Uncomprehendable priests

[Jacob18]

But people overwhelmingly wanted the vernacular. Now they want the right dialect, proper grammar, and comprehendable speakers too?

Maybe we should just learn Indian, Spanish and African and ask the priest to say it in his language since we are so picky as to how we want to hear our liturgy said.

 

[Jacob18]

Maybe we are forgetting what the liturgy is about - the Eucharist - not necessarily how the priest says something. Could most people comprehend the liturgy when it was said in Latin?

 

[maltmom]

During the past month, between the two churches I attend, I’ve had the privilege to attend Mass celebrated by six different priests. Three from India, one Hispanic, one African-American and one older Caucasian. I found myself praying for the Hispanic priest. His spoken English was pretty good. He seemed to have trouble reading English. He struggled as he stared at the written word and tried to read it. I prayed that he wouldn’t get frustrated. Unlike the others he didn’t interact with anyone after Mass.

I thank God for the men who answer the call to the priesthood.

 

[ProVobis]

Could most people comprehend the liturgy when it was said in Latin?

They could comprehend the liturgy even when they couldn’t hear it.

 

[englishredrose]

The opening poster was discussing the sermon and not anything else

But I know for myself, if I had to work hard on a sermon most weeks and when it comes to delivering it and people not understood me then I would be upset. Not just because of working hard on the sermon but because I wouldn’t be reaching the people enough in the sermon. And if all it took for one brave soul to speak to me about my accent then I would look at ways around that to be able to reach the people who faithfully listen week in week out.

In our Parish, the congregation values the sermon and I personally know what it is like not to be able to hear any of it at times. Thankfully, I don’t pay much attention to what is written here and approach the priest and am trying to ‘work’ on him to either email me a copy or post it on the church website.

But the cricitism which it wasn’t a criticism anyway in the opening post wasn’t about the whole service. Just the sermon. But come on guys. how many of you really had to struggle to hear or work out what is being said in the sermon? Its easy to point the finger at us who are having difficulties. The opening post was just wondering what to do, not a barrage of comments from those who don’t understand what the problem is.

And seriously, If I was a priest, I would want to know if anyone was having any kind of difficulty with hearing/understanding the sermon to make sure they were included into the church family too. My priest has never turned me down in any of the requests, just hasn’t done it yet… but that is my own project and I will know when I’ve got somewhere when they either appear on the website or I get sermon sent to me or he gives me a copy in church even. I don’t know if he uses the same sermon in his next church as have thought about just sneaking it… but a) he will know it was me now anyway thats sneaked it away, but b) if he does use it in the next church he wouldn’t be impressed at er loosing his copy. But I had seriously thought about sneaking his copy when he first came

 

[couponfit]

Go on mission for a month in a country where you barely speak the language. Attend Mass celebrated by a priest that does not speak a single word of your language, and only speaks a language that you spent 2 years in high school learning to speak and barely scrapped by with a C… After a couple of Masses you’ll figure out what Christ is trying to teach you… But, you don’t have to make that trip to learn what I learned by going on Mission…

You are incapable of EVER completely understanding Him and He is always trying to be with you, but most of the time you are oblivious or just don’t get it. He’s coming to you there at the Mass whether you understand Him or not. And you CAN NOT POSSIBLY understand Him completely. So, get over yourself. Humble yourself before your Lord. And be overjoyed that He thinks you’re worth Him making the trip to spend time with you.

Homilies are important, and yes, they do have a bit more meaning when we understand them. There is something to be said for the attempt and effort, but there is also a need for some of the faithful to actually understand what was said. It is possible to overlook this and focus on other things, but in that case the homily would not convey the message the priest intended. It is difficult for the priest, and I can relate, but it’s also difficult for the congregation, even if they are polite and willing to be very patient. In the end there is no service to the homily when it’s not understood whether the recipient utters the words.

Further, there is something to be said for communication and feedback from the parish to the priest. For a parish where this is an issue, then efforts should be made by those with the issue to resolve it. In my parish I just donated the money to buy a recording divice so we could record and download the father’s homily’s. Other parish’s try to post these when they can, and of course you can donate additional money to help pay for this cost.

But to me, it seems uncharitable to advise a person to get overthemselves for not understanding the homily. Not understanding a homily has very little to do with arrogance. In fact, some times I attend mass more than one time just to hear the homily again from a english speaking priest so I can better understand it. I even have to ask the preist sometimes what he meant and he will be like shocked that I have to ask, as if it was so obvious. But I just politely say, “My cup is not as big as yours”. Sometimes priests get really big into theology and that can lose me. But normally I find if I’m lost, there’s a lot more who are lost. So it’s best for everyone if I just ask for myself and have that discussion for my own faith and knowledge and better understanding.

 

[ProVobis]

Other parish’s try to post these when they can, and of course you can donate additional money to help pay for this cost.

Good point. If it’s written down somewhere, like the homily or the readings in the Mass, whether they’re in Latin, English, or Spanish, you don’t need the world’s most clairvoyant speaker to deliver the message. Assuming of course, everyone can read.

 

[john78]

Good grief you think foreign priests have accents, has anyone listend to us Americans from the North and South ?

Our accents are like night and day , and from either side can come off as annoying.

I have a priest at our church who is from Vietnam, what is weird is when you speak with him up close, very easy to understand, but in his Homily, not so easy to understand, and he even addressed this at one point ,and stated it there by in turn forces us the congregation to really listen !

I do not always understand everything he says but i would say roughly 90% of the time i do.

I remember in the Army I had went to mass with a priest I think was from Africa, his accent made it nearly impossible to understand and i may have only caught a word or two.

Though being immature at the time i was probably fighting a hang over and just lucky to even be there so I wasn’t really concerned either.

I think if I become a Priest, I will make sure now to learn to say the mass in Latin, really throw everyone a curve ball and have a latin mass every Sunday 11am at prime time.

Plus consider this, these priests with heavy accents, their english is probably better than us attempting to speak their native language.

And ones accent should not be a primary concern and neither ones race.