What Are the Requirements of A Homily?

[HolySpirit08]

Our priest has taken to reading some generic printed material every week. Looking around the church, people are just blank. Folks are talking about it but no one that I know of has asked him why and I’m too chicken to ask too. It’s just one more reason for those borderline Catholics and kids to avoid going to mass altogether.

 

[Confiteor_Deo]

I don’t think there are any requirements for the homily that would not allow a priest to read something aloud. It may be boring, but if people leave because of a few bad homilies I doubt they would have kept going for very long anyway.

 

[Phemie]

Some priests are great at writing their own homilies, some aren’t and make use of printed material. If I have any advice for those in the second category it’s read it about 25 times during the week so that you can actually make it sound like your own so it doesn’t sound as though you found it 5 minutes before Mass and never read it before.

Our Pastor wings his and rambles. He was sick this weekend and the young priest from the Mission, for whom English is not a first and probably not a second language, celebrated Mass for us last night. His homily started with a joke about St. Thomas not attracting any converts until he told the story of Jesus changing water into wine which was followed by 5000 people asking to be baptized , incorporated Kalhil Gibran’s famous “your children are not your children…” quote, and added a few other jokes. He didn’t seem to get the fact that these were jokes so I’m hoping he was reading something he’d found online rather than a homily he’d put together himself.

 

[signit]

Some priests are great at writing their own homilies, some aren’t and make use of printed material. If I have any advice for those in the second category it’s read it about 25 times during the week so that you can actually make it sound like your own so it doesn’t sound as though you found it 5 minutes before Mass and never read it before.

Our Pastor wings his and rambles. He was sick this weekend and the young priest from the Mission, for whom English is not a first and probably not a second language, celebrated Mass for us last night. His homily started with a joke about St. Thomas not attracting any converts until he told the story of Jesus changing water into wine which was followed by 5000 people asking to be baptized , incorporated Kalhil Gibran’s famous “your children are not your children…” quote, and added a few other jokes. He didn’t seem to get the fact that these were jokes so I’m hoping he was reading something he’d found online rather than a homily he’d put together himself.

I’ve noticed that, too; sometimes the homily has material has quotes or references the priest might not have thought of on his own.

I don’t have a problem with the priest basing his homily on someone else’s pre-printed material. He’s considered the situation and thinks this would be the best homily for his flock at this point in time. It’s a better situation than some of the other situations I’ve seen and posted about before, like the priest passing off the microphone to a non-Catholic or a member of a dissident group.

 

[Deo_Gratias42]

I’m not opposed to such things as long as it’s clear the priest isn’t plagiarizing. We had one priest who would, for the most part, give us some saint’s sermon for that particular Sunday/epistle/gospel. Sometimes he would have to shorten it a bit (St. Augustine and St. John Chrysostom had some pretty long sermons). I would rather hear what the saints had to say any day.

 

[pianistclare]

There are loads of priests who publish their homilies online, and I’m sure they realize that others pick out some for personal use.
Parishes subscribe to various “homily Helps” materials, We have 3 of those subscriptions.
What Father elects not to use, the secretary publishes in the bulletin. We pay a user fee for these.
I’ve had priests read form their notes before. Just as some people can’t tell a joke without goofing up the punch line, some people tend to skip a salient point in the story and then are upset when it didn’t exactly turn out the way they expected, so they write out their homilies and read.
Yes, you can see the people;s eyes glaze over. But imagine if your could not see…you would still, as a person in the pew be expected to take those words into your heart and hear the lesson. Granted. Some lessons are not real deep, others, you need to be really well catechized to follow. That’s the diversity of the strengths of the priests we are blessed to have. Rather than be so critical, try to find a way to really engage with his words.
You might even say to him personally, later on, “father, I love it when you speak off the cuff…could you speak from the heart sometimes? I feel like I can learn a lot from you and your personal experiences.” He might like the affirmation. You never know.
As to the other things. clearly you are NOT happy. Some of those things are going to bug you until you decide it’s not near as important as worthily receiving Eucharist.
Find a parish to your liking if you simply can’t stand it, but really…I wonder what the priests would say about us flawed parishioners…
Would they say we were just sitting there waiting for some flaw or mistake in the liturgy? Or would they say were well attuned and well disposed to receive?
Something to think about. I hope you find peace, and the welcoming arms of Christ when you go to Mass again. Pray for your priest. It’s a tough job, requiring lots of formation.
And also, the prayerful support of his parish.

 

[Neofight]

Our priest has taken to reading some generic printed material every week. Looking around the church, people are just blank. Folks are talking about it but no one that I know of has asked him why and I’m too chicken to ask too. It’s just one more reason for those borderline Catholics and kids to avoid going to mass altogether.

If there aren’t, there should be requirements on the receiving end of the homily, which should include the understanding that the Homily is only one part of the Mass, only one part of the Liturgy of the Word, and is to teach rather than entertain. And, that regardless of how it is presented, it is the receiver’s responsibility to take away the message, even if it involves a little work and thought on their part.

As a lay person, have you engaged any of your fellow parishioners in a discussion on the content and context of the homily, rather than the delivery? Do you even do it as a family?
The questions to be asked in such a discussion “What was the message of the homily, and how can we apply it to our lives?”, rather than, “Isn’t the priest’s homily boring?”

If you want entertainment on Sunday, first attend Mass in the morning, and then take in the theatre in the evening!

 

[HolySpirit08]

If there aren’t, there should be requirements on the receiving end of the homily, which should include the understanding that the Homily is only one part of the Mass, only one part of the Liturgy of the Word, and is to teach rather than entertain. And, that regardless of how it is presented, it is the receiver’s responsibility to take away the message, even if it involves a little work and thought on their part.

As a lay person, have you engaged any of your fellow parishioners in a discussion on the content and context of the homily, rather than the delivery? Do you even do it as a family?
The questions to be asked in such a discussion “What was the message of the homily, and how can we apply it to our lives?”, rather than, “Isn’t the priest’s homily boring?”

If you want entertainment on Sunday, first attend Mass in the morning, and then take in the theatre in the evening!

How dare you judge my intent. I DO NOT WANT TO BE ENTRTAINED at mass or by the homily. Unbelievable, just unbelievable.

 

[otjm]

Our priest has taken to reading some generic printed material every week. Looking around the church, people are just blank. Folks are talking about it but no one that I know of has asked him why and I’m too chicken to ask too. It’s just one more reason for those borderline Catholics and kids to avoid going to mass altogether.

Welcome to the world of priests being human. And like most humans, they have strengths and weaknesses.

I can relate; I went to a parish whose pastor was there for close to two decades, and he could not have given a decent homily if he had read someone else’s (well, maybe it wasn’t quite that bad, but close).

It forced me to do more work on the scriptures of the day.

On the other hand, he was reverent in how he said Mass; and he had a remarkable skill set for dealing with people on-on-one, and was very, very pastoral.

As to those who are close to leaving - people leave the church for all sorts of reasons, but that decision is one for which they have to take responsibility. People are ignorant (of what the Church teaches); can parrot back what the Church teaches but never internalize it; are quick to take offense and slow (to put it politely) to forgive; lack ability to see more than their own narrow point of view; make decisions which are wrong, and then seem to go out of their way to compound those choices; I could go on and on. And sometimes, we are part of the source of their leaving. It occurred to Christ (see, the Gospel of John, chapter 6) and has been occurring ever since.

That is not to suggest that we just ignore the problem, but I suspect that if people leave the Church over his homilies, they already had two feet out the door. Perhaps what is needed is effective witness to Christ to these people - which is another word for evangelization. And evangelization is not simply shoveling out more facts; it is the living witness that turns facts into understanding.

 

[speters33w]

I have the unfortunate ability to frequently watch my congregation from a chair near the Ambo.

We have one Priest who writes his own homilies, of inconsistent length. They are usually good, some better than others, but I can see people nodding off regardless and when the homily gets long, the people start fidgeting.

We have another Priest (he just had a stroke, so he is unable to offer Mass right now) who read straight out of Magnificat for his sermons.
But the congregation reacts in the same way, no difference.

I don’t think it matters if it is the Priest’s own homily or not.

When you say:

Looking around the church, people are just blank.

I think you may be noticing it because you know he is reading from a text prepared by someone else. I wouldn’t be surprised if it were the same if he wrote original homilies. I may be wrong.

Some Priests are not good homilists, and some can’t deliver a homily well even if they are reading someone else’s.

So, if a Priest is not a good homilist, we might just hope he is a short homilist.

There’s more to a Priest than his homily.

There is a Priest at another congregation I attend sometimes when my work takes me up north who says about two sentences, then done. My wife and I call him “Father Short.” The other Priest at that congregation has long homilies but says the liturgy at breakneck speed. We call him “Father Fast.”

The Homily is part of the Liturgy and is highly recommended, for it is necessary for the nurturing of the Christian life. It should be an explanation of some aspect of the readings from Sacred Scripture or of another text from the Ordinary or 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

 

[pianistclare]

How dare you judge my intent. I DO NOT WANT TO BE ENTRTAINED at mass or by the homily. Unbelievable, just unbelievable.

Now, now, to be fair, YOU made a judgment that his homilies are the reason people leave the church. You can’t possibly know that.
Did you mean something else? Because it sounded very critical.
Everyone’s a liturgy expert, it seems.

 

[HolySpirit08]

What I said was, “It’s just one more reason for those borderline Catholics and kids to avoid going to mass altogether”. I’m not going to argue the point. Attendance has fallen in spades. It’s not the priests’ fault. Yes, priest, plural. I just pray during each mass that the Holy Spirit speaks through our priest and opens our minds to understanding the message and apply it to each of our lives. I also understand that priest are human beings first and priests second. I understand that we all have our strengths and weaknesses. I know that we all have good days and bad. I can understand and appreciate a priest’s crazy busy schedule and that once in a while, he’ll have to read a generic text but weekly? I feel cheated. Oh well.

 

[Gorgias]

I understand that we all have our strengths and weaknesses. I know that we all have good days and bad. I can understand and appreciate a priest’s crazy busy schedule and that once in a while, he’ll have to read a generic text but weekly? I feel cheated.

So… do you feel ‘cheated’ because of the content of the homily, or because of the delivery of the homily?

Are you suggesting that it’s ‘one more reason to leave’ because of content, or because of delivery?

 

[MissRose73]

I’ve heard good and bad homilies, long and short ones too over the years.

My parish priest has the gift of preaching very well. No more than 10 minutes of a homily on weekends at most. I can tell he has prepared well ahead of time, and does a good job of covering the gospel for sure, and sometimes may include the other readings. I’ve not noticed people nodding off or looking bored. I know not all priests are excellent at speaking without paper in front of them either. I think it was how they were prepared at first in seminary, and hopefully over time, priests are going to continuing education for public speaking & preaching. I do notice the EWTN priests always preach at the ambo, and most likely have something written out ahead of time too.

So I would say a good homily in my opinion would be:

*No more than 10 to 15 minutes
*Should touch on the Gospel at least, and perhaps go into the other readings a bit and/or a reflection of some type if its a feast or solemnity
*Not using huge words or foreign words without giving some meaning with them

 

[Gorgias]

So I would say a good homily in my opinion would be:

*No more than 10 to 15 minutes
*Should touch on the Gospel at least, and perhaps go into the other readings a bit and/or a reflection of some type if its a feast or solemnity
*Not using huge words or foreign words without giving some meaning with them

If one wants to see what the Church has to say about preaching, there are a couple of good resources out there:

• The USCCB has published a document, Preaching the Mystery of Faith: The Sunday Homily.
• In addition, Pope Francis had quite a bit to say about preaching in Evangelii gaudium; that portion of the document may be found here.

 

[HolySpirit08]

Thank you for this link on preaching. It articulates what I have been trying to get across to you folks who are sitting on your pedestals judging me. Gorgias posted the link but obviously hasn’t read it or if he/she has, he/she should seriously RE READ it. And now I shall take my leave from this site never to return.

 

[Hoosier_Daddy]

Our priest has taken to reading some generic printed material every week. Looking around the church, people are just blank. Folks are talking about it but no one that I know of has asked him why and I’m too chicken to ask too. It’s just one more reason for those borderline Catholics and kids to avoid going to mass altogether.

For many years the homily education of priests has been lacking in thier formation. And even if it were good, you can’t account for talent or lack thereof
For about 10 years we have had at least one priest who was foreign (polish, Latino, African.)
And so sometimes it is just nice to hear a homily in the Kings English so to speak.
Our old bishop would do this, he would read a chain email, You know, the kind your crazy uncle sends you that reads like a wal mart version of a Paul Harvey story. He would pass it off like it was someone he knew or had met. Usually an old marine or a little girl…
My wife and I would play a fun game around Christmas or Easter and try to pick which one he would do. We were never right but there were several times where we recognized the “story”. Then the kicker was he would say it again in Spanish.

I’m sure that his homily was helpful to many. It was not my cup of tea or style. Not is what I wished to be fed. But who knows, maybe it was the best thing for him to do.

 

[pianistclare]

Thank you for this link on preaching. It articulates what I have been trying to get across to you folks who are sitting on your pedestals judging me. Gorgias posted the link but obviously hasn’t read it or if he/she has, he/she should seriously RE READ it. And now I shall take my leave from this site never to return.

Just like that? Like those who don’t like a priest’s homily and turn tail and run?
OK, I get it.
Wow.

I would much rather have a read homily with solid content than the kind Hoosier speaks of.

It’s too bad the parishioners are so smart, and the priests so clueless.
St. John Vianney cautions us to never criticize a priest. To pray for them, and look upon them with the mercy we desire the Lord to give us.
Something to pray about I suppose.

 

[clem456]

Catholicism might be the last stop in the true worship of God.

All the rest have left the building for inspiring talks by charismatic speakers. Turn the tv on and see the multitudes following those who have the gift of speaking. (nothing wrong with having that gift, but the Mass is a reality that transcends the homily…by a lot).

Some priests are gifted speakers, some are not. All are priests.
I like a good homily as much as the next person, and there may be some priests who “help” Catholics to leave the Church, but I don’t think it’s even close to the root of the problem.

 

[FAB]

As a deacon I work to prepare good homilies and to deliver them to the best of my ability.
The question was are there any requirements.
Generally, the homily is to be on the readings of the day. To open them up in several ways, historically, spiritually, on content and apply the lesson to today’s world.
Bishop Robert Barron has a good explanation that I try to follow:
youtu.be/tA5UunU5YYo