Insipid Homilies

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georgewithfaith

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Most homilies I hear are rather boring and the consistent message seems to be “God is full of mercy. He accepts us no matter what our faults”

Another theme encourages us to receive Jesus at the Eucharist. Finally, all too often the priest runs through a dry historical narrative.

When I attend a the Latin Mass at the FSSP run church the Homilies cover God’s mercy and receiving communion but they also cover other aspects of the faith such as the gravity of sin, the need to go to confession and do penance. The priests challenge us to strive to be saints.

Sometimes I wonder if bishops offer guidelines or instructions to priests as to what topics to present and what topics not to present. For example if a priest talked too much about confession and it made some parish members feel bad and they complained to the bishop, could the priest get in trouble with the bishop?
 
georgewithfaith said:
Most homilies I hear are rather boring and the consistent message seems to be “God is full of mercy. He accepts us no matter what our faults”

Another theme encourages us to receive Jesus at the Eucharist. Finally, all too often the priest runs through a dry historical narrative.

When I attend a the Latin Mass at the FSSP run church the Homilies cover God’s mercy and receiving communion but they also cover other aspects of the faith such as the gravity of sin, the need to go to confession and do penance. The priests challenge us to strive to be saints.

Sometimes I wonder if bishops offer guidelines or instructions to priests as to what topics to present and what topics not to present. For example if a priest talked too much about confession and it made some parish members feel bad and they complained to the bishop, could the priest get in trouble with the bishop?
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I suffer the same disease but I do not the fault the priest, I fault myself for being completely absent-minded but, Blessed the Holy Spirit, I always catch a sentence that is just right for me and that motivates me, criticizes me, rocks me, and so on.

“Dry historical narrative”? Is the narrative dry or is it you who are not interested?

Listen, if your suggestion went ahead, the Bishop would do nothing but receive complaints and advise Priests for the homily was too long, too short, too dry, too wet, too repetitive, too much variety, he speaks well, he speaks badly, he smiles, he does not smile, ooof…:eek:
Listen, do you know what is to make an homily a week, year after year.
 
I feel sorry for priests, since they have to come up with some kind of twist on the message of salvation week after week. That must be one of the toughest parts of the job, writing what essentially is a term paper every week, in addition to all their other duties. If Father happens to be droning on and on about something once in awhile, I’m certainly willing to cut him some slack, after all, he’s not up there to be entertaining me. Frankly, I think that most of the time they do a good job.
 
Priest are not being taught properly how to preach in seminary. The best preachers I have heard are SSPX priests. Although I don’t go to SSPX chapels, there are a lot of excellent sermons by SSPX priests available on the internet. For example:

traditionalcatholicmedia.org/flash/Audio/

The next best that I know of are FSSP priests. Here’s some sermons from Fr. Chad Ripperger, FSSP (please note the “penanceware” terms at top of the linked page):

sensustraditionis.org/multimedia.html
 
Are these the same people all the time? If so it may be a personal issue - some people really struggle with homilies.

But also, there is a priest shortage. Writing a good homily means at the least taking time to pray and meditate on the text, read some commentaries, and actually produce something worthwhile. When an average parish priest is faces with sitting down to that, or going to a bedside, or saying the umpteenth Mass he is responsible for in the week, you can guess what gets put aside.

So you end up with shallow platitudes, or rewarmed sermons.
I am sure the SSPX priests are helped by having a good education, but perhaps they also have fewer responsibilities.
 
Bluegoat said:
Are these the same people all the time? If so it may be a personal issue - some people really struggle with homilies.

But also, there is a priest shortage. Writing a good homily means at the least taking time to pray and meditate on the text, read some commentaries, and actually produce something worthwhile. When an average parish priest is faces with sitting down to that, or going to a bedside, or saying the umpteenth Mass he is responsible for in the week, you can guess what gets put aside.

So you end up with shallow platitudes, or rewarmed sermons.
I am sure the SSPX priests are helped by having a good education, but perhaps they also have fewer responsibilities.
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Excellent points. I didn’t think about this.
 
Bluegoat said:
Are these the same people all the time? If so it may be a personal issue - some people really struggle with homilies.

But also, there is a priest shortage. Writing a good homily means at the least taking time to pray and meditate on the text, read some commentaries, and actually produce something worthwhile. When an average parish priest is faces with sitting down to that, or going to a bedside, or saying the umpteenth Mass he is responsible for in the week, you can guess what gets put aside.

.
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Given that one of my parish priest watches the Shopping Network every evening (you’d be amazed at how many homilies revolve around what was being sold on the Shopping Network) I have a heard time sympathizing with the busy priest excuse.

Being a student with more things that actually have to get done than I have time during the day, I’ve found that it all comes down to prioritizing, organization, time management, and not wasting time.

I understand that not everything that a priest has to do can be scheduled (ie: emergencies, unexpected lost sheep, etc), but that’s why it’s important not to put off what needs to get done until the end of the week whenever possible, avoid time wasters, and schedule out your day.
 
Bluegoat said:
I am sure the SSPX priests are helped by having a good education, but perhaps they also have fewer responsibilities.
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I am not in a position to judge whether of not they have fewer responsibilities. But I do know a few things I can say about them.
  1. They are taught that they have a obligation to provide a sermon that, to the best of their ability, helps the faithful to grow in their knowledge of the the Faith and in their devotion to God. Failure to take this responsibility seriously is considered to be gravely sinful.
  2. Most SSPX priests have to travel to various “Mass centers” outside of the priory where they reside. Sometimes this is taken to extremes. There is one SSPX priest who travels a 4-week circuit in Asia, spending one week each in Singapore, The Philippines, Japan, and Korea, before doing it all over again.
  3. In SSPX chapels, there are no “eucharistic ministers” besides the priests. All house calls, hospital visits, etc. etc. are done by the priests, and they are on call 24 hours a day. If you are an SSPX “parishioner” and call your priests at any time of the day or night in an emergency, they will come immediately. In fact, there have been cases when people who have nothing to do with the SSPX have called them as a last resort when they can’t get their own parish priests to come to do last rites at inconvenient hours and the SSPX priests come.
Most of the same can be said for FSSP priests of course, except for the fact that they don’t do nearly as much circuit-riding and traveling, because they are not free to set up chapels and “mass centers” wherever they wish.
 
Love_Divine said:
Given that one of my parish priest watches the Shopping Network every evening (you’d be amazed at how many homilies revolve around what was being sold on the Shopping Network) I have a heard time sympathizing with the busy priest excuse.

Being a student with more things that actually have to get done than I have time during the day, I’ve found that it all comes down to prioritizing, organization, time management, and not wasting time.

I understand that not everything that a priest has to do can be scheduled (ie: emergencies, unexpected lost sheep, etc), but that’s why it’s important not to put off what needs to get done until the end of the week whenever possible, avoid time wasters, and schedule out your day.
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I know of a priest who loves and promote Netflix movies.
 
Why is a homily optional at a daily mass? I understand there may not be time for a full homily, but not even for a 5 minute homily?

Also, what is the difference between a homily and sermon? It makes me wonder if the change from sermon to homily, whenever that occurred, does not bear some responsibility in the rise in “insipid” homilies.
 
wisdomseeker said:
I know of a priest who loves and promote Netflix movies.
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Grrrreat… Now Mass is turning into an infomercial :rolleyes:. One of the things I look forward to on Sundays is going to Mass and leaving the outside world outside. Why, oh, why must it be brought to Mass??? Grrrr!
 
georgewithfaith said:
Most homilies I hear are rather boring and the consistent message seems to be “God is full of mercy. He accepts us no matter what our faults”

Another theme encourages us to receive Jesus at the Eucharist. Finally, all too often the priest runs through a dry historical narrative.
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You must not like history. I love history, I think I was the only person in high school that liked All Quiet on the Western Front (which other people found dry and boring).

Sometimes some context is good to better understand too. I can’t remember the passage citation, but I believe when Jesus was in Galilee and he was being confronted by the people and it ends with something like “He slipped away” or something (I’m sorry, bad paraphrase). So it was a homily from a priest who had studied in Israel, and apparently where Jesus was confronted, he would have been backed close to a large drop off of a cliff. Seems pretty relevant to me.

Also, did you know that the road to Emmaus is downhill? So those disciples actually walked downhill all day and then ran uphill like 10 miles back to Jerusalem after having walked all day already. That changes how you look at it. That’s how much Jesus touched their lives.

I’ve actually found a lot of good preachers here. The best ones I’ve found here are the Basilians though.
TrueLight said:
Lots of pastors in other denominations do this weekly.
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No, not really. Ask any former (or current) protestant and they’ll probably say that the preaching in on whatever they feel like. They’ll spend 4 weeks talking about marriage if they want. I’ve also read that they can be quite good at saving and recycling sermons (I’m not trying to put down preachers or anything, this is just what I’ve heard).
TrueLight said:
Why is a homily optional at a daily mass? I understand there may not be time for a full homily, but not even for a 5 minute homily?

Also, what is the difference between a homily and sermon? It makes me wonder if the change from sermon to homily, whenever that occurred, does not bear some responsibility in the rise in “insipid” homilies.
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Catholics get a homily because it’s suppose to relate the scriptures to our lives.

This is from the GIRM (the new one on the USCCB site):
“65. The homily is part of the Liturgy and is strongly recommended, for it is necessary for the nurturing of the Christian life. It should be an exposition of some aspect of the readings from Sacred Scripture or of another text from the Ordinary or from 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.”

The homily shouldn’t just be “today we’re going to talk about ABC”. It’s suppose to relate to the readings or the day or the season. The “needs of the listeners” I would think would be things like hot “in the news” items that many people may have questions about (like when whats-his-name said Haiti made a pact with Satan → ergo earthquake, or the unfolding abuse scandal a couple of years ago). So if the Pope releases an encyclical about ABC, that would be a good time to discuss.
 
TrueLight said:
I know people like to say on this board that they “offer it up”. I guess I will just have to offer up the homily :o
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<sorry, major rant coming, this is a big sore spot with me!>
No, TrueLight, you should not have to “offer it up”. Jesus told Peter to “feed His lambs, feed His sheep”. That means feed them not only with His body and blood, but with His word.

We all know the Mass has two parts: the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist. Of these two parts, the Liturgy of the Eucharist is static, but the Liturgy of the Word is dynamic (i.e. the readings are different each week).

The Liturgy of the Word contains three separate passages of scripture, one from the Old Testament (usually, sometimes this could be from the book of Acts, as it has been in recent weeks), one from the New Testament and the Gospel. These readings explore a theme and the homily is meant to help you detect the theme and explore it, and finally, apply it to everyday life.

If a homily doesn’t do that, the priest has failed to carry out Jesus’s commission to Peter in a significant way.
 
TrueLight said:
curlycool89;8095323:
That doesn’t equal a synopsis of the scriptures, does it? One should be able to speak about the scriptures in a way that is engaging.
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No a homily should not be a synopsis of the scriptures. We all could hear and/or read the scriptures that were proclaimed. I don’t like it when the homily is just a retelling of what we just heard. What the priest or deacon should do is “open up” the scriptures. A good homilist finds one major point that comes out in the readings that he wants to expand upon. For example, today is the parable of the sower and the seed. It is pretty self explanatory, in fact Jesus Himself explains it. So the challenge to the homilist is to make it come alive and relate to our lives. He could talk about how the media influences us so much that the Word of God doesn’t take root in our lives because other “voices” choke it out. He could talk about how we can “prepare” the soil of our souls to better accept God’s word, encouraging people to learn more about our faith, to read the Scriptures.

If I were preaching I would focus on the second reading from Romans. It is a perfect opportunity to preach about redemptive suffering and the glory that awaits.
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Joannm said:
No a homily should not be a synopsis of the scriptures. We all could hear and/or read the scriptures that were proclaimed. I don’t like it when the homily is just a retelling of what we just heard. What the priest or deacon should do is “open up” the scriptures.
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👍
 
I had good experience with the Homilies either in my territorial parish, and in the St John Cantius parish.

The homily should be homily: the exegesis (interpretation) of the scriptural passages for the day. It is quite easy, the priest simply shall find out his biblical study books and relearn them. With the three years cycle it is much easier than the previous one year cycle.

The tricj for a good sermon (and this can be applied to the homily too) is that it should be short: one image to get attention, one truth explained from the reading, one example from the life and a sentence what people can take home to meditate upon, 5-8 minutes. I learned it in the seminary.
 
laszlo said:
The tricj for a good sermon (and this can be applied to the homily too) is that it should be short: one image to get attention, one truth explained from the reading, one example from the life and a sentence what people can take home to meditate upon, 5-8 minutes. I learned it in the seminary.
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Those are the types of homilies I don’t like. 😦
 
TrueLight said:
Those are the types of homilies I don’t like. 😦
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Did you ever experienced audience captured by the speaker? My most amazing experience was when a child cried out: “Father, come here, the tide will wash you out there”.
 
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