Do priests always write their own sermons?

[Cbus]

I’m on of those Catholics who does not belong to a particular parish. I pretty much go to whatever church has the most convenient schedule on any given Saturday night or Sunday. Because of this I get to hear a lot of different styles. I know one priest who puts his heart and soul into his sermons, even for daily mass. He obviously writes his own homily.

I’ve been to other churches were priest sounded like he put minimal effort into preparing his sermons.

Still, I’ve been to other churches were the priest preaches a good sermon, but it just doesn’t sound like his words. It sounds like he is just standing up there reading aloud from something he’s only glanced at a couple of times. The words seem very precise and corporate, for lack of a better word.

My question is do Bishops distribute pre-written homilies to parishes that the priest can use if he hasn’t time to write his own?

Also, do Bishops review sermons for consistency with official teaching or only when he receives complaints.

Just curious.

 

[ConstantineTG]

Bishops certainly do not review sermons. I mean, here in the Archdiocese of Vancouver, there are over 50 parishes. Lets assume there’s one priest per parish, thats already 50 different sermons right there. The bishop would be doing nothing all week every week reviewing sermons. There are larger dioceses out there with more parishes and more priests but one bishop.

All priests do write their own sermons, but how they got to writing them varies. Others would take material from other sermons and teachings and put them together. Others would just take something from their own reflection or contemplation. Its not far off some priests may even have an archive of their past sermons, either completely reusing them every year as is or adding bits an pieces as time goes by. I guess there’s as many ways to write a sermon as a student would write their paper.

 

[Phemie]

Some priests write their own with various degrees of success, some subscibe to services which send them canned, so to speak, homilies which they deliver verbatim or adjust to suit the needs of the community. A former pastor of mine used to read his homilies from “Chicken Soup for the Soul” and people just thought that was great – not exactly what I’m looking for when I want an explanation of the readings we’ve just heard.

 

[NewEnglandPriest]

No, priests do not always write their own sermons.

There are homily books available, there are email subscription services, and there are priests who share their homilies with each other.

However even when using a “canned” homily most priests rewrite it to some degree so that it better reflects their style/personality.

Some priests always write their own, some always use a homily from a source, and some do both to varying degrees.

 

[Philomeena]

No they do not. I found that out when I was perusing the Center for Liturgy Sunday to help me reflect on the upcoming Lectionary. One article in particular was so terrific that I re-read it a couple of times. Imagine my surprise when I heard the exact same words coming from my pastor’s mouth during the Sunday homily. I could actually quote some lines along with him. HAHAHA!

At least it was good.

To be fair to those who “read” their homilies. Some people write much better than they present. Many times the homilies that are presented in a dry manner actually contain some well thought out and wonderful material. I try to ask the Holy Spirit to help me to hear what God wants me to hear from the homily. If I have had trouble understanding one of those homilies because of the delivery, I will ask the deacon or priest if I may have a copy of his homily. They are always happy to oblige and when I read the homily I learn so much and find it was very thoughtfully put together and well-researched.

 

[Joannm]

I recall a priest telling me that when he was a seminarian one old priest would read canned homilies and the students found out where he got them and they made copies and would read along.

Sometimes our foreign priests subscribe to homily services and you can tell when they are preaching from their own thoughts or from someone else’s since the tone is completely different.

 

[Edmundus1581]

…Its not far off some priests may even have an archive of their past sermons, either completely reusing them every year as is or adding bits an pieces as time goes by…

I suspect that this is very common. As the liturgical cycle is three years it can be up to three years between revisiting a sermon, so the repetition will not be obvious. Especially as priests will move to a new parish every few years

I first noticed this only this year, after 30 years in Catholicism. Our parish priest had a particularly interesting take on the the gospel which struck a chord with me, and then I remembered, quite dimly, him saying the same thing three years ago!

It’s probably a bit like cooking the family meal. When you start out in the job you will try lots of new recipes, but as time goes by you will build up a repertoire of meals which you can produce with a minimum of fuss, but which has sufficient variety to remain interesting. When you bring out the old recipes you will usually change something - a different spice, or a different ingredient, and you will still try a new recipe from time to time.

 

[ConstantineTG]

No, priests do not always write their own sermons.

There are homily books available, there are email subscription services, and there are priests who share their homilies with each other.

However even when using a “canned” homily most priests rewrite it to some degree so that it better reflects their style/personality.

Some priests always write their own, some always use a homily from a source, and some do both to varying degrees.

Write is a lose term Father. That is why I compared it to writing a school paper. Most student “write” their own paper, in the sense that they are the ones who personally copy-paste everything from different sources

 

[ConstantineTG]

I suspect that this is very common. As the liturgical cycle is three years it can be up to three years between revisiting a sermon, so the repetition will not be obvious. Especially as priests will move to a new parish every few years

I first noticed this only this year, after 30 years in Catholicism. Our parish priest had a particularly interesting take on the the gospel which struck a chord with me, and then I remembered, quite dimly, him saying the same thing three years ago!

It’s probably a bit like cooking the family meal. When you start out in the job you will try lots of new recipes, but as time goes by you will build up a repertoire of meals which you can produce with a minimum of fuss, but which has sufficient variety to remain interesting. When you bring out the old recipes you will usually change something - a different spice, or a different ingredient, and you will still try a new recipe from time to time.

Even with a cycle of 3 years, the readings will be similar every year. Remember that the synoptic Gospels contain almost the same thing. The only challenge is when its Mark’s year, when his short Gospel is supplemented by John’s to fill in the year.

 

[FAB]

I’m on of those Catholics who does not belong to a particular parish. I pretty much go to whatever church has the most convenient schedule on any given Saturday night or Sunday. Because of this I get to hear a lot of different styles. I know one priest who puts his heart and soul into his sermons, even for daily mass. He obviously writes his own homily.

I’ve been to other churches were priest sounded like he put minimal effort into preparing his sermons.

Still, I’ve been to other churches were the priest preaches a good sermon, but it just doesn’t sound like his words. It sounds like he is just standing up there reading aloud from something he’s only glanced at a couple of times. The words seem very precise and corporate, for lack of a better word.

My question is do Bishops distribute pre-written homilies to parishes that the priest can use if he hasn’t time to write his own?

Also, do Bishops review sermons for consistency with official teaching or only when he receives complaints.

Just curious.

As a deacon I write all my homilies. That is not to say thatI don’t borrow from various sources, but in the end they are my words and arranged with my thoughts as lead and inspired my the Holy Spirit.
With the internet, there are many sources now avaiable for pre-written homilies and I have seen a preist we had in residence use them.
It may be because of time limitations. My processes in doing a homily takes 10 to 12 hours on average.

 

[Deo_Gratias42]

Write is a lose term Father. That is why I compared it to writing a school paper. Most student “write” their own paper, in the sense that they are the ones who personally copy-paste everything from different sources

Hey, I don’t simply copy and paste. I use a thesaurus.

My priest pretty much reads his homilies verbatim on Sundays. On feast days that don’t fall on Sunday he seems to do them off the top of his head. There’s a huge a difference in style. He writes very formally, and always in the third person narration, so when he speaks, he sounds very intellectually astute. When he does them off the top of his head, they’re done in second person narration and not as formal language. He also always starts his concluding paragraph off the same, so I know when he’s almost at the end of his sermon. This isn’t the case when he does them off the top of his head.

Now, talking to him in person, completely different. I feel kinda bad. When I first came to the parish, I thought he was kind of stuck up. Not the case at all. A little of the aloof side at times, but not stuck up at all.

I think the majority of parish priests come up with their own homilies. I don’t doubt they get inspiration and quotes from books, but I think most, after how many years of seminary write their own.

 

[CB_Catholic]

One of our priests will give the same sermon on particular days of the year every year. For instance, he always gives the same homily on New Years. He does this on purpose and tells the congregation that it is his homily for New Years. The reason is because he feels what he has to say needs to be repeated.

I have a friend who was in his old parish and heard the same homily on New Year’s for like 6 years in a row. Then she joined our parish and now she heard it again and will for the next few years! However, she said she did need to be reminded of what he had to say, so it was a good thing.

 

[Diaconia]

It’s a shame that more priests don’t write their own homilies. I am a deacon who works for the Church full-time and know dozens of priests.

Personally, I always write my own homily, but I do sometimes use material from previous homilies on occasion; particularly for things like weddings (where there are relatively few Gospel accounts that couples typically choose).

The main reason I hear priests give for not writing a homily, or not spending as much time refining a homily is** the lack of time**.

Priests have too little time to devote to preaching and other truly priestly work (visiting the sick, and so forth) because they spend too much time on administrative things. Meetings, finances and the like.

A former pastor of mine used to send all the deacons copies of the homily service he subscribed to. After a bit of time I asked him not to send it to me, as I didn’t use the material and I shared with him, “Fr. using those materials is just regurgitating the homily written by someone that our parish does not know, will never meet, and has no connection to. They want to hear the preacher that they know bring the Word of God alive to them. They want to see the connection between Scripture and their lives here, today.”

It may surprise you to know that many of the homilies written for the services are done by people who are not clerics. Why would you deliver a homily written by a layperson?

God bless,

 

[chaunceygardner]

No, priests do not always write their own sermons.

There are homily books available, there are email subscription services, and there are priests who share their homilies with each other.

However even when using a “canned” homily most priests rewrite it to some degree so that it better reflects their style/personality.

Some priests always write their own, some always use a homily from a source, and some do both to varying degrees.

Our priest on a recent Sunday told a humorous story to illustrate his point about intent vs. action. Soon after, someone else we met from a different parish said their priest told the same story in his homily. Knowing the priests, I don’t think either used a “canned” homily, but chose the same story to illustrate their point. In a conversation with our priest once he explained the time and process he usually uses to prepare his homily, and the various sources he uses. He always starts with the readings for that weekend and their context.

As you say, there are various “helps” that priests can use to construct a homily based on the readings and/or the feast day, both in print and electronic form. I understand that our diocese sends out “homily hints” to their priests, which is perhaps why both priests used the same story on the same weekend.

I give our priests today a lot of credit. The homilies now are overall much better than homilies of 30 or so years ago, are better prepared, have a topic and stay focused, and usually do a good job of relating the readings to the lives of the people in the pews. When I hear a particular good homily, I will let the priest know after Mass. They always smile and seem to appreciate getting positive feedback.