Too long homily

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Short and to the point homilies are becoming the desired method to comment on the readings of the day. Most people are conditioned by a “Sound Bite” attention span. In my homily training the suggested time was 7-10 minutes. After this you lose the attention of many.

Deacon Tony
 
I believe an someone who is ordained has earned the right to manage the homily as he sees fit.
 
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plato3:
Short and to the point homilies are becoming the desired method to comment on the readings of the day. Most people are conditioned by a “Sound Bite” attention span. In my homily training the suggested time was 7-10 minutes. After this you lose the attention of many.

Deacon Tony
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My Uncle, a Bishop Emeritus always said that after 7 minutes, you have lost the congregation anyway.

He always keeps it 7 to 10 minutes too.
 
I know a Priest(Novus Ordo) whose sermons at the 10:30 Sunday Mass typically run about 30 minutes! The entire Mass takes about 90 minutes.

But his sermons are good, and I like that they are long!🙂
 
My parish priest tends to give long homilies too. At LEAST 20 minutes, sometimes as many as 40 minutes. And some people in the parish have left the parish because of it. But you know what? His homilies are EXCELLENT. As for me, coming from a Protestant background where the sermon/homily takes up 93% of the worship service, I can easily live with his long homilies. Besides, why are people in such a hurry to scurry out of the House of God which they only visit once a week???
Love,
Jaypeeto3
 
In some parishes, 5 minutes is too long for the homily. In others, 25 minutes hardly seems long enough. It depends on the skills of the priest.

My experience has been that priests who speak extemporaneously (“off the cuff”) speak too long. The lack of preparation is painfully obvious, no matter how short their homilies. But when you have a priest who spends hours preparing his Mass-time remarks, you wish he wouldn’t end so soon.

My own pastor is one of the latter. He spends many hours a week working up the text of his homily. Then he reduces the text to notecards. Then he memorizes the notecards. He appears to speak extemporaneously, but he doesn’t.

This is the scheme Bishop Sheen used. Watching him on television, you’d think he spoke off the top of his head. Not so. Each half-hour show took tens of hours to prepare.

Some priests say, “Oh, I’d use the same system–but I just don’t have the time.” My response: “Father, make the time. This is your one chance during the week to reach the hearts and minds of your parishioners. Almost everything else should take a back seat. You owe your parishioners the best.”
 
We have heard in preparation, a good homilist devotes one hour of prep for one minute of orating. That’s the beauty of a really good homily. Praise God for good homilists.
 
As a Baptist I used to preach for 30-50 minutes. As an Anglican I have cut back to 20-30 minutes since preaching is not the central focus of the service. With one exception, in the RC parishes I have attended, it would have been better for the priests not to have spoken at all. It was obvious there was little or no preparation to preach. No evidence of having studied the text at all.

One priest in St. Louis actually preached the Gospel and did it very well every time I heard him. He was a joy to listen to. But the others showed me why so many of the Catholics in the pew know so little about the Bible and the faith.

As far as the children are concerned, my personal observations over 30 years of pastoral ministry and observing from the pulpit are:
  1. Parents these days don’t like to really discipline their children. My Dad only had to tell me one time to behave in Church. You did not want him to tell you twice. Kids today know that Mom and Dad aren’t really serious.
  2. Many parents are oblivious to how their children’s bad behavior is effecting others around them in church. They think their kids are “cute.” Those sitting around them are trying to figure out how much time in Purgatory they are storing up for themselves because of the bad thoughts they are having towards the kids and the parents.
  3. Many of today’s young parents think that church is also a cafeteria where snacks are brought out for the kids to munch on in hopes of keeping them quiet. If the kids misbehave, reward them with food! Wrong.
Some suggestions:
  1. If your children are really rowdy, have a “come to Jesus” chat with them at home and explain the consequences of misbehaving in church. Explain what will happen if they have to be told more than once to behave. And then stick to your guns. Tell them you will give them an example of Purgatory when they get home.
  2. Sit in the back. If your children are acting up all the time, don’t sit where you can disrupt the most people. I attended one parish for awhile during the week. One Mom was there every day bless her heart with her 5 children. One ran up and down the aisle, one jumped up and down on the pew, a couple sat and kicked the pew in front of them, and where did she always sit? Yep, on the second row from the front. Saint Peter himself would have trouble concentrating in that environment.
  3. For kids that are old enough to write, give them paper and a pencil and tell them they have to take notes during the homily. Tell them they have to write down at least 2 things that the priest says. After they write down two things, then they are free to read a book or read their Bible (YES, encourage them to bring a Bible to church!) Then, on the way home from Mass, ask them what they wrote down and use it as points of discussion. This worked great with my two kids. They knew they had to pay attention for a little bit but not the whole time. As they got older they paid attention more. And you will be surprised at some of the questions that you will be asked about the homily by the kids!
  4. Leave the food home except for infants who need the bottle. Soggy Cheerios all over the pew after Mass isn’t pleasant.
  5. No crayons and coloring books! Having to sit and listen to junior rub a crayon as hard as he can and as fast as he can across the page of a coloring book is just as annoying as watching him vault off the pew every 15 seconds.
Really, it all boils down to what parents are willing to let their children get away with at Mass. Kids know how far they can push Mom and Dad. Tough love is sometimes needed.
 
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thistle:
How can a Homily be too long?
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Now, if it were an hour, that would still be on the short side…anything short of three hours isn’t preaching at all​

 
Im commenting on children attending Mass part of this thread. at 6 years old and way before that, I knew if I acted up in church there was hell to pay with dad after church, I wrote several hundered lines a few times as punishment for not praying loud enough. you need to teach your child that you are not in church to have fun., that you are there to worship God and acting up for anyreason is bad disrespect to God. no matter what about the priests homliy.
 
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Archbishop:
Really, it all boils down to what parents are willing to let their children get away with at Mass. Kids know how far they can push Mom and Dad. Tough love is sometimes needed.
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:amen:
 
We had a Priest whose short homily was 45 minutes… Yeah… spoiled 😛

As for solutions… Mine would be directed towards your side, then the Priest…
Maybe a sitter for your child during Masses? Or see if the Parish would set up something for younger children… I’m sure a lot of parents would like that, especially those with babies.

As for his jumping around, I’d talk to some other parishners (sp?) first and see if they agree… Then maybe all of you talking to Father about how it is hard the homily as it is so wide ranged.
 
To the OP, try checking out a Protestant church sometimes if you want to hear someone in love with the sound of his own voice! The whole service is usually focused on the sermon. Meanwhile, my advise is to count your blessings. It sounds like your priest is good in every other way. Not everyone is a gifted speaker and it sounds like your priest is one of those. I think you have to accept the good with the bad in this man.

Your child, meanwhile, needs to cultivate patience. In this fast paced society, consider it a gift that your child gets to learn this rare skill. By age 6 a kid should be attending school, having to listen to the teacher, to follow directions, and otherwise sublimate his desires, so he ought to be able to make it through a 15 minute sermon. Kids these days are too used to constant entertainment and have short attention spans, thanks to TV, video games, and McDonald’s. Why shouldn’t they learn to sit still and behave? It’ll build some character that’ll come in handy later in life!
 
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kaylan:
How does one relate to a priest that their homily is too long without hurting their feelings? We have a priest who is wonderful spiritually. Offers Adoration, is Marian and true to the Faith. He is quite joyful in the Faith and it is apparent in his manner and speech. As a parent however, I have very much trouble in keeping my children quiet at church. They are young so it’s to be expected but the longer the sermon is, the more stressful the time at church. I love attending Mass very much so but I now actually dread going to Mass because of the long homilies. I believe they run 10 to 15 minutes, as the Mass is about that much longer (though I suppose some of the extra time is for other parts of the Mass said more solemnly, as you can the priest really puts effort into the celebration.

I wouldn’t ask this if it wasn’t just me but also there is concern of others not even listening. The priest also jumps from one subject to another and I think this makes it hard for everyone else to follow.

I have debated telling him this several times but I believe he is quite sensitive to people’s opinions and so I could not possibly mention this.

It is sad to complain but this has become a major issue for me as a parent. I cannot focus my attention on the Mass if my children cannot sit still that long and my oldest needs to attend. He’s not obligated yet at his age but he already has a bad attitude at 6 about going to church. He doesn’t even want to go anymore.

I’d love some ideas or suggestions anyone has about the homily problem. How one could mention it. I’ve talked to the priest in the past about other subjects so I don’t even dare write an anonymous letter because I think he’d pretty much guess who it was from. 🙂
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Switch your kids! 🙂 No, I don’t mean trade them, but rahter, don’t spare the rod! I am a father of two. And truly I say to thee, to train up a child in the way they should go… There is a great book by a protestant family of child disciple. the title is “To train up a child” Get it! Read it! implement it! The realm problme sounds like it lies with you and your children and no tthe priest and the length of his homily. Let me ask you this: When you are driving over a bridge, do you feel more comfortable is there are gaurd rails on the side of the bridge? Of course you do. Those gaurd rails are BOUNDARIES! You children will also feel and act better if they too have distinct boundaries to operate within! 🙂
 
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spiritblows:
To the OP, try checking out a Protestant church sometimes if you want to hear someone in love with the sound of his own voice! The whole service is usually focused on the sermon. Meanwhile, my advise is to count your blessings. It sounds like your priest is good in every other way. Not everyone is a gifted speaker and it sounds like your priest is one of those. I think you have to accept the good with the bad in this man.

Your child, meanwhile, needs to cultivate patience. In this fast paced society, consider it a gift that your child gets to learn this rare skill. By age 6 a kid should be attending school, having to listen to the teacher, to follow directions, and otherwise sublimate his desires, so he ought to be able to make it through a 15 minute sermon. Kids these days are too used to constant entertainment and have short attention spans, thanks to TV, video games, and McDonald’s. Why shouldn’t they learn to sit still and behave? It’ll build some character that’ll come in handy later in life!
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My five year old leans on me. She has actually fallen asleep. That is the extent of her misbehavior.
However, we started our kids young with Catholic children’s books. They were allowed to read them during the Homilies. In our parish, children sit through the homily without a peep. I guess it comes down to what we expect from our children is what they will give us.
If we are disgruntled about the length of a sermon, why would we expect our children not to be?
 
netmil(name removed by moderator):
My five year old leans on me. She has actually fallen asleep. That is the extent of her misbehavior.
However, we started our kids young with Catholic children’s books. They were allowed to read them during the Homilies. In our parish, children sit through the homily without a peep. I guess it comes down to what we expect from our children is what they will give us.
If we are disgruntled about the length of a sermon, why would we expect our children not to be?
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Dear NetMils,
I think you’ve p(name removed by moderator)ointed the crux of the problem. The OP is, herself, restless and bored by the sermon. They are probably not very interesting, it sounds like, because this particular priest is not the greatest speaker in the world. Because, a 6 year old, frankly, will not be interested in an interesting and well presented homily, so the quality of the priest’s homily will have no impact whatsoever on a child that age. 6 year old kids really have very little interest in homilies, period.

So, it’s my suggestion that the OP needs to adjust her own attitude. Quit complaining about the priest’s homily in the car on the way home, don’t act restless while he gives his homily, and model the virture of patience to her child during and after the homily.
 
one memorial day weekend when I went to a diiferent parish Mass because I needed to get to mass earlier than normal. The big subject the priest talked about in his homily was on the subject of what one gets out of Mass. In his main point he said" I get nothing out of Mass, Rubbish!!! you are soley at Mass if not to do anything else and at the cost of everything else to worship God, and everything else is a distant second to that." Your 6 year old child for the good of his soul needs to be taught that. Its a good time to teach him that not all of life is exciting, you need to do things that are not exciting sometimes , like ie (for him) going to Mass, going to work, cleaing up the house, etc. Life isnt about excitement. you can teach him in your own way, that if he gets to heaven he can have all the excitement he wants, but in the mean time here on earth we do what we have to do.Remember its your job to teach your child not to entertain him.
 
Kids should learn to sit through church. I can understand babies crying, and toddlers fussing now and then, but they have to learn to behave. I stopped going to the nursery when I was 3- and I had severe ADHD, plus my family was protestant, so it meant church was 1 1/2 hours every sunday morning (preceded by an hour of Sunday School)- plus another hour of church that night. When I didn’t, I got taken to the bathroom- and I’m no worse off because of that either (and I learned to behave in church).
 
I could listen all day if the homily is a good one. But generally, 10-15 minutes is what my priest does.

I accompany my BF to his church, in support of his spiritual journey, and the crux of their service is at LEAST 1 hour. I get restless, in his church after about 30 minutes, as does everyone else.
~ Kathy ~
 
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