Deacons preaching homilies

Status
Not open for further replies.
The ideal is to have a priest pastor, a priest associate pastor (if possible), deacon, and a sister or laywoman on pastoral staff. This way they can balance each other out.

In my rust belt diocese, they are still keeping open a lot of parishes that are a fraction of their former size, even though close to other parishes. This means new Priests are made pastor very quickly, no diocesan priests go into anything else but parish work, many parishes have no deacon, and some deacons are administering parishes with no pastor. The Deacon’s primary field of service, the social apostolate, is being cut back, to keep parishes open.
 
Last edited:
I’ve been trying to figure out how our deacons are assigned in my Diocese. Our largest parish has 22,000 parishioners but only two deacons, yet there are several parishes with 10-15,000 parishioners that have five deacons. All of these parishes are within a half hour drive.

I know that our deacons can request a particular parish but I wonder if deacons are ever assigned to a parish not of their choice?
 
A primary duty of the priest is to preach the homily. It seems everyone has to have a job, which dilutes the authority of the priest. Now the priest has become a bystander to the reading of the Gospel when he should be its authoritive voice.
 
@buffalo
It is actually the task of the deacon before the priest to read the gospel, and the homily is an equal task to both ministries, so your comment is in error.
 
Last edited:
@buffalo @Cor_ad_Cor
Code: 
 <It is actually the task of the deacon *before* the priest to read the gospel...>
If I am not mistaken, a priest who reads the Gospel is acting according to his Orders as a deacon.
 
Correct. The priest only reads the Gospel if a Deacon is not present.
 
You are correct:
  1. The function of proclaiming the readings is by tradition not presidential but
    ministerial. Therefore the readings are to be read by a reader, but the Gospel by the
    Deacon or, in his absence, by another Priest. If, however, a Deacon or another Priest
    is not present, the Priest Celebrant himself should read the Gospel, and moreover, if
    no other suitable reader is present, the Priest Celebrant should also proclaim the other
    readings as well.
    After each reading, whoever reads it pronounces the acclamation, and by means of
    the reply the assembled people give honour to the Word of God that they have received
    in faith and with gratitude.
 
The Homily
65. The Homily is part of the Liturgy and is highly recommended,63 for it is necessary
for the nurturing of the Christian life. It should be an explanation of some aspect of the
readings from Sacred Scripture or of another text from the Ordinary or the Proper of
the Mass of the day and should take into account both the mystery being celebrated and
the particular needs of the listeners.64
66. The Homily should ordinarily be given by the Priest Celebrant himself or be
entrusted by him to a concelebrating Priest, or from time to time and, if appropriate,
to the Deacon, but never to a lay person.65 In particular cases and for a just cause, the
Homily may even be given by a Bishop or a Priest who is present at the celebration but
cannot concelebrate.

GIRM
 
Last edited:
Sometimes, they’re better at preaching than the priests are, I said sometimes.
 
My diocese is in a similar situation. They’re about to combine a whole bunch of parishes based on geographic location, so things might get a little complicated.
 
Anne1964 said:
know that our deacons can request a particular parish but I wonder if deacons are ever assigned to a parish not of their choice?
Click to expand...
I believe diocesan deacons make a promise of obedience to the ordinary, and his successors (correct me if I am wrong). Religious deacons take vows of obedience to their superior.

That said, I’m sure it’s a mutual discussion where to assign. I’m sure they would prefer for parish assignment their own home parish, but sometimes there’s a greater need in another one. In my diocese there’s also a Ministry of Charity assignment.
 
I think we would be wise to note that transitional deacons and permanent deacons have the same orders but do have different circumstances which will likely influence how they are assigned to parishes.

Transitional deacons will be assigned by their local Ordinary to wherever they are needed.

Permanent deacons will likewise serve at the behest of their Ordinary… but their assignment will probably take into account the parish where the deacon and his spouse (if any) reside. That is why you often see parishes which have many permanent deacons and parishes which do not. Some parishes just have more men who become permanent deacons.

At least where I live, permanent deacons are typically assigned to the parish to which they already belong. They may be assigned to help at neighboring parishes. They sometimes become chaplains for hospitals, military bases, and first responder organizations for their local areas, and such. I know what one of our deacons spends a lot of time helping out the associate bishop who is in charge of the deaneries in my county.

Permanent deacons who come from occupations where public interaction is important might be better homilists. (At least they might be better speakers.) But certainly no guarantees.
 
Last edited:
I don’t think they get the same training at all. And, yes, the quality and the delivery varies a lot from the seasoned priests. My last pastor one talked about his lottery fantasy – how when these jackpots get up to the $500 million level he can’t think about anything else.

One deacon was really a rookie, even though he was a middle-aged man. He was afraid of the microphone, of speaking too loudly. He, like some other priests, would sometimes speak very softly and would therefore be inaudible.

I’m in an older church now, and they have speakers on the columns all the way to the back of the church and even in the vestibule of the church. They seem to have abandoned their wireless microphone system which had a tendency of picking up FM radio broadcasts during Mass and at other times.
 
We have two deacons, and they regularly give sermons. Sometimes they are better than the priest, sometimes worse! It depends!

I will say that no matter how good you are, if you are faced with giving a sermon on a Gospel for the 20th time, it might be time to give someone else a crack at it.
 
I attend tridentine mass regularly in a chapel, and for most part of the last year the celebrant was a very old monsignor. There was a FSSP deacon (now a priest) who spent his vacations from the seminar with us, and he gave the homilies during that time.
 
praytell said:
As for the “liberal” bent of some, I have not experienced this in our group in formation.
Click to expand...
That is good to hear. I said it was my general experience. I lived in the liberal northeast for a good part of my life and also experienced the ‘spirit’ of Vatican II so, of course I would be more exposed to liberal ideology.
 
Last edited:
The northeast is tough, that is for sure and I have experienced what you have but there is hope. With the amazing number of online resources for Catholics, we have a vast library as a window into our faith now. Many of the men in formation are younger than sixty and some of them are converts to the faith. They have grown up in the shadow of Vatican II but still yearn for those deeper truths of our faith that cannot be cast aside by those who misapply what happened with Vatican II. Vatican II may not have been perfect but it certainly did not grant license for hedonism and mediocre liturgy.

Please pray for all those in formation, especially in the northeast.
 
Actually the liturgies I attend, both EF and OF, tend to be pretty good. It’s just a couple of deacons here and there that don’t quite have the knack of the homily like the majority of the priests tend to do.
I rarely hear a bad homily from a priest these days.

Maybe the pastor is providing opportunities for the deacons to practice their homily skills.
 
Last edited:
From a personal perspective, my greatest fear is not being proficient enough to give a decent homily. We have a good instructor who is a priest known for his homiletics. Practice makes perfect, but I will be praying for anyone who has to sit through it.
 
In my experience, the two biggest “mistakes” I see are (1) talking too long (over about 10-12 minutes is usually too long) and (2) getting overly into either politics or apologetics, both of which will make a bunch of people hit the mental snooze button. (Interesting new perspectives on the Gospels aren’t “apologetics”, I’m talking about people who are up there pointing out Bible verses that prove God exists or something when most of the people in the pews really weren’t sitting there in great doubt.) If you can avoid those two things you should do an okay job.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top