Homilies, The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

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Ask someone immediately after Mass what the Scripture reading was, and what the sermon was about…They won’t be able to tell you. Guaranteed.

The main problem as I see it is, the sermons are masterpieces in political correctness! Com’on, just blast the darn sermon out to us in plain English using your own words and not some typewritten copy from the Sermon of the Month club.

Limit the corny jokes, and for God’s sake please put some real substance into the talks!!!.

Thanks
 
Today’s homily was Wonderful. Fr talked about the Bascillca, gave a brief history of why its important while most feast days are for saints. I made a couple of tasteful jokes, gave personal experiance of being in the Bascillica and encourgaged devotion to Mary because she is the matriac of the Church.

…at my parent’s church this past sunday the homily was a real snooze. fr makes good points but he is dry and…(well anyone seen the movie “Feris Buler”? and there is that really dull professor…)
 
Our priest thought he was being humorous this week and was trying to base his homily on giving. So he told a joke that included the term “Pissed off” in it, he spelled “pissed” instead of saying it. I found it offensive. Luckily, my children had gone to another mass.
 
Our homilies have been leaving something to be disired. For the last six weeks the only thing that we’ve heard in our homilies is about how much money the chruch needs and how we need to do our part and give more. I hardly feel inspired to anything after six weeks of that.
 
Our homilies have been leaving something to be disired. For the last six weeks the only thing that we’ve heard in our homilies is about how much money the chruch needs and how we need to do our part and give more. I hardly feel inspired to anything after six weeks of that.
 
I’ve experienced homilies which ran the full sprectrum from a -1 to a 10+.

We had one pastor who use to read him homilies out of some publication. This was especially obvious when he would say things like – “… as illustrated on the previous page …” :eek: that was really bad. He would stand up there for 10-15 minutes reading his thing never making eye contact and the people sat there reading their thing.

If he had to read a homily, I think the least he should have done was to prepare notes ahead of time so he would know how to alter certain sentences and phrases – instead of saying “as illustrated on the previous page”, he could have said “as I mentioned earlier” or something like that to at least show that he prepared ahead of time.**

All other homilies are great in comparison.**

We also had a visiting priest for a few months who’s homilies were exceptional beyond words to describe. He was either extremely well trained in this area or he was truly filled with the Holy Spirit. When he gave his homilies preaching how unworthy we are but how God loves us never the less, there wasn’t a dry eye in the church. I, myself, shed a tear or two.

I was so moved by his homilies that I was actually attending multiple masses on Sunday just so I could listen to him preach. The norm was usually two masses before I heard him preach. Sometimes it was three or one. And I recall on a few occasions, I actually attended four masses before I finally heard him preach.

I wish I, or somebody else, had the fore sight to have recorded some of those homilies.

All other homilies pale in comparison.
So how was this week’s homily at my church? I guess it depends on what I compare it to 😉
 
At my last parish, the priest made many people crazy! He would walk a very fine line between right and wrong. His homilies left you thinking- did he say what I thought he said? It got to the point that I’d take notes during the homily just to be sure I wasn’t making it up. I 'd be so s-t-r-e-s-s-e-d after mass. One day, he actually said he was a fan of the Simpsons. I know its minor to some people but after years of forbiding my kids to watch the Simpsons, it was too much to have their priest admit he was a fan of it and then proceed to base his homily on an episode. It was the last straw. I left that parish for one where I could expect church teaching and a good example in the priest.

The parish I go to now has a great priest who gives wonderful homilies!! His homilies are always in agreement with church teaching and his love of the Catholic Faith is always evident. He is such a blessing!!! I never have to worry about what he is going to say or how it’ll affect my children. Everything he says in 100% Catholic.
 
The Simpsons may contain many bad elements, but they represent a greater truth to life. They have been on for over ten years and Marge and Homer are still married. They do things as a family and in many episodes there is moral point.
In one epispde Bart gets emancipation from his father, but in the end they reconcile…The family works together. They attend a protestant Church and in one episode it is clear that belief in God can make your life better.
However, I agree that the Simpsons is not for small childrend who cannot ignore the bad language.
 
out of town for a baptism, won’t even say the diocese, except that their bishop recently came out with a strong statement on pro-abortion “catholics” not receiving communion. The priest did tell a story to illustrate the gospel about being ready for the second coming, but went on to assure us that although he often feels he is losing his faith, especially at funerals, his faith has actually grown to the point that he now knows the apostles didn’t write the creed, God is not a man and she loves us no matter what, the gospels are not literally, historically or scientifically true, but that does not alter Christ’s message, and moreover, no bishop can presume to speak for Jesus Christ by using the Eucharist to make a political statement and deciding who may or may not receive. He got a smattering of applause for this comment. How appropriate for a Mass where several babies are being baptized to denigrate the faith their parents which them to share.
 
I’ve never heard an outright heretical homily, at least not one that I can remember. I’ve heard plenty of banal ones though. When I was at Notre Dame, I went to the Basilica there every Sunday for two years with my friends. The place was always full of rich visiting alumni, so no toes were to be stepped on. Basically every homily was the same “When I was in college a funny thing happened…that reminded me of today’s Gospel…and the moral is Jesus loves us.” Now during the week, the homilies at the Basilica were much better.

But then my jr year I met my future husband, and started attending Sunday Masses at the grad student chapel with him. Here the preaching was better - more intellectual, which I really liked. However one day we had a priest prof from the Theology dept in. He’s a great guy and orthodox, but got a little carried away with metaphors while preaching on the woman at the well gospel. He started off by how she was barren and Jesus was bringing her both physical and spiritual fertility. the woman was a sign of fertility. The well too was a sign of fertility - it was like a giant womb. “and then,” he said, “this altar here is also a womb, a big womb all flat and stretched out!” A little too Hannibal Lecter for my tastes 🙂

My current parish, St Paul in Highland Park NJ has a great priest. Every homily is solid, usually challenging too, and always includes quotes from saints and patristics. I like having a priest with an intellectual bent.
 
Nice banal homily from Father this weekend, just have faith because God does love us, and He will show us that He does. This week, he did not say the “P” word-see previous post.
 
It’s hard to choose which was the worst of the following two sermons, oh, excuuuuuuuuuuuse me, homilies:
  1. Midnight mass at Christmas: The priest, in gold vestments, is talking about and trying to relate to Christmas the experiment of dropping rodents on an island in the South Pacific, and how the rodents overran the island. (this priest is now a bishop) Funny, that’s exactly what Christmas makes me think of, too.
  2. Late October, Feast of Christ the King: The young priest (about 33, a delayed vocation) said the only image he had of a king was the old margarine commercial for Imperial where somebody would take a bite of something with margarine on it and a crown would appear on their head. This, I presume, is an example of where the homily is supposed to be based on something in the priest’s life experience. (I don’t know where this priest is today.) Today, this homily would be politically incorrect because of the high trans-fat content.
 
I sort of just sampled the posts preceding, and I didn’t notice any mention of this, which must be a common experience:

The priest turns every homily on every Sunday to a certain common pet peeve of his:

( real cases: )
  1. Priest A was an alcoholic and turned every homily into a diatribe against drinking.
    2 Priest B, an elderly priest, had a (maybe 1961) Chrysler Imperial with a push-button automatic transmission. So, every other sermon gravitated to the evils of the push-button instant gratification society we live in. He was the only one I knew who lived that way.
  2. Priest C, a pastor in a large, prosperous parish in an affluent town in Illinois, gravitated to the story of the migration of his family from Chicago to the “rural” Downers Grove area. He was perenienally amused because Downers had become so overgrown with population in subsequent years. I think this was some ‘father-son’ thing with him.
 
Big internet thanks to Fr. Bill, our priest. This Sunday evening mass, the Assumption, he used the example of Mary to speak to young people about chastity and the reading of Mary and Elisabeth to bring up the sanctity of life. This is week 2 where this former evangelical had to restrain a big old fashioned pentecostal “AMEN” 🙂
 
I gave 3 stars, but he would have moved up at lease one star if something had been mentioned about saving Terri Schiavo’s life.:tsktsk:
 
This whole idea 2 stars 3 stars is very mousy, (Kind of “mother may I raise my hand and say something”)
In general my experience has been LOUSY homilies, period…

I’ve been told, homilies are light hearted talks to the congregation, like a friend talking to a friend with some relevance to the scriptures and everyday life.

Sermons, I guess, would be direct, hard hitting talks about Christ and morality.

Today, priests are instructed to give homilies and not sermons. (Why? I do not know)
We need priests to start giving some GREAT sermons and cut the fluff.

Evangelical preachers have lured away many Catholics with their fine preaching…It’s time we returned the favor.

Thanks

Joe.
 
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Buckeyejoe:
This whole idea 2 stars 3 stars is very mousy, (Kind of “mother may I raise my hand and say something”)
In general my experience has been LOUSY homilies, period…

I’ve been told, homilies are light hearted talks to the congregation, like a friend talking to a friend with some relevance to the scriptures and everyday life.

Sermons, I guess, would be direct, hard hitting talks about Christ and morality.

Today, priests are instructed to give homilies and not sermons. (Why? I do not know)
We need priests to start giving some GREAT sermons and cut the fluff.

Evangelical preachers have lured away many Catholics with their fine preaching…It’s time we returned the favor.

Thanks

Joe.
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I believe the definition of a homily is just a sermon within the context of the liturgy. I’ve never heard that there is a difference in substance.
 
Our pastor has never given a bad or boring homily…We have a terrific young priest who LOVES to talk… :bounce:

He is always in line with the church and has a clever way of “slipping” in a little teaching…(don’t tell the kids :whistle: )

Lately, almost 3 weeks now, he has been fighting the flu. He has been very weak and pale, but even as he is suffering with this, he still gives great homilies, just shorter then usual.

When God called our pastor to the priesthood,He called a real WINNER :angel1:
 
We have one retired priest in his eighties who gives some of the best homilies that I have ever heard – they bring a smile to your face by touching your funny bone and tears to your eyes by touching your heart all in the same homily. :o 🙂

Then we have another priest :rolleyes: who never seems to make his point. He starts telling these stories and he keeps stopping in the middle to add pieces and fill in the gaps to other parts of the story so that when he finally makes his point, you basicly end up not having a single clue to what he was talking about. 😦

Today, both priests co-celebrated the mass and I kept hoping that the retired priest would give the homily. I thought my prayers were answers when I saw him walk over to read the gospel but after reading it, he turned over the microphone to the younger priest to give the homily.

You win some, you lose some. Later days.
 
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kmktexas:
I am currently visiting in Venezuela. I don’t understand Spanish well but from what I understood (and what my husband translated later), this week was a good one. He preached against the evil of abortion, about personal prayer and acts of charity and about the need to act rather than waiting for the government to give you everything you need (personal responsibility). People laughed at his jokes too.

BTW we get two homilies at each Sunday Mass at this church. One after the Gospel and the second just before the final blessing. The bulletin always includes a few sections of the CCC and the second homily seems to be mostly about this. Amazingly, almost everyone stays through this second homily even though the church is packed with about 50 people standing throughout in the back and along the sides.
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A Homily on the CCC!!!
A section of the Bulletin on the CCC!!!
No wonder other countries have Deeper Catholics!

At this point, I think that our Homilies should be short instructions on the Sacraments. So many Catholics don’t get them at all.
 
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