Sermons...

[nkelly]

Hello all,

just wondering when’s the last time your local priest preached anything from the pulpit about Hell, Purgatory, personal morality,
pleading with people to go to confession etc?

Are priests simply lacking the moral courage to bring up these
issues? Do they feel that you can ignore “the dark side” and it will
just go away?

God bless,
Noel.

 

[Elzee]

nkelly:

Hello all,

just wondering when’s the last time your local priest preached anything from the pulpit about Hell, Purgatory, personal morality,
pleading with people to go to confession etc?

Are priests simply lacking the moral courage to bring up these
issues? Do they feel that you can ignore “the dark side” and it will
just go away?

God bless,
Noel.

This is a sore spot with me…I haven’t heard a homily in our parish on hell, purgatory, the saints, personal morality, confession, abortion, contraception, adhering to church teaching, the Mass as a sacrifice as well as a meal (we only talk about the meal part) in well over 12 years. We maybe hear about Mary on the Immaculate Conception and Assumption, and I’ve only heard our Pope’s name mentioned once in a homily - briefly during the memorial Mass homily following JPII’s death. I can never remember saying a Hail Mary at any of our church functions. The CCC is never mentioned and a copy of it wasn’t even bought as part of our church library (but will be soon…)

As for why. I have no idea, but I guess I should probably ask. The sad thing is, I never really noticed any of this ‘missing’ until I started, on my own, learning more about my faith, falling in love with God and this beautiful Church of ours, praying more, spending time in Adoration, and reading these forums. All of these topics had been absent for so long during Mass that it became ‘the norm’. Scarey.

 

[rwoehmke]

Hey kids, the word is now homily, we leave sermons to our seperated brethren. I recall that our pastor encouraged people to go to confession several times just before Easter. Even laid out enough times to make it easy. Did not preach it as a homily though. I can’t recall a fire and brimstone homily on any of the above topics in over forty years and we have had a lot of different priests. Seems like despite that fact most of the people I know are well aware of what is sinful and what is not. The homilys often call us to a more perfect lifestyle rather than chopping us up like raw meat for being hell bound sinners.

 

[Elzee]

rwoehmke:

Hey kids, the word is now homily, we leave sermons to our seperated brethren. I recall that our pastor encouraged people to go to confession several times just before Easter. Even laid out enough times to make it easy. Did not preach it as a homily though. I can’t recall a fire and brimstone homily on any of the above topics in over forty years and we have had a lot of different priests. Seems like despite that fact most of the people I know are well aware of what is sinful and what is not. The homilys often call us to a more perfect lifestyle rather than chopping us up like raw meat for being hell bound sinners.

I don’t think a homily on purgatory, confession, sin, hell, etc. automatically implies fire and brimstone. It depends on how it’s given. I’ve attended conferences before where these topics were talked about in a way that wasn’t condemning, but enlightening, and in a way that made you really understand what the Catholic faith teaches.

I think you’re right, that most people know what sin is, but I also know a lot of people who think it is up to *their *conscience *only *to determine what is sinful (birth control, pre-marital sex, etc.) I like how Father Corapi put it once (paraphrasing) - your conscience can guide you (natural law), but only if it is a well-formed conscience. The Church fills in the ‘well-formed’ part that is sometimes lacking in ours.

 

[maryj]

Yes to all homily messages.we have been blessed with three parish priests, each one of them with their own style. One is I’ll call him “typical”, homilies basically repeating what the readings were about, number two is a fire and brimstone kinda speaker(he’s past retirement age, just celebrated his 50th year of priesthood), third is just ordained and adds humor(which is my kinda speaker) to pretty much every homily. Our last priest who was just reassigned, spoke with passion about abortion, birth control,reconcilliation and the immediate need for it. Everyone in our parish adored him, and after one of his homilies I went back to confession after many years. We are blessed with so many great speakers, and spiritual guides who are not afraid they will offend by teaching what the church teaches. Lucky us.

 

[MaryAgnes]

nkelly:

Hello all,

just wondering when’s the last time your local priest preached anything from the pulpit about Hell, Purgatory, personal morality,
pleading with people to go to confession etc?

Are priests simply lacking the moral courage to bring up these
issues? Do they feel that you can ignore “the dark side” and it will
just go away?

God bless,
Noel.

I also think more of them should preach about Social Morality, like Capital Punishment, War, Poverty, Health Care … it takes a saint these days to preach as Jesus did.

 

[Genesis315]

I actually hear those things preached all the time. I’ve even heard indulgences preached on multiple occasions! In fact, one time was a Wednesday morning and Adoration was to follow. So, the priest preached about indulgences, then after Mass, we all prayed for the Holy Father (an Our Father and a Glory Be), then he heard confessions so we could all try to obtain the plenary indulgence attached to Adoration!

On a side note, I’ve been going to a different parish near my summer job, and they pray the St. Michael prayer after every daily Mass.

 

[Genesis315]

Originally Posted by nkelly
just wondering when’s the last time your local priest preached anything from the pulpit about Hell, Purgatory, personal morality,
*pleading with people to go to confession etc? *

MaryAgnes:

I also think more of them should preach about Social Morality, like Capital Punishment, War, Poverty, Health Care … it takes a saint these days to preach as Jesus did.

So what exactly IS being preached???

 

[MaryAgnes]

Genesis315:

So what exactly IS being preached???

I think many priests choose to preach what is palatable–they don’t like confrontation. Yet, if we are to be in the world … we need to work toward changing those systems that continue to oppress God’s people. Our leaders need to keep reminding us of our mission in the world … but of course they also have to believe it to preach it. For some, it is far too “political.”

 

[Pug]

I heard a real hellfire homily July 23 to go the with the “kindgom of heaven is like a net” reading. All that lovely weeping and gnashing. We regularly (about 4 times a year) get the go to confession plea.

 

[Deacon_Tony560]

It is required that the Gospel be preached each week. This means that the homily is a reflection on the readings. Sermons are great for retreats, but the Mass requires a homily. Social and moral topics that have been mentioned can be worked into these homilies, but it takes a lot of preparation. (See also Homily post on this forum about length of homilies.)

 

[CARose]

Thanks Deacon Tony,

What you’ve described is exactly what I get at my parish and I’m happy to learn that my pastor is doing it exactly as he should. I know he’s extremely faithful to the Magesterium, so it only makes sense that he’s doing it the way he’s supposed to.

CARose

 

[Deacon_Tony560]

Thanks- good to hear from you. It’s about 104 here in the valley of California. Hope it is cooler where you are.

May God bless you and your family.

 

[nkelly]

Folks, I wasn’t aware of the difference between homily and sermon.

This world is a battleground for our immortal souls. The point I’m making is that I don’t think we’re getting sufficent warnings/armoury to help us fight the good fight.

A priest’s mission is to win souls for God and should do all in their power to protect their people. People need to be educated - cathechism has gone out the window! Priests need to speak out
and not be afraid to do so. People need to be told not to receive Holy Communion when not in a state of grace. We need to be told that we should go to confession regularly. We need to be told to have more respect in mass and not to dress immodestly etc.

The devil is fighting tooth and nail for our souls and not a word of this is ever mentioned! It’s a sad state of affairs…

God bless you all,
Noel.

 

[dcdurel]

nkelly:

Hello all,

just wondering when’s the last time your local priest preached anything from the pulpit about Hell, Purgatory, personal morality,
pleading with people to go to confession etc?

Are priests simply lacking the moral courage to bring up these
issues? Do they feel that you can ignore “the dark side” and it will
just go away?

God bless,
Noel.

I used to think priests lacked moral courage to bring up these things.
But I asked a few why they didn’t teach these things and they said they were taught that the homily is only supposed to be a commentary on the readings.
Of course this doesn’t make sense. So I checked out Church documents on the homily, such as the Catechism, Canon law, the Directory for Catechesis, etc. and they all said the homily is the primary place for catechesis, which means TEACHING the Catholic faith. And the Church teaches that the Catechism is a sure norm for teaching the faith. In other words, the priest is supposed to take any point of the readings or of the prayers of the mass, but then go into the Catechism and give a full explanation.
Since all the readings mention sin, from there he can go into what sin is, and the commandments, moral teachings, etc. The same way they could talk about the sacraments, because all the readings have something to do with grace or salvation.

Evidently what happened is that at Vatican II the dissedents got control over its interpretation, and the interpretation of Vatican II as that the homily was only supposed to be a commentary on the readings. This view has persisted ever since, and that is why Catholics don’t know their faith.

You can do a google search for a article called
“Catholic Sunday Preaching”, you will see that before Vatican II the Priests all taught the entire Catholic faith.
After Vatican II, they were misled into abandoning this correct way, and now all they do is give a commentary on the readings.

The Roman Catechism gives an explanation of how the homily is supposed to be given in its introduction. If priests understood this, they would understand Vatican II

 

[nkelly]

Thanks dcdurel, I looked up that article/book. Interesting reading…

 

[Deacon_Tony560]

nkelly:

Thanks dcdurel, I looked up that article/book. Interesting reading…

Another interesting article is in USA today (Aug. 11th.) It is about the church in Europe and specifically Ireland. It explains why there are not many in church to even hear a homily.

God bless

P.S. My neighbor, who is a Catholic Nun/Prison Chaplain has gone home to Ireland for a 3 week vacation. At 70, she continues to make younger evangilists look bad.

 

[MaryAgnes]

dcdurel:

I used to think priests lacked moral courage to bring up these things.
But I asked a few why they didn’t teach these things and they said they were taught that the homily is only supposed to be a commentary on the readings.
Of course this doesn’t make sense. So I checked out Church documents on the homily, such as the Catechism, Canon law, the Directory for Catechesis, etc. and they all said the homily is the primary place for catechesis, which means TEACHING the Catholic faith. And the Church teaches that the Catechism is a sure norm for teaching the faith. In other words, the priest is supposed to take any point of the readings or of the prayers of the mass, but then go into the Catechism and give a full explanation.
Since all the readings mention sin, from there he can go into what sin is, and the commandments, moral teachings, etc. The same way they could talk about the sacraments, because all the readings have something to do with grace or salvation.

Evidently what happened is that at Vatican II the dissedents got control over its interpretation, and the interpretation of Vatican II as that the homily was only supposed to be a commentary on the readings. This view has persisted ever since, and that is why Catholics don’t know their faith.

You can do a google search for a article called
“Catholic Sunday Preaching”, you will see that before Vatican II the Priests all taught the entire Catholic faith.
After Vatican II, they were misled into abandoning this correct way, and now all they do is give a commentary on the readings.

The Roman Catechism gives an explanation of how the homily is supposed to be given in its introduction. If priests understood this, they would understand Vatican II

I think you are painting with a very broad brush … first, there are many priests who do preach exactly as they should … but that is because the primary source for their homily is found in the liturgical readings of the day. What did this mean for the OT and NT people? What should God’s Word say to us today given our time and culture?

Perhaps Deacon Tony hit the nail on its head … to proclaim the Word, comment on what the Sacred text means and then reflect on how that applies to us today does take a lot of preparation. One might even have to refer to the CCC But it is what they are ordained to do! If a cleric takes his faculty to preach seriously he will take the time. Sadly not all of them do. Alas.

 

[Deacon_Tony560]

MaryAgnes, Thanks for the kind words. A sad fact is that with all of the appointments,supervising parish staff, handling the paying of the bills Etc. Most parishes that have just one priest do not give him much time to pray and meditate over a homily. As I mentioned on another post, Fr. Corapi uses this problem in one of his talks. He suggests that lay people and deacons, if a parish has them, should take over all of the duties that they can and leave the pastor with more time to pray and prepare for his homilies. Fr. Corapi realizes that this would be difficult. Most pastors tend to take care of all of these duties and more.

 

[MaryAgnes]

Deacon Tony560:

MaryAgnes, Thanks for the kind words. A sad fact is that with all of the appointments,supervising parish staff, handling the paying of the bills Etc. Most parishes that have just one priest do not give him much time to pray and meditate over a homily. As I mentioned on another post, Fr. Corapi uses this problem in one of his talks. He suggests that lay people and deacons, if a parish has them, should take over all of the duties that they can and leave the pastor with more time to pray and prepare for his homilies. Fr. Corapi realizes that this would be difficult. Most pastors tend to take care of all of these duties and more.

And that is very sad as well–both for the priest and for the lay person whose gifts and graces go untapped! I have found that many clerics would rather not utilize the services of a theologically trained lay person as it can be very intimidating. It takes a secure and well defined cleric to do so.