Taking notes during homily

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My priest encourages us to bring a journal or notebook and take notes during Mass. I have seen a few people do it. One was the wife of a deacon. I have not done it yet.
 
I don’t see that there’s anything wrong with taking notes if you want to. I’ve seen people do this, but not very often.
 
Wow, such great and varied responses! Thank you everyone!

I have a tiny, pocket moleskine notebook that I always have with me because I have collected my favorite prayers in it. It fits in my purse next to my missal, so I figure I could take it out at the start of Mass when I take out my missal and keep it next to me until the homily. I would not take out my phone to achieve this.

Sometimes the priest says something so insightful or inspiring and I just have to keep it with me. The alternative is I have to sit there and repeat it to myself (in my head) throughout the rest of mass in order to remember it. In turn, I miss the majority of the rest of the homily and am distracted for the rest of Mass. I am much better able to commit things to memory if I write them down.
 
If you want to take a class, enroll in a class.
If you want a Sacrament go to Mass and fully participate.
Attentively, and with an open heart.

What are notes going to do for a person that the spoken word from a good homilist can’t do?

Now I’ve seen everything.
😊
 
Notes are good for us people, seniors especially like me who are hard of hearing and can’t remember everything our pastor speaks about. He’s from another country but it’s sometimes difficult to understand what he’s saying, and he has some good points to remember. I think he’s trying very hard to talk about issues facing us today and what we should be doing to combat it. But first I’m going to ask my pastor if he’s okay with that.
 
Pianofish said:
Wow, such great and varied responses! Thank you everyone!

I have a tiny, pocket moleskine notebook that I always have with me because I have collected my favorite prayers in it. It fits in my purse next to my missal, so I figure I could take it out at the start of Mass when I take out my missal and keep it next to me until the homily. I would not take out my phone to achieve this.

Sometimes the priest says something so insightful or inspiring and I just have to keep it with me. The alternative is I have to sit there and repeat it to myself (in my head) throughout the rest of mass in order to remember it. In turn, I miss the majority of the rest of the homily and am distracted for the rest of Mass. I am much better able to commit things to memory if I write them down.
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in that case I think it would be good to take notes. I think my priest encourages it as a way to focus during the homily and pay attention so your mind does not wander. he is a big fan of Matthew Kelly.
 
pianistclare said:
If you want to take a class, enroll in a class.
If you want a Sacrament go to Mass and fully participate.
Attentively, and with an open heart.

What are notes going to do for a person that the spoken word from a good homilist can’t do?

Now I’ve seen everything.
😊
Click to expand...
Can you elaborate on how taking a few notes prevents one from being attentive with an open heart? In my original post I stated that I would like to be able to remember certain things from the homilies in order to meditate on them later. I have a very difficult time remembering after Mass, and as another poster stated, what’s the point of the homily if it’s not meant to be remembered and carried with us to help us live faithfully as Catholics beyond our Sunday obligation? I’m simply trying to jot down short, inspiring, and invigorating quotes from the priest. I then use the thoughts as inspiration for my prayer life. The “spoken word from a good homilist” can’t help me after Mass if I can’t remember what was said. The inability to remember is on me and not an indication that the spoken word or the priest were ineffective.

Often times our priest gives concrete, practical instruction on how to live better spiritually, prepare for a happy/holy death, be more fervent in prayer, do a proper examination of conscience, etc. His homilies are full of excellent advice on living the faith and they invoke deep, critical thinking. I would say most of the time they are almost higher level lectures rather than simply motivational speeches to make the laity feel good about being Catholic. (Note: I am not stating that all homilies are akin to motivational speeches; I’m stating that my parish priest’s homilies simply don’t fall into this category.) I would not be writing down everything he stated but only those nuggets of wisdom that come up maybe 2-3 times each homily. In his typically 20-25 minute homilies, this means I would likely be jotting things down for no more than 1-2 minutes of the homily.

Please, let me know how this is keeping me from fully participating when I must already be actively listening to the priest in order to decide to write something down.
 
I’ve never ever seen someone taking notes during a homily, and have never heard of a priest encouraging it.
I think taking notes would be very distracting to others.
Many many priests record their homily with a digital voice recorder, smartphone or tablet and make it available on the parish website. To me that would be better; a person could listen and take notes in the privacy of their own homes.
It doesn’t take much knowledge of technology to record and upload to a website.
 
JRS_88 said:
I’ve never ever seen someone taking notes during a homily, and have never heard of a priest encouraging it.
I think taking notes would be very distracting to others.
Many many priests record their homily with a digital voice recorder, smartphone or tablet and make it available on the parish website. To me that would be better; a person could listen and take notes in the privacy of their own homes.
It doesn’t take much knowledge of technology to record and upload to a website.
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I agree and I wish the priest made his homilies available online. However, our parish is not very technologically advanced. Our priests don’t even have email. We do not have a parish office. If we need something, we call the pastor or associate pastor.

However, I have to believe there are others who are so inspired by our priest that they would also be interested in having his homilies available outside of Mass. Next time I speak to him I will ask if he’d be open to the idea and offer to assist in the endeavor.
 
pianistclare said:
If you want to take a class, enroll in a class.
If you want a Sacrament go to Mass and fully participate.
Attentively, and with an open heart.

What are notes going to do for a person that the spoken word from a good homilist can’t do?

Now I’ve seen everything.
😊
Click to expand...
Should we not read or study, simply listen to the homily at Mass once a week? Should we get rid of the Bible, too, since the spoken word is so helpful? Catholics have a long history of taking notes. There is evidence for this. It starts with the Book of Acts and goes on from there.
 
Maddie26 said:
Should we not read or study, simply listen to the homily at Mass once a week? Should we get rid of the Bible, too, since the spoken word is so helpful? Catholics have a long history of taking notes. There is evidence for this. It starts with the Book of Acts and goes on from there.
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Never thought of that. 🙂
 
Bruised_Reed said:
Not for everyone. I went to a talk by a well know speaker and he said something that really resonated. I tried to remember but couldn’t. Even worse when I tried to jog his memory he didn’t know what he might’ve said either. Some of us have minds that are like a sieve and need at least a work or two to jog the memory. We are all wired differently. If a homily isn’t meant to be remembered I don’t know why priests should bother.
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I have a friend that takes notes. She does this for many reasons but she finds that when the priest is hard to understand, it helps her concentrate on what he is saying. She is in the habit of listening carefully and the note taking is part of her self training. I have often thought it would help me from stop allowing my mind to wander.
 
JRS_88 said:
I’ve never ever seen someone taking notes during a homily, and have never heard of a priest encouraging it.
I think taking notes would be very distracting to others.
Many many priests record their homily with a digital voice recorder, smartphone or tablet and make it available on the parish website. To me that would be better; a person could listen and take notes in the privacy of their own homes.
It doesn’t take much knowledge of technology to record and upload to a website.
Click to expand...
it is not distracting as the priests mentions often to write down an important point during the homily that we can reflect upon during the week. I actually think I am lazy because I don’t do it and my mind does wander from time to time during the homily. the priest is looking out on many faces during his homily. I often wonder what he sees.
 
I’ve never done it myself, but I think it is a good idea. A small, discreet notebook and pen is not likely to distract anyone, and and sadly there are often far more distracting things going on during Mass these days than a person discreetly taking notes.

Part of a priest’s role is to teach the laity the Catholic Faith. Our Faith is not simply an intuitive faith, it is based on theology and reason. If an important theological point of explanation of doctrine comes up in the priest’s sermon then why shouldn’t it be made a note of. Most of us do not have photographic memories, so it is indeed a good idea to make notes of such things.

I also can’t see any very valid reason why a priest would not want someone making notes of things he may say in his sermons. Surely this would be a good thing and would indicate a Catholic taking his Catholic Faith seriously?
 
Brendan_64 said:
I’ve never done it myself, but I think it is a good idea. A small, discreet notebook and pen is not likely to distract anyone, and and sadly there are often far more distracting things going on during Mass these days than a person discreetly taking notes.

Part of a priest’s role is to teach the laity the Catholic Faith. Our Faith is not simply an intuitive faith, it is based on theology and reason. If an important theological point of explanation of doctrine comes up in the priest’s sermon then why shouldn’t it be made a note of. Most of us do not have photographic memories, so it is indeed a good idea to make notes of such things.

I also can’t see any very valid reason why a priest would not want someone making notes of things he may say in his sermons. Surely this would be a good thing and would indicate a Catholic taking his Catholic Faith seriously?
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Even better would be to have the parish record the homilies and post them on the parish website to download.
 
Pianofish said:
Hello and happy new year! I am wondering if anyone takes notes during the homily at Sunday mass? The priest at my parish gives such great talks on Sunday so I often would like to take notes in order to reflect on them later. However, I don’t want to disturb anyone by getting out a notebook and pen in the middle of mass (I suppose if I planned ahead I could do this before mass started). I think it’d be valuable to have a little notebook of great thoughts from the homily that I can use to give a little variation to my prayer life each week.

I’ve never seen anyone else do this (though I’m not usually paying attention to what others are doing at mass). Do you take notes during the homily? How do you use those notes in your daily life?
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I would highly recommend taking notes! Who cares if people are distracted and disturbed by you wanting to learn more about your faith. If your priest can deliver amazing homilies than go for it. Anyone in mass who allows themselves to be distracted by the people around them isn’t focusing on the reason for being there in the first place. Children yell, people shuffle in their seats or cough, blah blah blah. Taking notes is furthering your growth in Christ.
 
Nick_Russell said:
I would highly recommend taking notes! Who cares if people are distracted and disturbed by you wanting to learn more about your faith. If your priest can deliver amazing homilies than go for it. Anyone in mass who allows themselves to be distracted by the people around them isn’t focusing on the reason for being there in the first place. Children yell, people shuffle in their seats or cough, blah blah blah. Taking notes is furthering your growth in Christ.
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👍
 
I do it during our Pastor’s sermons. I find it helps me remember what he was emphasizing and I can go back and study them. I just joined this LCMS church and I had someone ask me about it one Sunday morning - seems I’m the only one they’ve seen do it. The last church I attended the pastor’s wife also had a notebook to take notes.

Peace to all of you! Happy Epiphany, all!

Rita
 
People in my parish do this all the time. Our pastor is a fantastic homilist and the parish office receives many requests for copies of his homilies. He does not write them out, but works from notes, so there are no written copies, however, I asked him if I could make digital recordings of his homilies and he said yes 🙂 and suggested I work with another parishioner to accomplish this. It took awhile to get everything to work correctly, but we now have weekly podcasts of his homilies and many people are downloading them.

I see nothing wrong with taking notes during a homily. As another poster mentioned, taking notes is not anymore distracting that many other things that occur during a Mass. For me, writing is a way to process and remember what I hear. If I try to remember a good point from the homily I will either be distracted for the remainder of the Mass by trying to remember the homily, or I will end up forgetting the point I was trying to remember.
 
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