which bamboozles you with far too much material every week, it’s no wonder nobody takes in what the priest says during his sermon.

 

[LilyM]

But isn’t this the very problem - that some people’s only encounter with their faith is for an hour every Sunday? I can’t help what choices some people make about their religious education, but I don’t think Mass should be our only source of education and if we try and treat it as such, we do people a disservice by allowing them to think it’s all they need. Dare I say that the Mass is about much more and should be focused on much more than the homily.If we make the homily the focus point of the largest portion of the alloted time than we miss the entire point of the Mass!

Mass is about a few things, an educative homily isn’t the absolute number one important thing but it is essential even so.

Now if Father never spends more than a couplea minues talking about the faith during his homilies then doesn’t it send the message that perhaps it isn’t important after all? And if it isn’t important enough for him to spend time talking about why is it important enough for Joe Q Pewsitter to spend time learning about?

Jesus preached daily for years! And important stuff, not just the sort of ‘God loves you’ banality that constitutes the take home message of far too many homilies. We surely all know God loves us - we need a bit more than that!

 

[Mrs_Sally]

Well, are teachers helping kids by keeping them in class for half an hour or more? Some would squirm even if the class or homily were 2 minutes.

Point being, a maths or literature teacher cannot teach a reasonable chunk of the maths or literature that a person needs to know in just five minutes.

We have two thousand years of faith that our priests need to teach. 5 minutes a week does not even begin to cover the basics and essential dogmas and doctrines. People simply aren’t learning elsewhere - and they are woefully ignorant as a result. Let them squirm. Learning will always make some squirm. That’s no reason for teachers to neglect their duty of presenting solid and sizeable chunks of substantial teaching.

**When was the last time you heard a homily on the duty to attend Mass every single Sunday unless grave circumstances prevent? Or the duty to take mortal sins to the confessional and abstain from communion until you do so - along with reminders that things like supportive pro-abort politicians, divorce and remarriage without annulment, marriage outside the Church without dispensation and so on are grave and therefore potentially mortal sin that need confession?

Or the duty (except arguably in the US) to do an act of penance or charity of some kind every single Friday? On the evils of contraception?

When was the last time you heard a sermon on the devil - the fact that Satan and evil are very real and very active in our world? Or hell - that it is real and that Our Lord taught that few follow the path that avoids it and leads to eternal life?

Along with decent and detailed explanations as to WHY these things are taught by the Church?**
Lots of people simply don’t know - because they never get told - because five or ten minutes is not (except for very skilled homilists) enough time to recap the readings and get beyond the ‘Jesus loves you, so love each other’ level of banality and platitude.

I hear homilies on those things every week. And I still don’t think the homilies are 1/2 hour long. I have never timed my priests’ homilies. I don’t spend Mass looking at my watch.

However, our Sunday morning schedule of 4 Masses are 1.75 hours apart so I know our Sunday Masses don’t last too much over an hour - also accounting for music and communion for about 1000 per Mass.

 

[blaskoman]

But isn’t this the very problem - that some people’s only encounter with their faith is for an hour every Sunday? I can’t help what choices some people make about their religious education, but I don’t think Mass should be our only source of education and if we try and treat it as such, we do people a disservice by allowing them to think it’s all they need. Dare I say that the Mass is about much more and should be focused on much more than the homily.If we make the homily the focus point of the largest portion of the alloted time than we miss the entire point of the Mass!/QUO

I really wish it were the case that homilies would properly catechize the faithful. However it seems that most homilies are simply “touchy feely”, no different from a protestants sermon.
Another post mentioned the lack of homily references to Hell, the devil, sins such as homosexuality, fornication, contraception, missing Mass, etc. Until priests step it up, the faithful will have to educate themselves!

 

[JimG]

My father in law used to say, ‘the longer the homily, the longer my nap.’

 

[Bonnie]

My father in law used to say, ‘the longer the homily, the longer my nap.’

Ah - FINALLY! I thought I was going to be the first to say that long, boring homilies put me to sleep. Long interesting homilies keep me awake.

We had one priest a few years ago who would regularly put me to sleep. His homilies could have been taped & sold for non-addicting sleep aids.

 

[BettyBoop416]

They don’t squirm in their seats when I preach. They thank me for the message. I can asure you if the homilist is worth his salt the crowd is not lost after 15. My pastor preches sometimes as long as 40 and the people want more. Sometimes our homilies are as short as 7 or 8 minutes, like last weekend my pastor’s homily was less than that, and it was a great message, just as good as when he preaches 40. I am very fortunate to work with teh priest I work with, he is one of the best and he has taught me a lot.

It’s not the time that makes the homily, it is the message. If it is the time for you please do some soul searching!

Well, perhaps you and your pastor are a couple of crazy-good homilists. Your parish is indeed fortunate. Our priest is also pretty good…but he’s not 40-minutes-worth-of-homily good. While I agree with you that it’s the message, not the time that’s important, anyone who takes 40 minutes to convey their message is not the homilist they think they are. They just like the sound of their own voice.

OK. I’ll do the soul searching you suggested if, in turn, you consider the possibility that the five people who come up to you after Mass to say “Way to preach it Deacon” are vastly outnumbered by the folks thinking “Doesn’t that guy know when to stop?”

 

[teachccd]

It seems that nobody read my post #18. Maybe Saint Paul wasn’t that good of a role model…

 

[JimG]

I don’t know… St. Paul gave a homily that was so long a man fell asleep and fell out of a third story window. (See Acts 20:7-12) Paul revived the man and continued his homily. If it was good enough for St. Paul then it should be good enough for us!!

I love that reading, but it’s probably a cautionary tale for homilists, unless they have the ability to bring the dead back to life after they are killed from falling asleep and tumbling out of the third story window!

 

[Bonnie]

It seems that nobody read my post #18. Maybe Saint Paul wasn’t that good of a role model…

Oops - sorry! I did miss it. Your post was the first one about falling asleep. That story is instructive - don’t sit too close to windows during long homilies.

 

[JimG]

It seems that nobody read my post #18. Maybe Saint Paul wasn’t that good of a role model…

I love that reading, but it’s probably a cautionary tale for homilists, unless they have the ability to bring the dead back to life after they are killed from falling asleep and tumbling out of the third story window!

 

[LilyM]

Well, perhaps you and your pastor are a couple of crazy-good homilists. Your parish is indeed fortunate. Our priest is also pretty good…but he’s not 40-minutes-worth-of-homily good. While I agree with you that it’s the message, not the time that’s important, anyone who takes 40 minutes to convey their message is not the homilist they think they are. They just like the sound of their own voice.

OK. I’ll do the soul searching you suggested if, in turn, you consider the possibility that the five people who come up to you after Mass to say “Way to preach it Deacon” are vastly outnumbered by the folks thinking “Doesn’t that guy know when to stop?”

Maybe they aren’t good homilists - or maybe a lot of us aren’t crazy-good (or even crazy-ordinary) listeners.

A lot of people in Jesus’ time would also have said that He didn’t know when to shut up - I mean fancy preaching for so long that your audience misses their lunch and gets hungry! How rude!

Surely He could’ve limited Himself time-wise, because hungry people aren’t gonna pay attention and anything worth saying can surely be said in eight or ten minutes max, no? Of course it can, that’s why the Bible is only ten pages long

 

[adrift]

Kind of what i was thinking. All i’ve heard for the most part is homilies should be shorter so it doesn’t infringe on mine or my kids’ schedules. Really and quite shocked by some of the responses. Especially the one joking about the homily length.

I’ll be working all day tomorrow and have been at times this week and probably Saturday for the three Masses I am preaching at this weekend. I have a feeling it will be 25 or 30 minutes this week.

Thanks for all the posts confirming what I thought, we need more time in Church in Mass!!!

All you have heard? Did you not read the link I provided from the vatican?

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Homilies should be no longer than eight minutes – a listener’s average attention span, said the head of the synod office.

Are you sure they are not squirming just like you didn’t hear about the Vaitcan saying they shouldn’t last longer than 8 minutes?