homilies?

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Are these a necessary part of the Mass? Last night our new parish priest said it was too hot to preach. The Gospel was read and contained 3 parables of which he simply told us to take these home, put them on our mirrors or wherever we would see them and devour them since they were all so good. That was it. At first I thought this priest was just joking when he said it was too hot to preach but then again I’m new to the Catholic faith and may not understand. At any rate, I do like this priest so I have nothing against him in the least. He is very reverent, upbeat.

Just wondering…

mlz
 
Too hot to preach??? And our Gospel today was about separating the weeds from the wheat and tossing the bundles of weeds to burn up in the infernal fire?? And it was too hot to preach??? This could have been a very preachable moment on Hell, and he could have used the heat as a physical reminder about how much hotter Hell is going to be, and why it’s important to use the sacrament of confession, etc. But no, it was too hot to preach. :confused:
 
Love_Divine said:
Too hot to preach??? And our Gospel today was about separating the weeds from the wheat and tossing the bundles of weeds to burn up in the infernal fire?? And it was too hot to preach??? This could have been a very preachable moment on Hell, and he could have used the heat as a physical reminder about how much hotter Hell is going to be, and why it’s important to use the sacrament of confession, etc. But no, it was too hot to preach. :confused:
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You are so right Love Divine, and that is exactly what my priest did! He is very spirit filled, and very straight forward in his homilies and uses every opportunity to teach without it getting long.
 
mlz said:
Are these a necessary part of the Mass? Last night our new parish priest said it was too hot to preach. The Gospel was read and contained 3 parables of which** he simply told us to take these home, put them on our mirrors or wherever we would see them and devour them since they were all so good. ** That was it. At first I thought this priest was just joking when he said it was too hot to preach but then again I’m new to the Catholic faith and may not understand. At any rate, I do like this priest so I have nothing against him in the least. He is very reverent, upbeat.

Just wondering…

mlz
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When did he say this? If it was after the Gospel reading, then he technically did a very short homily. 😉 If this is not the normal way he says Mass, I would just let it go and look forward to a better homily next time.
 
Like the thermometer from my parish used to say, “It’s better to be hot in this life than the next!”

I don’t know where OP lives. But if they are much farther north than me, they have little to complain about heat wise. We are literally hotter than Hell here[sup]1[/sup]:):)🙂

101 F, right now…

ICXC NIKA

1) Hell, Michigan, of course!!!
 
OK, I can’t believe I’m about to type this but it’s very true…
I look forward to the teaching offered in our priests’ homilies. Holy smokes, I can’t believe I said that. If you folks knew me 10 years ago, you would all be saying the same thing. 😃
But I do mean it most seriously. Since returning to the faith, I feel like I have so much to learn. And since I returned to it WELL into adulthood (I’m 51 now) I worry that I don’t have enough time left to learn all I need and want. So if that was my priest, I probably would have been tempted to make a somewhat snarky comment on the way out. Well, maybe not snarky, but I would likely have said something. I need those teaching moments, they help me get through the struggles I still have as a revert. So I don’t think I would have accepted “too hot to preach” as a valid excuse. If it wasn’t too hot to sit and listen, how much hotter is it to stand still and talk? 🤷 It’s not as if we expect them to do calisthenics while they deliver the homily, right?
 
GEddie said:
Like the thermometer from my parish used to say, “It’s better to be hot in this life than the next!”

I don’t know where OP lives. But if they are much farther north than me, they have little to complain about heat wise. We are literally hotter than Hell here[sup]1[/sup]:):)🙂

101 F, right now…

ICXC NIKA

1) Hell, Michigan, of course!!!
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Oh no, Hell is much hotter!
 
He did preach a homily.

And you remembered it, which is more than happens on most Sundays.

And you are discussing both it and his presentation, here.

A priest is not required to speak for a specific length of time. A priest doesn’t have to talk for an hour or for a half-hour or for ten minutes.

The BEST homilist I ever heard gave ONE SENTENCE HOMILIES. They were excellent … and, well prepared, and … let me tell you, … YOU PAID ATTENTION! … because he wasn’t going to repeat himself.

If you missed it, it was your fault.

The second best was a visiting priest who talked about cars and our faith. Years later he returned … again only said one Mass and gave a homily. As we were leaving after Mass, he shook hands with everyone and said to me, “You know I was visiting here a few years ago”. And I said, "Yes, and your homily was about the Volkswagen Jetta commercial: ‘Share the Joy!’ "

Boy, was he surprised.
 
my favorite line that I remember had to do with the presentation of Jesus at the temple…the bible doesn’t tell us what Anna (I think that was her name) said…but because of her devotion…God saw fit to put her into scripture for all of time…
 
mlz said:
Are these a necessary part of the Mass? Last night our new parish priest said it was too hot to preach. The Gospel was read and contained 3 parables of which he simply told us to take these home, put them on our mirrors or wherever we would see them and devour them since they were all so good. That was it. At first I thought this priest was just joking when he said it was too hot to preach but then again I’m new to the Catholic faith and may not understand. At any rate, I do like this priest so I have nothing against him in the least. He is very reverent, upbeat.

Just wondering…

mlz
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Take up a collection for an air conditioner.😃
 
Here are the references in both the GIRM and in Redemptionis Sacramentum to the homily:

From the GIRM:
There is to be a homily on Sundays and holy days of obligation at all Masses that are celebrated with the participation of a congregation; it may not be omitted without a serious reason. It is recommended on other days, especially on the weekdays of Advent, Lent, and the Easter Season, as well as on other festive days and occasions when the people come to church in greater numbers.66
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From RS:
[64.] The homily, which is given in the course of the celebration of Holy Mass and is a part of the Liturgy itself,142 “should ordinarily be given by the Priest celebrant himself. He may entrust it to a concelebrating Priest or occasionally, according to circumstances, to a Deacon, but never to a layperson.143 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”.144
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I hope this helps.
 
mlz said:
Are these a necessary part of the Mass? Last night our new parish priest said it was too hot to preach. The Gospel was read and contained 3 parables of which he simply told us to take these home, put them on our mirrors or wherever we would see them and devour them since they were all so good. That was it. At first I thought this priest was just joking when he said it was too hot to preach but then again I’m new to the Catholic faith and may not understand. At any rate, I do like this priest so I have nothing against him in the least. He is very reverent, upbeat.

Just wondering…

mlz
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Yes and you got one. Go and contimplate the Gospel. It may have been short, but next week he might make up for it.
 
I find folks are being very uncharitable towards the priest, who is after all, human.

First of all, did you ever consider that his vestments are probably a lot hotter than the chinos and short-sleeved polo shirt or summer dress that most parishioners are wearing? Did you consider that he may have health issues that makes being vested in hot humid weather a living hell?

Give the poor guy a very large break. While many folks spent their Saturday out on the deck, he might have had a couple of marriages, funerals or baptisms to do, plus the evening Mass, all while vested, and in between had to run in and out of the hospital taking care of sick parishioners. He was probably hot, tired and cranky like most of us would be.

You got the Mass, you got a very brief reflection. Be grateful, many have no priest and therefore no ready access to sacraments at all.

Perhaps it is just me but posts like this make me very angry. Our priests are deserving of far more respect than this.
 
Perhaps he wasn’t feeling that great and thought it would be best to be brief, lest he faint later on. Or perhaps it was hot enough that he thought some people in the congregation might have real troubles. Or perhaps he thought people would have a very limited attention span.
 
benedictgal said:
Here are the references in both the GIRM and in Redemptionis Sacramentum to the homily:

From the GIRM:
There is to be a homily on Sundays and holy days of obligation at all Masses that are celebrated with the participation of a congregation; it may not be omitted without a serious reason. It is recommended on other days, especially on the weekdays of Advent, Lent, and the Easter Season, as well as on other festive days and occasions when the people come to church in greater numbers.66
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And, of course, from canon law:
§1. Among the forms of preaching, the homily, which is part of the liturgy itself and is reserved to a priest or deacon, is preeminent; in the homily the mysteries of faith and the norms of Christian life are to be explained from the sacred text during the course of the liturgical year.
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§2. A homily must be given at all Masses on Sundays and holy days of obligation which are celebrated with a congregation, and it cannot be omitted except for a grave cause.
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Code of Canon Law, Canon 767.
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As long as the priest gives some form of reflection on the scriptures of the day and/or the feast of the day as an example, it does not matter to me how long he preaches for. I am sure many people would be content with a short 5 minute homily even if others like long ones (10-15 minutes). I have been to many different Catholic churches as a permanent member or a visitor for any particular reason, and each priest is different when it comes to homily length.

I have been to 2 Latin (EF) Masses where the homily then any brief announcements were made during that time, and both times, it was about 10 minutes for the homily at each.
 
MissRose73 said:
As long as the priest gives some form of reflection on the scriptures of the day and/or the feast of the day as an example, it does not matter to me how long he preaches for. I am sure many people would be content with a short 5 minute homily even if others like long ones (10-15 minutes). I have been to many different Catholic churches as a permanent member or a visitor for any particular reason, and each priest is different when it comes to homily length.

I have been to 2 Latin (EF) Masses where the homily then any brief announcements were made during that time, and both times, it was about 10 minutes for the homily at each.
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In a past life (when I worked nearby) I would go to 7 am Mass at St Joseph’s Oratory in Montreal. The regular priest always gave a homily even on ordinary weekdays, but they were pretty lame and he was an awful speaker. Once in a while the rector would replace him, and he’d give a one or two sentence homily that was so deeply penetrating that you’d end up meditating on it all day. I daresay length has little to do with the quality of a homily.
 
OraLabora said:
First of all, did you ever consider that his vestments are probably a lot hotter…

Perhaps it is just me but posts like this make me very angry. Our priests are deserving of far more respect than this.
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If the priest fails to give a homily, it is fair to criticize him. It doesn’t matter if it’s hot, or he has diarrhea, or whatever. He can make the homily as short as he wants, but he is supposed to deliver a homily. In this case, I agree with most of the posters here who say the priest in the OP did indeed give a homily.

But one of our priests periodically omits the homily. “Since many of you are eager to get back to your families [on Super Bowl Sunday], we’ll go directly to the Profession of Faith.” Sometimes he does the same in case of dangerous weather. I’m sorry, that does not qualify as a homily, that is the priest acting as commentator. To be fair, most of his homilies are 10-15 minute rich ramblings about Church history, theology, scripture, and culture so the idea of a one-sentence homily may just not compute to him.
 
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