Homilies, The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

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I’ve been spoiled with the priests we’ve had since I came into the Church 4 years ago. Our priest now gives interesting, well planned, cohesive homilies that hit Church teaching very well and authentically.

Once a month one of the deacons preach, and its harder to listen to their homilies. Not that they are inherently less interesting, and in conversation they are both fascinating. I think they have less training, and find it more difficult to create a good structure to hang their message on. Sometimes I just can’t find the message. Plus they tend to tell jokes at odd times, disrupting the flow of the homily, or even jokes that don’t have anything to do with the homily, more as a crutch to capture the congregations interest.
 
Homilies these days say things like abortion is okay, contraception is okay, homosexuality is okay, if it doesn’t bother your conscience go ahead and do it. Tearing down the Holy Father. Many things that I see people and EWTN say are not being said from the pulpits on sundays. I vote for catechesis during sermons.
 
The homilies given by my Priest are good. The problem is that you really have to open your ears because he has a very heavy Spanish accent and I can tell that some people cannot understand what he is saying! It really makes you listen and pay attention! He is not afraid to tell us what it means to be Catholic and that you cannot pick and choose Catholic beliefs! Yesterday I attended a Mass at a Church close to my home because I did not get up early enough to give myself enough time to get to my Parish on time:tsktsk: . The Priest gave a good homily. The music was HORRIBLE! They had at their 12:00 Mass, a piano, drums and 2 guitars. The music was very loud especially when I first came in for what I thought was going to be quiet time with Jesus. During Mass, I thought Elvis was going to come in the Church. I’m not kidding! The Alleluia was very jazzy and people were clapping to the beat and it was very Elvis-like. I’m sorry to be off topic, but I had to talk about it! I guess the moral of the story for me is to ALWAYS get up on time for Mass at my Parish !
 
I didn’t vote, because the comments didn’t quite describe my priest, but I give him about 4 stars. His homilies are always good. Never boring.

I think he’s a TAD liberal. However, He has NEVER gone off on a loop . . . so I’m fine. He did say that he wished that we had kept some things that disappeared after VII . . . so, I have never heard heresy, and the nearest parish is about 25 miles away from the local one here . . . so I don’t worry about it.

Usually, though, his homilies are relevent to the readings and the Gospel. Not too much catechesis, which may be a good thing. But I always benefit from them, so I give him 4 stars.

He’s Irish. That’s 2 stars just because of that. =P
 
Faithful 2 Rome:
On a scale of 1 - 10, I can safely and honestly state that I have NEVER (except on EWTN) been at a Mass (in person) where the homliy ranked higher than a “5”… I ranked one homily as a “1”…where the renegade priest stated that if Rainbow Sash wanted Comunion, he was gonna give it…and that Mohammed ascended to Heaven as well… if he wanted to wear a Kerry button its his business…I ranked another (recent) as a 2…where the founder of Mc Donalds was compared to Jesus as having a dream and a mission… the others I have sat thru have never been higher than a 5…EVER… I’d drive a whole 30 minues on a Sunday if I could get a Father Corapi or a William Casey live in person. 😦
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Are you far from MI?
 
Our two priests, the two Mikes, are both very good homilists. Doctrinally sound and relevant. Their styles and deliveries are quite different, though.

Msgr. Mike hesitates during his delivery a bit and tries jokes that tend to fall flat. Yet he is firm in his doctrine and keeps it relevant. He doesn’t go on too long, which is good. Overall, a good homilist.

Fr. Mike is a very natural homilist, with an excellent, smooth and mellow voice and perfect delivery. His homilies are relevant and very insightful. You almost don’t want him to stop!

On occasion, we get this very good Mexican priest with a heavy accent. He likes to joke that his delivery is perfect English, with the microphone giving his words a thick accent!
 
Father concluded this weeks homily by telling us that on the night of June 14 60-65 years ago, a train rolled through Lithuania, picking people up and dropping them off at the farthest reaches of Siberia. Both of his grandfathers were on that train. To this day, they do not know were they are buried. They weren’t dissidents, or intellectual elites. One was a Sacristan, the other a CCD teacher. They were sent away because of their faith. The final sentence, if the train came by your house, would you be on it?
 
I have two priests and they’re great. Every week their homilies are orthodox, spiritual, thought-provoking…and often have many amusing moments. They’re often very uplifting. They have helped me grow in my approach to prayer and my relationship with Jesus Christ. The priests approach their homilies with a great deal of humility. I can’t thank God enough for my priests!
 
Let’s see… I think ours are bad and ugly. we’ve got a priest whose homilies are generally comprised of a list announcing the activities for the coming week: the blood drive, the fund raising for this ministry or that, the volunteer appreciation dinner, etc, punctuated by inspirational phrases like how “fortunate we are to be the people,” “who can share this gift of the Lord” and “be the example to others.” This usually takes the form of 2-4 run-on sentences. We’re not sure if he ad libs, but he sure doesn’t use any notes or even stand at the ambo. At least he isn’t malicious. The second priest often uses his homilies to undermine teachings of the church, to remind pro-abortion pols that they are welcome to receive the Eucharist and to contradict our bishop’s letters to the faithful.
 
I don’t like it when the priest introduces Sr. So-and-So or Mr. Such-and-Such to say a few words in place of the homily. It is usually a pitch for money or a talk about a program going on in the parish. For the most part, however, the preist/deacon gives a homily based on the readings. I like the EWTN homilies. They don’t mince words. They tell it like it is.
 
For the past couple of weeks my parish priest has been giving instructional homilies on the history of the Mass and the meaning of its parts, with quotes from the saints (have I mentioned how much I LOVE St. Justin Martyr?) and all. AND he manages to tie them in with the readings! 😃

Thanks be to God!!! :bowdown:

Hehe, you know what he said last Sunday? “The moment I start saying “I think…” in the homily, you need to boot me out.” (Or something along those lines.) :rotfl:
 
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Poisson:
Sometimes the bulletin is much more interesting than the sermon but it’s still rude.
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Mea culpa mea culpa mea maxima culpa

But until this year I had a priest who sounded like those blah blah homily bulletins that some parishes use - and so it was easier to reead it on the bulletin.

I think that there are a few issues involved in this and not all of them originate in the church. Having attended many an inservice course (I am a teacher) there is a general tendancy today for all teaching to be addressed to the level of a 5 year old and priests have not been immune to this. Being told little “stories” to illustrate the reading and then 5 minutes of feel good be good motivationalism does not inspire me as an adult.

Our priest is getting on in years and has been known to wander from the topic now and then but he holds the congregation in the palm of his hand. People listen, and yes people get offended because he propounds the true faith of the church. So now I don’t read the bulletin - I LISTEN. Preach the true faith and people will even if only to disagree. Preach the new age and people will sleep, read and leave “no wiser than before”.

Pray for Fr Kenny our priest
 
Our priest’s homilies are really out of this world. I am able to make an examination of conscience after them. He ticks people off because he preaches the TRUTH and not a Barney-style kind of stuff. More than one half of our people are gone to other parishes to hear honey-toned words. Like Fr Groschel’s words, he preaches tough love according to the readings of that week. Fr Groeschel himself is not a feel-good priest according to his own words.

I thank God for Father’s charism. But he is leaving shortly and we will be having a Polish priest. So I must support him also.

A real 5-star winner…
 
We have a delightful new parochial vicar (is that what they are calling assistant pastors these days?) from Sudan.

His homilies are delightful, but his accent is very heavy and the tone of his voice is quite soft. And with our parish’s horrendous speaker system, one can just barely hear him in the front, and not at all in the back.

To my dismay, I have actually heard parishioners complain about how “we can’t understand him because of his accent!” Well, I say too bad! We should be very grateful to have him as one of our three parish priests in the first place! Many parishes do not even have one priest. Plus he is new in our country, having survived some terrible experiences with the muslims in Sudan. So by all means, we are blessed.

Besides, if one truly makes an effort to hear him, his homilies are very orthodox and well said. So God bless him, and may we be thankful to have him.
 
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AnglicanRite:
We have a delightful new parochial vicar (is that what they are calling assistant pastors these days?) from Sudan.

His homilies are delightful, but his accent is very heavy and the tone of his voice is quite soft. And with our parish’s horrendous speaker system, one can just barely hear him in the front, and not at all in the back.

To my dismay, I have actually heard parishioners complain about how “we can’t understand him because of his accent!” Well, I say too bad! We should be very grateful to have him as one of our three parish priests in the first place! Many parishes do not even have one priest. Plus he is new in our country, having survived some terrible experiences with the muslims in Sudan. So by all means, we are blessed.

Besides, if one truly makes an effort to hear him, his homilies are very orthodox and well said. So God bless him, and may we be thankful to have him.
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Code:
Just tell them to pray for tongues and if that doesn’t work, try the gift of interpretation of tongues! It worked for me when we had a heavily accented German pastor! 😃
 
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